Albizu Campos comments on trial against Nationalists
It is a trial in which it is desired that the accused facilitate the evidence that the Prosecutor needs, which is demonstrative of the fact that there is no evidence. In other words, it is an unusual trial in which it is intended to demand that the accused pro- vide the evidence for their own conviction, which is contrary to every principle of law.
El Mundo, March 31, 1936, p. 1 and 2.
The Nationalist Secretary General in prison
By P. Albizu Campos We do not believe that the case of the Secretary General of Nationalism and Director of La Palabra, don Juan Antonio Corretjer requires commentary.
The situation is too clear. He was asked to pres- ent the minutes and books of the National Board when the Government of the United States had already ransacked with its police the central office of Nationalism on the memorable day of February 23, 1936, when the insular police, obeying superior orders, penetrated the domicile of the General Secretariat at Cristo 19, San Juan, without any search warrant and with instructions to kill those found in said site, a design that they almost accomplished in the person of don Buenaventura Rodríguez; they destroyed the archives and ransacked the office, taking with them all the documenta- tion that the officials of the Government of the United States had ordered them to.
Before the Grand Jury the prosecutor asked us about our correspondence and we answered that the government of the United States had photocopies of our correspondence, since it was known by us that all our correspondence was violated.
The prosecutor intended that we identify certain notes on certain supposed speeches of ours by radio and we reminded him that he could acquire in La Fortaleza the records of those radio speeches since the Government of the United States lent us that immeasurable service.
El Mundo, April 3, 1936, p. 4.
Juan Antonio Corretjer, Secretary General of the Nationalist Party, imprisoned in La Princesa Prison by order of the District Court of the United States in Puerto Rico (Federal Court) which sentenced him to one year in prison for contempt for refusing to hand over the minutes of the Nationalist Party. April 2, 1936.