United States Capitol Shooting Incident (1954) - Attack Preparations

Attack Preparations

In the early 1950s, the president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Don Pedro Albizu Campos, had been corresponding from his prison with 34-year-old Lolita Lebrón. Some of this correspondence discussed the Nationalist Party revolts of 1950. It also discussed Puerto Rican Governor Luis Muñoz Marín, who had succeeded in having Puerto Rico declared an Estado Libre Asociado (Free Associated State) of the U.S.

In 1954, a group of Nationalists which included Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores and Andrés Figueroa Cordero decided to focus the world's attention on Puerto Rico's true status - not as a "Free Associated State," but as an outright colony of the U.S. In order to achieve this international attention, they developed a plan to attack multiple locations in Washington, D.C.

Although Albizu Campos did not order this attack, the Nationalists continued to plan for it - especially Lolita Lebrón, who decided to lead the group and, eventually, the attack itself. Lebrón analyzed the plan for weaknesses, and concluded that a single attack on the House of Representatives, had a greater prospect for success than attacking multiple simultaneous targets.

The date for the attack on the House of Representatives was set for March 1, 1954. This date was chosen because it coincided with the inauguration of the Conferencia Interamericana (Interamerican Conference) in Caracas. Lebrón intended to call attention to Puerto Rico's independence cause, particularly among the Latin American countries participating in the conference.