Plot To Assassinate President Truman
On October 28, 1950, they received the news that the Jayuya Uprising led by the nationalist leader Blanca Canales in Puerto Rico, had failed. Torresola's sister had been wounded and his brother Elio was arrested. Collazo and Torresola then decided to assassinate President Harry S. Truman with the intention of bringing world attention to the independence cause of Puerto Rico.
On October 31, 1950, Collazo and Torresola arrived at Union Station in Washington, D.C. and registered in the Harris Hotel. On November 1, 1950, Collazo and Torresola, with guns in hand, attempted to enter the Blair House with the intention of assassinating the President, who was residing there while the White House was being renovated. During the attack one White House police officer, Private Leslie Coffelt, was killed and multiple others wounded. Torresola was killed by the mortally wounded Coffelt, and Collazo was shot in the chest and arrested.
In prison, Collazo was asked why he had targeted Truman, who was in favor of self-determination for Puerto Rico and who had appointed the first native-born Puerto Rican governor. Collazo replied that he had nothing against Truman, saying that he was "a symbol of the system. You don't attack the man, you attack the system."
In 1952, Collazo was sentenced to death, but President Truman commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. He was sent to the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas. Collazo's sentence was commuted to time served by President Jimmy Carter on September 6, 1979, after spending 29 years in jail. President Carter also commuted the sentences of Collazo's fellow nationalists Irving Flores, Rafael Cancel Miranda, and Lolita Lebrón. Collazo had been eligible for parole since April 1966, and Lebron since July 1969. Both Messrs. Cancel Miranda and Flores became eligible for parole in July 1979. However, none had applied for parole because of their political beliefs. Upon their return to Puerto Rico, they were received as heroes by the different independence groups.
Collazo's wife, Rosa, was also arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on suspicion of having conspired with her husband, and spent eight months in federal prison.
Upon her release from prison, Rosa continued to work with the Nationalist Party. She helped gather 100,000 signatures in an effort to save her husband from the electric chair.
Read more about this topic: Oscar Collazo
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