(Daily Signal) Joe Connor celebrated his ninth birthday four days before his father was killed in a bombing at New York’s landmark Fraunces Tavern in 1975.
The bombing was the most notorious act of violence committed by Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional, or FALN, a terrorist group that in the 1970s and early ’80s waged an unsuccessful, violent campaign to win independence for Puerto Rico, a territory of the U.S.
Connor, 50, grew up to be a New York City banker like his father, Frank Connor.
In an interview with The Daily Signal, Connor said he never really has been able to escape the day of the Fraunces Tavern bombing, in which his father and three others died and more than 60 were injured. His father was 33.
On Tuesday night, Connor’s memories became especially raw when President Barack Obama commuted the prison sentence of a FALN leader, Oscar Lopez Rivera, the last remaining member of the group still incarcerated.
“What it does to our family is it brings back all the wounds again,” Connor told The Daily Signal.
In 1999, Lopez Rivera declined a previous opportunity for freedom that would have required him to renounce terrorism.
FALN, which translates to Armed Forces of National Liberation, claimed responsibility for more than 120 bombings between 1974 and 1983.
Law enforcement authorities such as the FBI have considered the organization to be a terrorist group, and The New York Times has described it as such.
Lopez Rivera was not charged directly in the Fraunces Tavern bombing, or in any of FALN’s attacks.
But some people, like Connor, still hold Lopez Rivera responsible because of his ties to the group.
“My father deserved better,” Connor said. “He deserves justice. He got nothing.”
“I would love to ask people who support his release and say, ‘If he’s not a terrorist, what has Oscar Lopez done to help the Puerto Rican people and to fight for their independence?’”
Obama’s commutation will allow Lopez Rivera, 74, to leave prison by May 17….
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