Microcosm Publishing, 32 pages, zine format, $1.50

Annoyed by own ignorance, I bought a book a couple of years ago about Puerto Rico. While I know a lot about US involvement in Cuba and Central America, I’ve never really known the story about Puerto Rico. And, because Puerto Rico is a part of the US kinda, I could call my congressman and bitch and maybe have an actual impact.

I never got around to reading it, and now I’m annoyed by both my ignorance and my laziness. Fortunately, Abner Smith and Microcosm are here to help. In the fourth issue of The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting, Abner et al break down some of story in 32 punk-as-fuck pages.

Beginning in the 17th century and moving briskly to the US occupation that began after the Spanish-American War in 1896, this zine tells a familiar if depressing story. The US defense establishment and international corporations decide that Puerto Rico is useful to the US, a colonial government is set up, and both corporate and military oppression follow.

This issue also tells the story of the assassination of Puerto Rican resistance leader Filberto Ojedo Rios. Rios, murdered in 2005 by the FBI, had served as a leader in the Puerto Rican independence movement for 40 years and, retired to gardening, was gunned down by the FBI in 2005 after living peacefully in outside San Juan since eluding federal custody in 1990 on a charge related to a bank job in the early ‘80s. Sadly, The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting #4 makes an all-too-convincing case that Rios murder is typical of US involvement in the Caribbean. At least now I now what to call my congressman about.