He had served as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War I, and believed that Puerto Rico should be an independent nation - even if that required an armed confrontation.

In the 1930s, the United States-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Blanton Winship, and police colonel Riggs applied harsh repressive measures against the Nationalist Party.

The Senate, controlled by the Partido Popular Democrático (PPD) and presided by Luis Muñoz Marín, approved the bill that day.

[3] Under this new law it would be a crime to print, publish, sell, or exhibit any material intended to paralyze or destroy the insular government; or to organize any society, group or assembly of people with a similar destructive intent.

[5] On June 21, 1948, Albizu Campos gave a speech in the town of Manatí where Nationalists from all over the island had gathered, in case the police attempted to arrest him.

The march was also protesting the imprisonment, by the U.S. government, of Nationalist leader Pedro Albizu Campos on alleged sedition charges.

[9] The Insular Police, a force resembling the National Guard, was under the military command of the U.S.-appointed governor of Puerto Rico, General Blanton Winship.

[10] Ultimate responsibility fell on Governor Winship, who controlled the National Guard and insular police, and personally ordered the massacre.

[12] From 1949 to 1950, the Nationalists in the island began to plan and prepare an armed revolution, hoping that the United Nations would take notice and intervene on their behalf.

On October 26, 1950, Albizu Campos was holding a meeting in Fajardo when he received word that his house in San Juan was surrounded by police waiting to arrest him.

The first armed battle of the Nationalist uprisings occurred in the early morning of October 29, in the barrio Macaná of town of Peñuelas.

In accordance with the planned uprising in San Juan, a group of Nationalists were supposed to attack the mansion known as La Fortaleza, where Puerto Rican governor Luis Muñoz Marín resided.

Simultaneously, the Nationalists planned to attack the U.S. Federal Court House, located close to La Marina in Old San Juan.

[18] Earlier that morning, Nationalists Domingo Hiraldo Resto, Carlos Hiraldo Resto, Gregorio Hernández and Manuel Torres Medina who were assigned to attack La Fortaleza, met in the San Juan sector of Martín Peña, at the house of Raimundo Díaz Pacheco - the Nationalist leader and Commander of the Cadets of the Republic.

Díaz Pacheco, who was the Leader of the Nationalist Cadets, fired his submachine gun at the second floor of the mansion where the executive offices of Governor Luis Muñoz Marín were located.

A police officer and a detective from La Fortaleza with submachine guns approached the car and fired upon Hernández, Carlos Hiraldo Resto and Torres Medina.

Both Carlos Hiraldo Resto and Torres Medina were killed and their motionless bodies laid in the ground by the right side of the car.

[20] The following day, October 31, at 2:00 p.m., 15 police officers and 25 National Guardsmen arrived at 351 Calle Colton (Colton Street), esquina Barbosa (at the corner of Barbosa Street), of Barrio Obrero (a section named Workers Barrio) in Santurce and surrounded a barbershop named the Salón Boricua.

The situation escalated quickly, Santiago Díaz shot first, and the police all fired back - with machine guns, rifles, carbines, revolvers, and even grenades.

In September 1950, Paoli traveled to the towns of Cabo Rojo, Santurce, Guánica and Lares, in order to participate in Nationalist activities.

On November 2, 1950, the police arrived at Francisco Matos Paoli's home in Río Piedras and searched for guns and explosives, however the only thing they found was a Puerto Rican flag.

[25] Paoli was fired from his professorship at the University of Puerto Rico and sentenced to twenty year's imprisonment, which was later reduced to ten.

[26] The following is an FBI list of the San Juan Nationalists who were incarcerated in 1950, and were still in prison as of 1954:[27] United States law mandated that U.S. President Harry Truman take direct charge in all matters concerning Puerto Rico.

In addition, the Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Muñoz Marín was required to consult directly with the White House.

Nationalists Carlos Padilla, Diego Quiñones González, Juan Sandoval Ramos, Joaquín Padín Concepción and Vidal Santiago were also sentenced to various years of prison.

On November 1, 1950, nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attacked the Blair House with the intention of assassinating U.S. President Truman.