PUERTO RICO
COMMONWEALTH OF PUERTO RICO
Head of state: George W Bush
Head of government: Aníbal Aceveda-Vilá
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
Update: killing in suspicious circumstances
An investigation by the US Justice Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) into the fatal shooting of independence activist Filiberto Ojeda Ríos in September 2005 cleared the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of wrongdoing. The report found no violation of policy when an FBI officer fired the fatal shot after seeing Ojeda Ríos at a window with a gun, some 90 minutes after an initial exchange of gunfire after police had surrounded the house. However, in its report, published in September, the inquiry was critical of many aspects of the planning and execution of the operation, including the decision not to allow an FBI crisis negotiating team to send a negotiator, and directions given by FBI headquarters not to allow officers into the house until the following day. The OIG inquiry was based mainly on FBI testimony as others had declined to provide testimony.
Excessive use of force
In February, the FBI was alleged to have used excessive force against a group of journalists covering a news event in which police were raiding the house of a political activist. Journalists were allegedly assaulted and sprayed with pepper spray. A civil lawsuit against the FBI was pending at the end of the year.