http://aztlan.net/ccr_alert.htm

Committee on Chicano Rights(CCR) issues "ALERT"
concerning the Minutemen border vigilantes
by Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

Los Angeles, Alta California - March 19, 2005 - (ACN) The President of the Committee on Chicano Rights (CCR), Herman Baca, has released an "ALERT" concerning the Minutemen vigilantes and their planned apprehension of "Mexicans/Chicanos in Arizona at the U.S./Mexico border". In a communique entitled, "Peligro! Warning! Call to Action!", Herman Baca, called the Minutemen "domestic terrorists" and expressed solidarity with UC Professor Armando Navarro of the National Alliance for Human Rights (NAHR), an organization that is spearheading efforts to assure the safety of Mexicans and Chicanos along the border.

The communique by CCR, headquartered in National City, Alta California, urges Chicanos to "immediately write and express solidarity and support to the NAHR, disseminate information to all contacts concerning the plans of the vigilantes urging political (or?) action, and exert political pressure on political representatives (U.S./Mexico) and established "Hispanic" national organizations who to date have been shamefully silent on this issue."

The communique includes a letter from Herman Baca to Dr. Armando Navarro that states, "You and the National Alliance for Human Rights (NAHR) have our organization’s complete solidarity and support in your upcoming efforts to counter act, expose, confront and "pull the sheets off" the domestic terrorist vigilante Minuteman Project who plan to apprehend Mexicans or Chicanos in Arizona at the U.S./Mexico border."

The letter ends with the following:

"History repeats itself;

In 1977 when the KKK announced plans to patrol and apprehend Mexican looking individuals at the US/Mexico border in San Diego, California, a united Chicano/Mexicano community demonstrated and marched at the border and issued the warning that our people would not stand by idly while,

1) Vigilante right wing, racist extremist groups took the law into their own hands, and

2) That any violence directed against persons of Mexican ancestry would bring an immediate in kind respond from our communities.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it;

The political situation with the immigration issue is worst today than in 1977. Shamefully, most of the Hispanic leadership has been silent and provided little if no leadership on the issue. Regardless, history demands that the Chicano/Mexicano position be the same in 2005 as in 1977. Vigilante racist right wing groups must understand that they will be sadly mistaken if they think for one minute that they can do to persons of Mexican ancestry, as they did to Afro-Americans in the segregated U.S South!

As in 1977 the real issue in 2005, are not the "nuts" of the political right, but the Bush’s administration and U.S. Congress failure to resolve the simmering immigration "problem�, a problem that has given impetus to extremist groups to promote and carry out violent acts with a sense of perceived impunity against persons of Mexican ancestry. We wish you and the NAHR success in your upcoming efforts to stop the attacks on our people in Arizona. I will forward this correspondence to all concerned persons and organizations to attempt to help and assist your efforts.

Sinceramente en la lucha,

Herman Baca
President, CCR"

It looks like the Minutemen vigilantes are stirring up a hornet's nest and they will end up getting stung where it most hurts.


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Related La Voz de Aztlan articles:
Mexico/USA border tensions at an all time high

Condoleezza : "My country will not tolerate illegal actions by the Minutemen vigilantes"

Minutemen Vigilantism Raises Civil War Fears

Vigilante Roger "El Asesino" Barnett Sued by Mexican Migrant Workers

Mara Salvatruchas to take on the Minutemen vigilantes

Please note: Older related articles on the border vigilantes can be accessed by inputing the names Glenn Spencer, Chris Simcox or Roger Barnett in the search engine at http://www.aztlan.net/search.htm