Pedro Albizu Campos - Second Arrest

Second Arrest

Pedro Albizu Campos was jailed again after the October 30 Nationalist revolts in various Puerto Rican cities and towns against United States rule in 1950. Among the more notable of the revolts was the Jayuya Uprising, when a group of Puerto Rican Nationalists, under the leadership of Blanca Canales, held the town of Jayuya for three days, the Utuado Uprising which culminated in what is known as the "Utuado Massacre," and the attack on La Fortaleza (the Puerto Rican governor's mansion).

On October 31, police officers and National Guardsmen surrounded Salón Boricua, a barbershop in Santurce. Believing that a group of Nationalists were inside the shop, they opened fire. The only person in the shop was Albizu Campos' personal barber, Vidal Santiago Díaz. Santiago Díaz fought alone against the attackers for three hours and received five bullet wounds, including one in the head. The entire gunfight was transmitted "live" via the radio airwaves, and was heard all over the island. Overnight Santiago Díaz, the courageous barber who survived an armed attack by forty police and National Guardsmen, became a legend throughout Puerto Rico.

During the revolt, Albizu Campos was at the Nationalist Party’s headquarters in Old San Juan which also served as his residence. That day he was accompanied by Juan José Muñoz Matos, Doris Torresola Roura (cousin of Blanca Canales and sister of Griselio Torresola), and Carmen María Pérez Roque. The occupants of the building were surrounded by the police and the National Guard who without warning fired their weapons. Doris Torresola, who was shot and wounded, was carried out during a cease in fire by Muñoz Matos and Pérez Roque. Alvaro Rivera Walker, a friend of Albizu Campos, somehow made his way to the Nationalist leader. He stayed with Albizu Campos until the next day when they were attacked with gas. Rivera Walker then raised a white towel he attached to a pole and surrendered. All the Nationalists were, including Albizu Campos, were arrested.

On November 1, 1950, Nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola attacked the Blair House in Washington, D.C. where president Harry S. Truman was staying while the White House was being renovated. During the attack on the president, Torresola and a policeman, Private Leslie Coffelt, were killed.

Because of this assassination attempt, Albizu Campos was immediately attacked at his home. After a shootout with the police, Campos was arrested and sentenced to 80 years in prison. Over the next few days, 3,000 independence supporters were arrested, all over the island.

Albizu was pardoned in 1953 by then governor Luis Muñoz Marín but the pardon was revoked the following year after the 1954 nationalist attack of the United States House of Representatives, when four Puerto Rican Nationalists, led by Lolita Lebrón opened fire from the gallery of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C..

Though in ill health, Albizu was arrested at once when Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Andres Figueroa Cordero, and Irving Flores, unfurled a Puerto Rican flag and opened fire on the members of the Representatives of the 83rd Congress with the intention of capturing world wide attention to the cause of Puerto Rican independence on March 1, 1954. Ruth Mary Reynolds, the American Nationalist, went to the defense of Albizu Campos and the four Nationalists involved in the shooting incident with the aid of the American League for Puerto Rico's Indepen­dence.