About Organizations
Black Panther Party
Black Liberation Army
American Indian Movement
FALN
Weather Underground
Earth Liberation Front
Animal Liberation Front
MOVE
Republic of New Afrika
Symbionese Liberation Army
Los Macheteros
United Freedom Front
May 19th Communist Organization
Young Lords
George Jackson Brigade
Students for a Democratic Society
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Industrial Workers of the World
Communist Party USA
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Brown Berets
Socialist Workers Party
African People's Socialist Party
Nation of Islam
About FALN
First FALN Bombing Wave
Fraunces Tavern Bombing
The Mainland Bombing Campaign
Cook County Building Bombing
William Morales Explosion & Escape
Evanston Arrests
Seditious-Conspiracy Convictions
Oscar López Rivera’s Imprisonment
Clinton Clemency Controversy
Continuing Political-Prisoner Campaigns
FIRST FALN BOMBING WAVE
The Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) announced itself on the U.S. mainland on October 26, 1974, setting off a coordinated series of bombs at symbolic government and corporate targets in New York City, including several Manhattan banks. In communiqués the clandestine group claimed responsibility and declared its aim: independence for Puerto Rico from United States colonial rule.
The wave opened what would become one of the most sustained clandestine bombing campaigns in modern U.S. history. Rooted in the long tradition of the Puerto Rican independence movement — from the Nationalist Party of the 1950s onward — the FALN framed its actions as armed resistance to colonialism rather than ordinary crime.