Parole Campaign for Carlos Alberto Torres

We have 906; we need 94 more to make our goal! SIGN THIS PETITION AND FORWARD IT OUT TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY! CARLOS ALBERTO TORRES NEEDS OUR SUPPORT!

Puerto Rican Political Prisoner Carlos Alberto Torres: Parole Hearing

On January 19, 2010, Carlos Alberto Torres attended a video hearing presided over by a U.S. Parole Commission hearing examiner whose task was to consider the disciplinary charges stemming from last January, and to make a recommendation for what should happen with respect to his request to be released on parole. Carlos Alberto answered the questions posed, and his attorney Jan Susler asked that the Parole Commission release him on parole as previously recommended, regardless of the wrongful charges. She pointed out the vast, ongoing support for his release, and argued that there is absolutely no risk in releasing him, as evidenced by the impressive example of his compatriots who were released by presidential commutation in 1999. The hearing examiner then made a favorable recommendation. The Parole Commission will make the final decision, hopefully within the next 30 days.

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign is launching a 30 day online petition campaign! We want 1000 people to sign our petition within the next 30 days showing their support for Carlos Alberto Torres. 

At the end of the thirty days the petition will be mailed to the Parole Commissioner. 

Sign this petition and forward it out to everyone you know!

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/Parole4CarlosAlberto/

 Man Pleads Guilty In 1983 Wells Fargo Robbery

By EDMUND H. MAHONY
The Hartford Courant
4:34 PM EST, February 5, 2010
HARTFORD

A key figure in the $7.1 million Wells Fargo robbery in West Hartford nearly three decades ago abruptly pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to charges that include smuggling the money out of the country.

Avelino Gonzalez-Claudio, 67, was a leader and strategist of Los Macheteros, a militant, Puerto Rico pro-independence group. In the 1970s and '80s, the group claimed responsibility for armed attacks on federal interests in Puerto Rico, two of which caused the deaths of U.S. military personnel.

Gonzalez-Claudio pleaded guilty Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Hartford to conspiracy to commit robbery and transportation of stolen money out of the country. Under terms of his plea agreement, he would be sentenced to 7 years in prison and a fine not to exceed $10,000. Sentencing is scheduled for later this year.

He has been in prison in Connecticut since the FBI arrested him in 2008 in Puerto Rico as he drove through the northern coastal city of Manati. While in prison, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and correctional authorities refused to provide him with medication until last month, said his lawyer, James Bergenn. In court, Gonzalez-Claudio appeared gaunt and emaciated, and the disease had taken such hold that he was barely able to speak.

Documents seized by the FBI showed that Macheteros planned to use the stolen millions to finance the violent overthrow of the U.S. government in Puerto Rico and to support leftist insurgencies elsewhere in Latin America.

Los Macheteros recruited a young college drop-out from Hartford, Victor Gerena, to be its inside man in the Sept. 12, 1983, Wells Fargo robbery. Gerena obtained a job as a Wells Fargo guard, overpowered his co-workers with a pistol, injected them with a narcotic to incapacitate them, and helped stuff the cash into a battered sedan which was driven to the depot by fellow Macheteros.

Gonzalez-Claudio and other Macheteros were accused, among other things, of hiding the cash behind hollow walls in a used motor home and driving the money, in two trips, to Mexico. Wire-tapped conversations, seized documents and other intelligence shows that most of the stolen money was flown from Mexico to Cuba, where it ended up under the control of Cuba's president at the time, Fidel Castro.

Agents continue to seek the two remaining Machetero fugitives wanted in connection with the robbery: Gonzalez-Claudio's brother, Norberto; and Gerena.

Copyright � 2010, The Hartford Courant

CELEBRATING THE REVOLUTIONARY PUERTO RICAN WOMAN!

This Women�s History Month, join The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign as we honor the contributions of Women to the Puerto Rican independence Movement:

�QUE VIVA LA MUJER!


Recipients of the Do�a Adelfa Vera Award for 2010:
Lourdes Garcia, Activist/Healer/Artisan
Joyce Jones, Artist/Journalist/Activist
Gloria Quino�es, Activist/ProLibertad Support
Amy Velez, Activist/ProLibertad Supporter


Keynote Speakers:
Yasmin Hernandez, Artist/Activist
Normahiram Perez, Federacion de Maestros Puertorrique�os


Poetry Performance:
Mariposa and Prisionera


Handcrafts and Natural healing products:
Olga Ayala, Handcrafts (Hecho a Mano)
Lourdes Garcia, Botanicafe Products

Proceeds from the Night�s donations will go to the Point�s Program for Young Women


Friday March 19, 2010 at 7pm:
St. Mary�s Episcopal Church 521 W126th St. Basement
Between  Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway
Take the 1 train W125th St.

Suggested donation: $5 (no one will be turned away)
LIGHT REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED!

www.ProLibertadWeb.com
ProLibertad@...

Dear UFPJ member groups,

The UFPJ Steering Committee decided on February 1 to move forward, adapting to current economic and political realities by working as a network of its member organizations.  This letter provides more detail on our plans.

The peace and justice movement faces a new situation compared to the time when UFPJ was founded, in 2002, to oppose the Iraq war.  Eyes have turned to the economic crisis, and this has reduced attention to peace issues, even as the Obama Administration rapidly escalates the Afghanistan war and asks for a record-breaking military budget that continues to devastate the U.S. economy.

As a result, UFPJ faced political, organizational and financial challenges in 2009.  We addressed reduced income and a large debt by transitioning to an all-volunteer operation. In this way we were able to pay off much of the debt.  While more work remains, UFPJ can rebuild its finances in 2010.

In November, UFPJ asked member groups for your input on our future direction, asking whether we should continue as a coalition, transition to a network, or dissolve to make room for new initiatives. Over 80 member groups responded to a detailed member group survey and dozens participated in conference calls.  The overwhelming majority of those who responded said that UFPJ should continue.

With that input in mind, UFPJ's Steering Committee developed two alternative proposals in January, and adopted the UFPJ Network proposal by a vote of 14-5.  The proposal that was adopted calls for UFPJ to transition to a volunteer-sustained network, while maintaining some elements of a coalition.  The new UFPJ will be anchored in the Working Groups, which will engage member groups in issue-oriented activity.  Member groups and Working Groups will share their campaigns through UFPJ's website and email lists. A new Internet Committee will harness volunteers to help build up our online capabilities.  The elected Steering Committee will ensure that all UFPJ bodies continue to implement the political principles adopted at the 2008 National Assembly.

Click here to download the UFPJ Network document.

We now turn our attention to transitioning to the new model.  The new UFPJ will require member groups and volunteers to play more of a role than was the case in the past.  We welcome ideas and input from member groups on how to make this new network model as vibrant and effective as possible. Now that we have all had a chance to see what this "new era" really feels like, join us in creating a well tuned entity to bring our issues boldly forward. We will be having a member group conference call in the near future to get the ball rolling; please plan to join it.

We will soon be asking member groups to step up their participation in this network, to pay their 2010 dues and, if possible, to also make an additional one-time donation to retire our debt.  We will open a new listserv for members to discuss our work, and we will write again soon with more information on how to get involved with working groups and committees. With the occupation of Iraq continuing, the war in Afghanistan escalating, new wars looming on the horizon, and military funding sapping critical resources needed for basic human needs; the call for peace and justice is needed now more than ever.  UFPJ's national scope and our integration of the peace struggle with the struggles for justice, define UFPJ's unique role.  We ask for your support and involvement as we continue to move our work forward.

For peace and justice,

UFPJ Steering Committee

*****

Joe Arpaio's Next Headache: Sal Reza Pushes Eric Holder to Take Over MCSO

By Stephen Lemons
Feathered Bastard
February 10, 2010

Hot on the heels of news that Wells Fargo wants Joe Arpaio out of his pricey
executive suites in the bank's downtown Phoenix tower, human rights activist
Salvador Reza is raising the stakes, asking that Attorney General Eric
Holder seek receivership over the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office,
effectively taking control of the day-to-day operations of Arpaio's law
enforcement agency and its jails.

Reza was at the county Board of Supervisors this morning, promoting the
idea. He, along with immigrant rights activists Lydia Guzman and the Rev.
Liana Rowe, made a presentation during public comments, requesting that the
BOS ask for a DOJ takeover of the MCSO. The Board did not comment on the
request, but nativist supporters in the audience expressed their anger by
vigorously shaking their heads in disapproval.

"The MCSO is a dysfunctional unit within the Maricopa County government,"
Reza told me afterward. "It cannot operate on its own anymore. It's frozen.
There's no cooperation between the supervisors and the MCSO. There's no
communications except through courts. Arpaio's going after judges, he's
going after employees, he's going after supervisors, and [County Attorney]
Andrew Thomas is helping him out. So basically it's not working, especially
with Sheriff Joe Arpaio being under investigation by a federal grand jury.
The best thing is for the feds to come and take over."

This latest campaign by Reza, a tenacious Joe-foe who has led massive
marches against Arpaio in Phoenix and spearheaded the drive to force Arpaio
from Wells Fargo with daily protests, actually began on January 31 at the
National Latino Congreso in El Paso, Texas. There, at a congress of Hispanic
leaders, politicians, activists and union leaders from across the country,
Reza introduced a resolution urging Attorney General Holder to take over the
MCSO. It passed unanimously.

The resolution, which you can read in its entirety, here, recommends that
Holder, "exercise receivership of Maricopa County Sheriff Office functions
until Maricopa County Jails and Enforcement comply with the constitutional
rule of law." It also demands that "Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio be prevented by
the U.S. Attorney General Office from exercising any law enforcement
authority until Grand Jury and Justice Department investigations are
resolved."

Before you scoff, keep in mind that the DOJ is still investigating the MCSO
for civil rights violations, and that should that investigation end in the
DOJ suing the MCSO, a court-appointed receivership -- such as has been
previously forced upon the D.C. jails and the California prison system --
could be one possible outcome, even if it seems improbable.

"That's what they said about Arpaio getting kicked out of Wells Fargo,"
chuckled Reza. "In fact some reporters, even at the New Times, compared me
to Don Quixote [when the Wells Fargo campaign started]. This is only the
beginning."

Lesson learned, Senor Reza. No more Don Quixote for you. From now on, it's
all Pancho Villa, baby.


http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/02/joe_arpaios_next_headache_sal.p\
hp

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Arizona Sheriff Arpaio to Unleash 800 Deputies on Undocumented Immigrants

By Valeria Fernandez
New America Media
February 15, 2010

PHOENIX -- Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced last week that he would
train 881 of his own deputies to arrest undocumented migrants in the course
of their normal duties.

ArpaioThe announcement by the Maricopa County sheriff has come under fire
from some legal scholars who argue he would be acting beyond the scope of
the law and immigrant advocates who say this would further weaken the
immigrant community's tenuous relationship with law enforcement officials.

Arpaio's controversial immigration sweeps of Latino neighborhoods led to
claims of racial profiling. In October, the federal Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) revoked an agreement, known as 287(g), that allowed 160 of
his officers to act as immigration agents.

Now, Arpaio says he can do this under his own authority. He has enlisted the
help of Kris W. Kobach, a University of Missouri law professor, who was an
advisor to former attorney general John Ashcroft during the Bush
administration. Kobach, who works as an attorney for the Immigration Reform
Law Institute, was paid an undisclosed amount of money to oversee the
two-hour training.

Kobach argues that local police have "inherent authority" to stop, question
and arrest people in order to enforce immigration law.

He based his legal advice on a hotly contested 2002 Office of Legal Counsel
(OLC) memo issued during Ashcroft's tenure.

Several legal scholars contend the opinion is flawed.

"Legally, it is highly suspect because there's a long tradition on the other
side of the opinion, " said attorney Muzaffar Chishti, director of the
Migration Policy Institute (MPI), referring to a series of OLC memos from
1989 to 1996 that state the contrary. "Secondly, if there was an inherent
authority to enforce immigration law, then there would be no need for
Congress in 1996 to enact what's now known as 287(g). If they had it, why
would you need it?"

Chishti said that Congress has historically assumed that it has plenary
power on immigration enforcement.

"It doesn't mean that states can't play a role, but that role is highly
limited," he said.

Immigration SweepsImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the enforcement
arm of Homeland Security, has distanced itself from Arpaio's new plans in a
recent statement, which stated in part: "Sheriff Arpaio's efforts to conduct
immigration enforcement actions do not derive from any ICE-delegated federal
authority. ICE has no engagement in MCSO's [Maricopa County Sheriff's
Office] operations outside of our standard procedures of responding to a
local law enforcement agency's request for assistance."

Arpaio's critics say his latest announcement is in keeping with the
aggressive tactics employed by his deputies. "There's nothing new in this,"
said Jorge Mendez, a local community activist. "Those who were trained under
287(g) and those who weren't were questioning people anyway."

"You're opening Pandora's box," said Omar Jadwat, a staff attorney at the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Immigrants' Rights Project. He said
Arpaio's action is sending a message to police officers on the streets that
they have broad power to detain and arrest solely on suspicion that people
are illegally in the country.

"When you have local cops getting some short video training and making
decisions about someone's immigration status, it is hugely dangerous because
it is a complex and difficult area of the law," he said.

Legal advisor Kobach is known for litigation involving immigrants. Kobach
filed suit in Kansas, California and Nebraska challenging those state's
policies of offering in-state tuition rates to undocumented students. He
also represented Hazelton, Penn., when its harsh anti-immigrant policies
were challenged in court. Kobach, a law professor at the University of
Missouri-Kansas City, is now running for secretary of state in Kansas.

Kobach has also worked with the Federation for American Immigration Reform
(FAIR). FAIR was identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate
group financially supported by the Pioneer Fund, a group with an alleged
white supremacist agenda.

"We find it absolutely outrageous that Sheriff Arpaio has chosen an
individual with an obvious bias, who works on behalf of an anti-immigrant
group to conduct training on immigration law and ethnic profiling," said
Bill Straus, Arizona Anti-Defamation League regional director.

"Those claims are absolutely false," said Kobach, in his defense. "The
Southern Poverty Law Center engages in slander against people that oppose
illegal immigration. They fail to mention that many of the people I defend
in court are Hispanic. They happen to be Hispanics that believe the laws
need to be enforced."

This is not the only controversy Arpaio is embroiled in. A federal grand
jury is investigating allegations of abuse of power by his office unrelated
to his immigration enforcement. His agency is also the subject of a federal
Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation of civil rights violations. His
office could also face judicial sanctions for destruction of evidence in
connection with an ACLU lawsuit that alleges his deputies engaged in racial
profiling during his immigration sweeps.

"This is going to magnify what he has been doing during the sweeps," said
Shana Higa, a criminal defense attorney who has been monitoring Arpaio's
immigration sweeps in Latino neighborhoods for the last two years. Higa
believes this has made some Latinos afraid report crimes to the police,
making them more vulnerable to criminals.

Despite criticism about his tactics and associations, Arpaio continues to
defend his policies saying that since 2007 his deputies have detained 30,000
undocumented immigrants, often for something as simple as a traffic stop,
and turned them over to immigration.

In fact, the great majority of those arrests could be attributed to other
law-enforcement agencies in Maricopa County, including the Phoenix and
Scottsdale police departments.

But Arpaio is trying to go further, according to legal experts.

"The difference is that it looks like they claim they have the right on
their own to hold someone up without the ICE detainer," said Chishti. "What
will be challenged is that they can't just hold people on the basis of an
immigration suspicion."

If Arpaio's deputies could do that, the Arizona state legislature wouldn't
be trying to pass a local law that allows police to arrest undocumented
immigrants, said Alessandra Soller Meetze , director of the Arizona ACLU. SB
1070 would criminalize undocumented immigrants for trespassing in the
territory of the state.

"If it passes, Arizona would be the first state in the country to make this
specific state crime of immigration trespassing," said Meetze. "We still
think the Constitution prohibits Arizona from passing that law."

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=02e68788da8ae1\
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Smuggled guns used in cartel hits

By: Ed Lavandera, CNN
February 17, 2010

Houston, Texas  -- John Phillip Hernandez and a friend walked into the
Collector's Firearms gun store in Houston, Texas, to buy a cache of weapons.
Hernandez was wearing sunglasses and a dark T-shirt with the words "I Am the
Scene" scrawled across the front.

It was April 28, 2007. Collector's Firearms was one of two gun stores they
visited that day as part of a scheme to arm Mexican cartels across the
border, according to federal court documents.

Hernandez's friend passed his background checks and did all the buying,
prosecutors say. On that spring day, he purchased six weapons, including a
quick-firing 7.62-caliber firearm and a favorite cartel weapon, the
Bushmaster .223.

Within days, ATF investigators say, those weapons were put on the road and
funneled into the hands of cartel members.

"The cartels are looking to supply their private armies, and they are coming
up with more elaborate, larger schemes," said Dewey Webb, the special agent
in charge of Houston's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
field office.

The Houston case offers a glimpse into the underworld of illegal gun
trafficking and how Mexican drug cartels find much of their firepower in the
United States. Straw purchases are made by people who are legally qualified
to buy firearms, but those weapons then make their way into the hands of
criminals, authorities said.

The daily struggle plays out as drugs flow north and guns and money flow
south. At least 55 murders were the result of the gun scheme that began in
Houston gun shops, authorities said.

Hernandez is at the center of the case, what Houston ATF agents say is one
of the largest straw-purchasing schemes they have ever seen.

"He doesn't stand out in a crowd," an ATF agent told CNN. "He's just a
regular guy." The agent asked not to be identified because he's been
intricately involved in the investigation of this case.

Federal investigators say Hernandez recruited and organized 23 people around
Houston. Together the men funneled nearly 340 firearms valued at almost
$370,000 to Mexican drug cartels. ATF agents say almost 100 of those weapons
have turned up at cartel-related crime scenes in Mexico and Guatemala.

Hernandez pleaded guilty in 2009 to making false statements about firearms
purchases. He's currently serving an eight-year prison sentence.

Of the 23 other people connected to the case, 11 have pleaded guilty for
their roles in the gun trafficking scheme. Each was sentenced to less than
eight years in prison. Several others struck plea deals and continue to
cooperate with federal authorities.

What made this group so effective was its ability to appear like ordinary
gun buyers. All the men had clean criminal backgrounds, authorities say. It
wasn't until the firearms started showing up at violent crime scenes in
Mexico that federal investigators started piecing together the magnitude of
the case.

ATF investigators, cooperating with Mexican authorities, traced the weapons
back to various Houston gun shops and started seeing the same names of
repeat customers.

"It really surprised us at first that we had this many people linked
together," said the ATF agent who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Federal investigators say Hernandez and his men were reimbursed by the
cartels for the money spent on the weapons, and then paid an extra $100 to
$200 for each firearm they supplied.

The weapons Hernandez purchased himself, according to federal court
documents, were used in the kidnapping and murder of a prominent Mexican
businessman. Another group of weapons turned up in a shooting known as the
"Acapulco Massacre" in 2007. Seven people were slaughtered that day,
including four police officers.

ATF agents say breaking up these networks of straw purchasers in the United
States is a key battlefront in the fight against Mexican drug cartels.

"These folks that are out buying these guns, they're just as responsible as
the people pulling the trigger and killing people in Mexico," said Webb,
Houston's top ATF agent.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/17/cartel.guns/index.html?hpt=C1

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Undocumented Students Face Down Georgia Sheriff

By Jessica Lee
The Indypendent
March 3, 2010

Lawrenceville, Ga.-Four immigrant students walked into Gwinnett County
Courthouse March 3 wearing shirts reading "undocumented" and demanded to
speak with Sheriff R.L. "Butch" Conway about the need to reform the U.S.
immigration system.

The four students from Florida - Felipe Matos, Gaby Pacheco, Carlos Roa and
Juan Rodriguez - are walking 1,500 miles from Miami, Fl. to Washington,
D.C., in a five-month campaign named "Trail of Dreams" to raise attention
about the current immigrant condition and to pressure President Barack Obama
and Congress to take up comprehensive immigration reform.

The students were not detained by the sheriff's office. If the students had
been arrested, they could have faced deportation.

Conway has been a vocal proponent of "287(G)," a federal prevision
authorizing local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws.  The
Trail of Dreams says that this policy has resulted in the deportation of
hundreds of immigrants from Gwinnett County in just the past three months -
policies that the student walkers say are oppressive and discriminatory.

"We're not scared of Sheriff Conway," said Rodriquez, 20, in a March 2 press
release. "Local enforcement of federal policies like the one Sheriff Conway
is proudly implementing are proof of the need for real immigration reform.
These policies have the long-term effect of criminalizing immigrants - the
vast majority of whom are here only to work hard and provide for their
families."

For more information, read "Walking the Dream" Immigrant College Students
Push for Reform" published Jan. 29 in The Indypendent and visit
trail2010.org.


http://www.indypendent.org/2010/03/03/trail-of-dreams-confronts-sheriff/

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