Terrorist Organization Profile:
Armed Commandos of Liberation

In its four years of existence, CAL committed dozens of small-scale bombings aimed at destroying American property. The group's main targets were shops and public buildings. They bombed a new Sears store in July of 1968. The following spring, they placed bombs in IBM offices, a Hilton hotel, and a women's clothing store. In November 1970, the group claimed credit for an explosion outside the embassy of the Dominican Republic in San Juan. The bombings were invariably small, and did not cause casualties.

The CAL's campaign of bombings against American targets in Puerto Rico officially ended in 1972 with the termination of its political support from MPI (which by that time had changed its name to the Partido Socialista Puertoriqueno). Remnants of the CAL did, however, take part in the founding of another Puerto Rican terrorist group, the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN) in New York in 1974. The FALN was responsible for several bombings in the United States, killing five people and causing millions of dollars in damages from 1974-1985.

Learn more about these U.S. Department of State classifications:

Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)

Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL)