Freed on bail during the Hartford litigation, Ojeda Ríos removed his electronic monitor in 1990 and disappeared into the island's mountains, becoming, over fifteen clandestine years of communiqués and radio interviews, the living symbol of the independence underground — convicted of the Wells Fargo conspiracy in absentia in 1992. On September 23, 2005 — the anniversary of the Grito de Lares, the island's sacred insurrectionary date — FBI agents surrounded his farmhouse near Hormigueros. In the exchange of fire an agent was wounded and Ojeda, 72, was shot by a sniper; the FBI then waited nearly 24 hours to enter, and he bled to death from a treatable wound.
The killing provoked island-wide outrage — the governor, the bar association, and political parties across the status spectrum condemned it, and the Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission and later inquiries called the operation unjustifiable. Thousands attended his funeral. "Filiberto vive" remains a wall-slogan of the independence movement.