Scoop: CIA releases docs on Latino civil rights-era surveillance

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Source: Axios

5 hours ago


The CIA monitored Mexican American and Puerto Rican civil rights activists fighting for equal education and to honor the late Martin Luther King, Jr., — and against police brutality and the Vietnam War, newly released CIA documents show.

Why it matters: The documents confirm Latino civil rights pioneers' long-held suspicions that the federal government was monitoring — even disrupting — their activities.

The documents from 1968 to 1983 were released in late December deep on the CIA's website at the request of Reps. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and Jimmy Gomez (D-CA).

The big picture: The cache of documents gives a glimpse into how the CIA viewed activists' work as threats.

That includes Denver-based activist Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales and farmworker union leader Cesar Chavez.

Documents also show how the CIA sought to keep tabs on Mexican American student activists in Arizona, California and Colorado, even having undercover agents infiltrate student groups.

The documents primarily relate to Operation CHAOS — a CIA domestic espionage project targeting American citizens that operated under former Presidents Johnson and Nixon.

Zoom in: The CIA kept close tabs on Gonzales, a leader in the radical Chicano Movement of the 1970s, as he pressed for equal rights and called for "the potential formation of independent local, regional, and national Chicano political parties," documents show.

Like the Black Power Movement, the Chicano Movement focused on racial pride, nationalism and fighting poverty.

The CIA also was monitoring if Chavez would attend demonstrations organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in New York City on the 3rd anniversary of King's 1968 assassination.

The CIA was following Salvatore H. Castro, a teacher and advisor in the 1968 Los Angeles high school walkouts over discrimination.

The agency also tracked members of the Brown Berets, a Chicano militant group.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/2025/01/06/cia-releases-docs-latino-civil-rights-era-surveillance

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Link to documents site - https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/search/site/mhchaos?f%5B0%5D=dm_field_release_date%3A%5B2024-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z%20TO%202025-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z%5D