The CIA Illegally Spied on Puerto Rican and Mexican American Activists for Decades

Declassified documents include memos documenting CIA surveillance of far more conservative figures, such as legendary labor leader Cesar Chavez, a devout Catholic and former Navy veteran. There is. referred to Illegal immigrants are called “illegal immigrants” or “wetbacks.”

Unlike members of the Brown Berets, Young Lords, La Raza Unida Party, or Black Panthers, Chavez was deeply involved in international solidarity and other causes supported by the New Left, antiwar, Chicano, and other radical movements. was not involved. In one declassified memo, a CIA official informed his supervisor that Cesar Chavez had declined an invitation to attend a meeting of the Mexican Union of Workers and Peasants (UGOCM) in November 1971. Confidential sources reported.”

For Congressman Castro and his colleagues, the revelations contained in documents dating back to illegally used tape recorders and other analog equipment during the civil rights era are a sign that Latin America faces the possibility of digital surveillance in the current era of intersecting empires. affect people or other organizations; “Every few years, Congress considers legislation to reform or modify the powers held by the U.S. intelligence community,” Castro said. A more complete historical record would also help Congress better understand the guardrails needed to protect civil liberties and prevent future overreach. ”

Another major focus of the declassified documents are students, who are often at the center of large social movements. For example, one of the 1969 cables refers to the destruction of “incriminating documents” involving “Wofarm” (a cryptographic reference to the CIA) assets operating on the campus of the University of Arizona. The cable also mentions an apparent “contract” between the agency and the University of Arizona, where the administration claims that the militant anti-racist student group Brown Berets and others are It shared the CIA’s concerns about forming a “department”. It’s a harbinger of current ethnic studies programs that are being dismantled amid anti-DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) fervor.

Reading how the Denden confuses peaceful protest with violent extremism to justify surveillance and other harassment, universities concerned about DEI and today’s hot-button issues like Palestine I can’t help but wonder about recent revelations of oversight agreements between administrators and various federal agencies.

Hundreds of documents obtained by bloomberg last may For example, how the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies used the practice of claiming false equivalence (i.e., “Yale University is pro-Hamas”). , UCLA, and other universities. Like a wormhole connecting the analog and digital eras of state surveillance, student groups, including the Brown Berets and other Latino student groups, have faced local and federal law enforcement charges for organizing against genocide in Palestine. Reports of continued surveillance and harassment by institutions provide new grounds for genocide in Palestine. concern.

The released documents will also raise very personal concerns for many people, including me. Over the years, I have had my own encounters with the surveillance state. In the late 1980s, organizations in Central America that I belonged to or were associated with were being monitored and infiltrated by agents of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program. of Congressional Recordnews reports, and book.

I read news reports about activists doing solidarity work and remember government memos about us. The memo described surveillance operations similar to those conducted during Operation Chaos and how the information collected would be “transmitted to the appropriate authorities in the Salvadoran government.” At the time, several exiled Salvadoran activists were killed by U.S.-backed government death squads.

Recent revelations about Operation Chaos have us wondering what the CIA and other agencies have been up to lately. A lot has happened in the 50 years since the illegal acts described here took place. The arrival of the Altair 8800 (the first PC) comes 50 years after people were free to give up their contacts via the social media platforms that state surveillance relies on. AI machines are already learning from our history. The question is, will they?