Biography
Avelino González-Claudio was a Puerto Rican independence militant and a member of Los Macheteros (the Boricua Popular Army / Ejército Popular Boricua). He played a central role in the September 12, 1983 robbery of a Wells Fargo armored-car depot in West Hartford, Connecticut, known within the movement as the Águila Blanca (White Eagle) action, in which more than 7 million dollars was expropriated to fund the Puerto Rican independence struggle. It was one of the largest cash robberies in U.S. history at the time. González-Claudio evaded capture for 25 years, living in Puerto Rico and teaching school under the alias José Ortega Morales, until his arrest in 2008. Suffering from Parkinson disease, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and was sentenced in 2010 to seven years in federal prison. He was released in 2013 and died in 2019.
Avelino González Claudio was indicted in the 1985 Wells Fargo case but went underground before he could be arrested in the August 30, 1985 sweep, and lived as a fugitive in Puerto Rico for over two decades. He was captured by the FBI on February 7, 2008 in Manatí and extradited to Connecticut; in 2010 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the Wells Fargo robbery and was sentenced to 7 years; released in 2013. He has openly identified as a Machetero veteran and continues independence-movement work in Puerto Rico. Avelino González Claudio was a Macheteros member who organized the transport of cash from the September 12, 1983 Wells Fargo expropriation in West Hartford, Connecticut. He went underground after the August 30, 1985 mass FBI raid in Puerto Rico and lived in clandestinity in Puerto Rico for nearly 23 years until his arrest on February 7, 2008. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiracy and was sentenced to 7 years in federal prison. He was released in 2013.
