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Carpeta is the Spanish word used (by Puerto Ricans) to describe an FBI surveillance report. Carpetas **were gathered as part of a multi-decade island-wide surveillance project leveled against the people of Puerto Rico beginning in 1930—putatively intended to root out subversive activity. As a matter of practical real-world consequences, this program was unquestionably guilty of egregious violations of privacy.

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<aside> 👇🏽 What The New York Times says

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“Discovery of the police files caused a public outcry in the 1980's in Puerto Rico and prompted hundreds of civil rights lawsuits. An official apology came in 1999 from Gov. Pedro J. Rossello, who set up a fund to compensate those who were denied jobs, harassed or discredited as a result of blacklisting. Both the F.B.I. and the police department in Puerto Rico have made their files available to investigation subjects who claim them. One of those subjects is Ramón Bosque-Pérez, a sociologist and the researcher now leading the effort at the Hunter center to preserve the F.B.I. historical trove. When Mr. Bosque-Pérez, who later became president of the main pro-independence group at the University of Puerto Rico, claimed his surveillance files, he learned that he had been tracked through the early 1980's. His files recorded his arrest for refusing to register for the draft and his participation in public events beginning in high school, he said.”

New York Times (New Light on Old F.B.I. Fight; Decades of Surveillance of Puerto Rican Groups)

<aside> 🇵🇷 Former New York State assemblyman Nelson Denis, who represented the Bronx and East Harlem adds this in his book War Against All Puerto Ricans

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“Starting in the mid-1930s, and continuing for over half a century, the FBI developed a secret information program in Puerto Rico – it was called carpetas. These were secret police files, containing intimate personal information. The files were built by a network of police officers, confidential informants, FBI agents – and the amount of information they contained was staggering. Over 100,000 Puerto Ricans had carpetas opened on them. Of these, 74,412 were under ‘political’ police surveillance. An additional 60,776 carpetas were opened on vehicles, boats, and organizations. Carpetas were even opened on geographic areas: entire neighborhoods had carpetas filed on them by the FBI. Eventually, the carpetas became a part of the larger COINTELPRO program developed jointly by the FBI and CIA, to monitor and suppress political dissent against the U.S. Over time, the carpetas eventually totaled 1.8 million pages. The average carpeta contained roughly 20 pages but others were more extensive. The file on Albizu Campos filled two boxes with 4,700 pages.”

https://waragainstallpuertoricans.com/carpetas/

<aside> 💡 Useful links

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