People v. Burgos Fuentes

75 P.R. 517
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedDecember 22, 1953
DocketNos. 15299 and 15300
StatusPublished

This text of 75 P.R. 517 (People v. Burgos Fuentes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Burgos Fuentes, 75 P.R. 517 (prsupreme 1953).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Pérez Pimentel

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In the former District Court of Puerto Rico, Guayama Section, separate informations were filed against appellants, Rafael A. Burgos Fuentes and Eduardo López Vázquez, for a violation of the provisions of Act No. 53 of June 10, 1948 (Spec. Sess. Laws, p. 170), as amended. Burgos Fuentes was charged with five counts and López Vázquez with two. The informations are similar and the recital of the counts is practically identical except for the place and date of the alleged [520]*520occurrences. To understand the nature of these counts it suffices to read the first count against Burgos Fuentes, which is copied below:

“Count Number One
“The aforesaid defendant, Rafael A. Burgos Fuentes, on or about July 25, 1948, and in the Municipality of Cayey, Puerto Rico, unlawfully, maliciously, criminally, wilfully and knowingly, being a leader and an active member of the group known as ‘Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico,’ which is directed by and composed of persons who promoted, advocated, advised and preached and promote, advocate, advise and preach the overthrowing, paralyzation and subversion of the Insular Government of Puerto Rico, or any political subdivision thereof by force and violence; then and there, the aforesaid defendant organized and helped to organize a group and assembly of persons who promoted, advocated, advised and preached the overthrow, paralyzation and subversion of the Insular Government of Puerto Rico or any political subdivision thereof by force and violence, said help consisting of the aforesaid defendant, Rafael A. Burgos Fuentes, organizing and assembling in said municipality of Cayey and leading from there to the municipality of Guánica, a group of persons belonging to the so-called ‘Ejército Libertador’ or ‘Cadetes de la República’ an entity of a military character created, organized and composed of directors and members of the group known as ‘Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico’ and attached and belonging to said group of persons participate as the aforesaid group of persons participated, in an assembly and other acts held on that day in said municipality of Guánica by the group known as ‘Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico’; all of it performed by the afore-mentioned defendant as part of a separatist movement directed by the defendant herein and by Tomás López de Victoria, Virgilio Mercado, Heriberto Castro, José Antonio Neg-rón Rodríguez, Ramón Pedrosa Rivera and other persons all belonging to the so-called group ‘Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico,’ said movement being directed to achieve the separation of Puerto Rico from the United States by force and violence, culminating in a rebellion which commenced in Puerto Rico on or about October 30, 1950.”

The defendants moved the trial court to dismiss the information on several grounds which we shall hereinafter dis[521]*521cuss. Their petition was denied. On the days set for the hearings of the cases, the defendants waived their right to a trial by jury. They again filed a petition for a dismissal of the information on the ground that the court lacked jurisdiction and that Act No. 53 of 1948, which was alleged to have been violated, was unconstitutional. When the latter contentions were overruled, the defendants agreed that if the witnesses of the People testified, they would uphold the allegations of the informations, and they waived their right to introduce evidence. Under these circumstances the court found defendants guilty and sentenced Burgos Fuentes to serve a term of from one to five years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary for each one of the counts and López Vázquez to serve a term of from one to fifteen months’ imprisonment in the penitentiary for each count, the sentences to run concurrently with any other imprisonment term in the penitentiary which might have been rendered against the defendants. Feeling aggrieved, defendants appealed to this Court, and since in both appeals the same questions are raised, we ordered their consolidation.

The appellants charge the trial, court with the commission of the following:

“Sole Error
“The lower court committed a serious error of law in failing to order the definite filing of these criminal causes, freely acquitting the defendants, when it dismissed the following questions of law:
“1. Act No. 53 of June 10, 1948 is nonexistent in law.
“2. Act No. 53 of June 10, 1948 is unconstitutional; the third paragraph of the first section thereof being unconstitutional in itself, irrespective of the rest of said Act.
“3. Act No. 53 of June 10, 1948 is inapposite to the defendants-appellants’ case, the insular courts lacking jurisdiction.
“4. The offense conceived by Act No. 53 of June 10, 1948 is of a continuous nature; all the acts allegedly committed in contravention of said law constitute a single indivisible act and a single offense; and the defendants were already tried and [522]*522convicted at the District Court of Puerto Rico, San Juan Section, for the same alleged offense; (jeopardy).”

The first error assigned lacks merit. Appellants contend that Act No. 53 of June 10, 1948 1 punishes the commission of specific acts tending to overthrow, paralyze, or subvert the “Insular Government,” or any political subdivision thereof, it being a fact that when that Act was approved by our Legislative Assembly, there was no government, politically and legally speaking, known as the “Insular Government,” since at the time the Congress of the United States approved the Foraker Act in 1900 and the Jones Act in 1917, it created a politico-juridical body known as “The People of Puerto Rico,” and in both statutes it is provided that the government of “The People of Puerto Rico” shall be called “The Government of Puerto Rico.” They further urge that in approving Act No. 53 the “Legislature of Puerto Rico meant to protect the ‘Insular Government/ government of an Island, we know not which Island, from subversive propaganda and activities . . .” They conclude, therefore, that Act No. 53 has no existence in law.

At the outset, it should be noted that in the Organic Act itself, which has been invoked by the appellants, the “Government of Puerto Rico” is also called “insular govern[523]*523ment” 2 and “Insular Government of Puerto Rico.” 3 In that same statute the Treasury of Puerto Rico is called “Insular Treasury.” 4 And in subsequent Acts, as for example the one approved on March 4, 1931, “An Act to Coordinate the Agricultural Experiment Station work and to extend the benefits of certain Acts of Congress to the Territory of Puerto Rico,”5 the Congress of the United States refers to the “Insular Government” and not to the “Government of Puerto Rico.” It could not be validly urged that in said law Congress legislated for the government of any Island. This same Court has referred to the “Government of Puerto Rico” and to the “Insular Government” as synonyms. People ex rel. Castro v. Padrón, 60 P.R.R. 777, 786.

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Bluebook (online)
75 P.R. 517, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-burgos-fuentes-prsupreme-1953.