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Oakland Councilman seeks violence to crush Occupy Oakland protesters
During a vote at last nights Oakland City Council meeting, longtime controversial City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, was defeated in his bid to unleash more violent measures such as more guns, tear gas, tasers, rubber bullets, bean bag projectiles and other violent measures of suppression to crush Occupy Oakland protesters!
Oakland Councilman seeks violence to crush Occupy Oakland protesters
By Lynda Carson -- December 21, 2011
Oakland -- Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, has been outraged that the population of Oakland including unions, families, workers, and students have joined in and supported Occupy Oakland, in their constitutional right to protest against big business and the wealthy ruling elite during protests in the city, and the Port of Oakland.
During a vote at last nights Oakland City Council meeting, longtime controversial City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, was defeated in his bid to unleash more violent measures such as more guns, tear gas, tasers, rubber bullets, bean bag projectiles and other violent measures of suppression to crush Occupy Oakland protesters, that have twice in recent months shut down the Port of Oakland. Tens of thousands of protesters including many families with children, and the family of Mayor Jean Quan have been involved in the on-going protests against the interests of the rich and powerful that have left this country in economic ruin.
Councilman De La Fuente failed to round up enough votes (6 votes needed) to pass a resolution that would have allowed much more aggressive violent suppression tactics against protesters in the Occupy Oakland movement, for using their constitutional rights to protest in the city, and Port of Oakland.
If passed, this resolution would have allowed for a much more aggressive use of the same type of brutal suppression tactics that have gained world wide negative attention in recent months against Occupy protesters by the police, including the evening when Iraq War Veteran Scot Olsen was critically injured by brutal suppression tactics employed by the Oakland Police Department. Blood flowed on the streets of Oakland that evening, and the streets of downtown Oakland became flooded with tear gas, flash grenades and bean bag projectiles, used by the police that evening against defenseless protesters.
In recent years, even the United Nations condemned the use of wooden bullets and other extreme measures used in Oakland against protesters and demonstrators at the Port of Oakland, by the police.
Longtime controversial and two-time mayoral candidate, Oakland City Councilman Ignatio De La Fuente, believes in violence to solve problems and has or did have a permit to carry a gun in recent years, and was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in Oakland nearly a year ago around December 24, 2010.
According to his De La Fuente's city website, it states that "Ignatio De La Fuente was born in Mexico City on January 1, 1949, and that he immigrated to California at the age of 21 and subsequently became an American citizen." The website does not state when Councilman Ignatio De La Fuente became an American citizen.
Around late 2000, De La Fuente faced a hearing in Sacramento over a Writ of Mandate, involving an alleged election fraud. Allegations of election fraud persisted then against De La Fuente, and a Quo Warranto suit was sought by Oakland resident Ronald Zimmerman. The hearing for the Writ of Mandate was presided over by Judge John Robles.
Questions about De La Fuente's citizenship came into question when documents revealed that De La Fuente failed to sign his own Declaration of Candidacy when running for office, and that he had a woman named Lupe Valdez sign his own Declaration of Candidacy in place of his own signature. It was also revealed that De La Fuente declined to check off any of the yes, or no boxes, on a voter registration card when asked under penalty of perjury if he was an American citizen.
First elected to the Oakland City Council in 1992, it was reported during late 1996 that Oakland City Councilman Ignatio De La Fuente was at the Port of Oakland to welcome Transportacion Maritima Mexicana (TMM), and Mexico's national containerships back into the bay, and Port of Oakland. During the 90s, it was also widely reported that TMM was owned and operated by the Carlos Hank / Rohn family, some alleged notorious billionaire drug lords of Mexico.
In an August 24, 1999, New York Times article it opens by saying, "Congress is close to forcing a major expansion of economic sanctions against international narcotics traffickers and the businesses that work with them." TMM responded in the article by saying, "If your a legitimate company and you're targeted, you should have a way to defend yourself before you get on the list," (Drug Kingpin List) said Luis Calvillo, a spokesman for one of Mexico's largest international transportation companies, Transportacion Maritima Mexicana (TMM).
Based on documents from the Operation White Tiger Task Force in San Diego about the alleged drug-related activities of the Carlos Hank family (Owner of TMM), the very popular film called Traffic (Winner of 4 Academy Awards) with Michael Douglas, portrayed the story of the high-stakes and high-risk of the drug trade occurring in California and Mexico.
Additionally, during late September 2004, around 100 unionized Oakland city employees protested at the mayoral campaign kickoff of De La Fuente who is also a union leader, and more controversy arose in 2005 when De La Fuente's son, Ignacio Rafael De La Fuente Jr., faced charges of rape, and went before Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith, only later in 2007 to be sentenced to 14 years in prison for rapes committed against 4 women.
In 2007, the Oakland Police Department asked the FBI to investigate De La Fuente's accusations that investigators inflated rape and assault charges against his son in an effort to embarrass the council president as he was trying to run for mayor.
During last nights council meeting, Council President Larry Reed (Known by many as Mr. Law & Order) threatened to chase Occupy protesters and Oakland's citizens from the council meeting if they did not keep their mouths shut, and Reed rudely left the meeting along with Councilwoman Desley Brooks before the meeting had ended, and before Occupy Oakland protesters fully had their say about the resolution of violence, being promoted by Councilman De La Fuente.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King, would have been proud of the protesters that spoke out against the resolution of violence being promoted by Councilman Ignatio De La Fuente, at last night's council meeting.
Among the many speakers at the council meeting, "You don't waive your rights that are given to you in the bill of rights because you interfere with commerce," said Michael Rubin at the council meeting, and Scott Cambell who was shot in the leg by police with a bean bag projectile, said, "It's clear that police brutality is an institutionalized fixture of the Oakland Police Department."
Despite the untimely departure of Councliman Larry Reed and Councilwoman Desley Brooks from the council meeting, Oakland citizens, union members and Occupy protesters spoke out against the resolution of violence that would create more violent confrontations between the population of Oakland and the police, during lawful constitutionally protected protests, and demonstrations being organized by Occupy Oakland.
The council meeting failed resolution promoting more brutal police violence against protesters in Oakland, came on the heels of international news broadcasts showing the violent bloody brutal crackdown of protesters in Egypt by the brutal military and police, in that country.
Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com
By Lynda Carson -- December 21, 2011
Oakland -- Oakland City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, has been outraged that the population of Oakland including unions, families, workers, and students have joined in and supported Occupy Oakland, in their constitutional right to protest against big business and the wealthy ruling elite during protests in the city, and the Port of Oakland.
During a vote at last nights Oakland City Council meeting, longtime controversial City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, was defeated in his bid to unleash more violent measures such as more guns, tear gas, tasers, rubber bullets, bean bag projectiles and other violent measures of suppression to crush Occupy Oakland protesters, that have twice in recent months shut down the Port of Oakland. Tens of thousands of protesters including many families with children, and the family of Mayor Jean Quan have been involved in the on-going protests against the interests of the rich and powerful that have left this country in economic ruin.
Councilman De La Fuente failed to round up enough votes (6 votes needed) to pass a resolution that would have allowed much more aggressive violent suppression tactics against protesters in the Occupy Oakland movement, for using their constitutional rights to protest in the city, and Port of Oakland.
If passed, this resolution would have allowed for a much more aggressive use of the same type of brutal suppression tactics that have gained world wide negative attention in recent months against Occupy protesters by the police, including the evening when Iraq War Veteran Scot Olsen was critically injured by brutal suppression tactics employed by the Oakland Police Department. Blood flowed on the streets of Oakland that evening, and the streets of downtown Oakland became flooded with tear gas, flash grenades and bean bag projectiles, used by the police that evening against defenseless protesters.
In recent years, even the United Nations condemned the use of wooden bullets and other extreme measures used in Oakland against protesters and demonstrators at the Port of Oakland, by the police.
Longtime controversial and two-time mayoral candidate, Oakland City Councilman Ignatio De La Fuente, believes in violence to solve problems and has or did have a permit to carry a gun in recent years, and was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in Oakland nearly a year ago around December 24, 2010.
According to his De La Fuente's city website, it states that "Ignatio De La Fuente was born in Mexico City on January 1, 1949, and that he immigrated to California at the age of 21 and subsequently became an American citizen." The website does not state when Councilman Ignatio De La Fuente became an American citizen.
Around late 2000, De La Fuente faced a hearing in Sacramento over a Writ of Mandate, involving an alleged election fraud. Allegations of election fraud persisted then against De La Fuente, and a Quo Warranto suit was sought by Oakland resident Ronald Zimmerman. The hearing for the Writ of Mandate was presided over by Judge John Robles.
Questions about De La Fuente's citizenship came into question when documents revealed that De La Fuente failed to sign his own Declaration of Candidacy when running for office, and that he had a woman named Lupe Valdez sign his own Declaration of Candidacy in place of his own signature. It was also revealed that De La Fuente declined to check off any of the yes, or no boxes, on a voter registration card when asked under penalty of perjury if he was an American citizen.
First elected to the Oakland City Council in 1992, it was reported during late 1996 that Oakland City Councilman Ignatio De La Fuente was at the Port of Oakland to welcome Transportacion Maritima Mexicana (TMM), and Mexico's national containerships back into the bay, and Port of Oakland. During the 90s, it was also widely reported that TMM was owned and operated by the Carlos Hank / Rohn family, some alleged notorious billionaire drug lords of Mexico.
In an August 24, 1999, New York Times article it opens by saying, "Congress is close to forcing a major expansion of economic sanctions against international narcotics traffickers and the businesses that work with them." TMM responded in the article by saying, "If your a legitimate company and you're targeted, you should have a way to defend yourself before you get on the list," (Drug Kingpin List) said Luis Calvillo, a spokesman for one of Mexico's largest international transportation companies, Transportacion Maritima Mexicana (TMM).
Based on documents from the Operation White Tiger Task Force in San Diego about the alleged drug-related activities of the Carlos Hank family (Owner of TMM), the very popular film called Traffic (Winner of 4 Academy Awards) with Michael Douglas, portrayed the story of the high-stakes and high-risk of the drug trade occurring in California and Mexico.
Additionally, during late September 2004, around 100 unionized Oakland city employees protested at the mayoral campaign kickoff of De La Fuente who is also a union leader, and more controversy arose in 2005 when De La Fuente's son, Ignacio Rafael De La Fuente Jr., faced charges of rape, and went before Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith, only later in 2007 to be sentenced to 14 years in prison for rapes committed against 4 women.
In 2007, the Oakland Police Department asked the FBI to investigate De La Fuente's accusations that investigators inflated rape and assault charges against his son in an effort to embarrass the council president as he was trying to run for mayor.
During last nights council meeting, Council President Larry Reed (Known by many as Mr. Law & Order) threatened to chase Occupy protesters and Oakland's citizens from the council meeting if they did not keep their mouths shut, and Reed rudely left the meeting along with Councilwoman Desley Brooks before the meeting had ended, and before Occupy Oakland protesters fully had their say about the resolution of violence, being promoted by Councilman De La Fuente.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King, would have been proud of the protesters that spoke out against the resolution of violence being promoted by Councilman Ignatio De La Fuente, at last night's council meeting.
Among the many speakers at the council meeting, "You don't waive your rights that are given to you in the bill of rights because you interfere with commerce," said Michael Rubin at the council meeting, and Scott Cambell who was shot in the leg by police with a bean bag projectile, said, "It's clear that police brutality is an institutionalized fixture of the Oakland Police Department."
Despite the untimely departure of Councliman Larry Reed and Councilwoman Desley Brooks from the council meeting, Oakland citizens, union members and Occupy protesters spoke out against the resolution of violence that would create more violent confrontations between the population of Oakland and the police, during lawful constitutionally protected protests, and demonstrations being organized by Occupy Oakland.
The council meeting failed resolution promoting more brutal police violence against protesters in Oakland, came on the heels of international news broadcasts showing the violent bloody brutal crackdown of protesters in Egypt by the brutal military and police, in that country.
Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com
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Here is the role that non-violence played in the Port Shutdown --
"Occupy demonstrators shut down the port Dec. 12, an act that cost port companies $4 million to $8 million. Several council members have said they were frustrated that Quan did not stop the shutdown. There were at least 150 Oakland police as well as 150 Alameda County sheriff's deputies and at least 70 private security guards on the scene. Yet, police say they were ordered to stay away from the roughly 3,000 demonstrators unless there was violence or property damage, neither of which occurred."
No one was clubbed, sprayed, beaten, etc.
"Occupy demonstrators shut down the port Dec. 12, an act that cost port companies $4 million to $8 million. Several council members have said they were frustrated that Quan did not stop the shutdown. There were at least 150 Oakland police as well as 150 Alameda County sheriff's deputies and at least 70 private security guards on the scene. Yet, police say they were ordered to stay away from the roughly 3,000 demonstrators unless there was violence or property damage, neither of which occurred."
No one was clubbed, sprayed, beaten, etc.
For more information:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...
De La Fuente wants to use the Enforcers like Jerry Brown did in 2003 at the peaceful picket at the Docks>
Remember, Jerry Brown sent his violent enforcers to shoot up our picket lines with "Less"Lethal weapons used as Lethal weapons (aimed at the head) stinger grenades and violence against Citizens leaving the scene of the picket lines....AND Jerry got elected GOVERNOR as a reward!
I accuse De La Fuente of naked ambition based on abuse of the constitution!
Remember, Jerry Brown sent his violent enforcers to shoot up our picket lines with "Less"Lethal weapons used as Lethal weapons (aimed at the head) stinger grenades and violence against Citizens leaving the scene of the picket lines....AND Jerry got elected GOVERNOR as a reward!
I accuse De La Fuente of naked ambition based on abuse of the constitution!
And this organized crime thug, Ignacio de la Fuente, is a Democrat. If this much information is available about him publicly, then you can be sure the US government knows all about him. Clearly, he sits illegally in office at the behest of the US capitalist class, whose leading mouthpiece currently is also a Democrat. Please do yourselves and humanity a favor, go online and change your voter registration to Peace & Freedom Party or Green Party, who support the Occupy movement and always represent the needs and interests of the workingclass. These 2 parties desperately need you as they are in danger of losing ballot status as they must now stay on the ballot by registration only.
See the California Secretary of State's site at
https://www.sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/
Choose the default,
"Fill out a voter registration form online and print to sign and mail."
When you mail it, it is best to put it in your own envelope and send it to your Registrar of Voters found at
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_d.htm
Please be sure to sign up to vote by mail permanently so that you do not have to worry about voting on a Tuesday, can vote in the comfort of your home within 30 days of election day, and always remember to vote.
You can also go to your Registrar of Voters Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and change your registration or register for the first time. Remember, if you move, even to the apartment next door, you must re-register. Whenever you register, please register Peace & Freedom or Green Party. They need you and you need them.
Please read about the only 2 parties worth joining:
1. Peace and Freedom Party
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
2. Green Party
http://www.cagreens.org/
http://www.gp.org/index.php
See the California Secretary of State's site at
https://www.sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/
Choose the default,
"Fill out a voter registration form online and print to sign and mail."
When you mail it, it is best to put it in your own envelope and send it to your Registrar of Voters found at
http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_d.htm
Please be sure to sign up to vote by mail permanently so that you do not have to worry about voting on a Tuesday, can vote in the comfort of your home within 30 days of election day, and always remember to vote.
You can also go to your Registrar of Voters Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and change your registration or register for the first time. Remember, if you move, even to the apartment next door, you must re-register. Whenever you register, please register Peace & Freedom or Green Party. They need you and you need them.
Please read about the only 2 parties worth joining:
1. Peace and Freedom Party
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/
2. Green Party
http://www.cagreens.org/
http://www.gp.org/index.php
(Washington Post Article Repost about Operation White Tiger & TMM at Port of Oakland involvement with Drug Kingpins )
Prominent Mexican Family Viewed As Threat to U.S.
By Douglas Farah Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, June 2, 1999; Page A1
Click below...
http://www.madcowprod.com/white-tiger.htm
One of Mexico's wealthiest and most politically powerful families is so involved in drug trafficking and money laundering that the father and two sons "pose a significant criminal threat to the United States," according to a recent report by the U.S. government's main drug intelligence task force.
While U.S. law enforcement officials have spent years investigating the family – Carlos Hank Gonzalez and his sons Carlos Hank Rhon and Jorge Hank Rhon – the assessment by several agencies marks the first time that all three have been linked directly to the operations of major Mexican drug organizations.
The report said the Hank family also "has begun to extend its interests from Mexico to the United States. [It] has purchased or exercises control over several U.S. banks, investment firms, transportation companies and real estate properties." The report mentioned, for example, that Carlos Hank Rhon purchased shares of Laredo National Bankshares, the holding company of two Texas banks, through two of his holding companies. It also gave examples of the family's efforts to gain influence over U.S. gambling businesses.
The Hank family, often described as Mexico's Rockefellers, is known for its multi-billion-dollar transportation, construction and financial empire and its great influence within the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has ruled Mexico for seven decades.
Hank Gonzalez, the patriarch, was mayor of Mexico City, held two cabinet positions in the government of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari and used his position as minister of agriculture to mobilize electoral support for Salinas's successor, President Ernesto Zedillo.
Spokesmen for the Hank family denied the report, and Mexican officials said the allegations were politically motivated and designed to embarrass the Zedillo government.
A senior Clinton administration official acknowledged the authenticity of the report. "Allegations that significant sums of foreign drug money are being invested in the United States are extremely serious," the official said.
The report was written by the National Drug Intelligence Center, which coordinates investigations by different agencies. It accuses the Hank family of using its businesses to move cocaine to the United States and launder millions of dollars in drug money. The family enjoys impunity in Mexico because of its high-level political connections, the report says.
The report drew on information from the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, U.S. Customs Service, CIA, Interpol and others. The report says intelligence agencies had "intercepted conversations of the Hank family coordinating drug shipments" at TMM – a giant Hank-owned shipping company – and personally meeting with drug kingpins.
Stamped "Law Enforcement Sensitive," the internal document was first described Monday in the Mexican newspaper El Financiero, and The Washington Post obtained a copy.
The investigation of the Hank family, known in Mexico as Grupo Hank, was approved Dec. 9, 1997 and concluded earlier this year.
"Several years of investigative information strongly support the conclusion that the Hank family has laundered money on a massive scale, assisted drug trafficking organizations in transporting drug shipments, and engaged in large-scale public corruption," the document says.
"Grupo Hank poses a significant criminal threat to the United States," the report continues. "Its multibillion-dollar criminal and business empire, developed over several decades, reaches throughout Mexico and into the United States."
Carlos Arguelles, a spokesman for Hank Gonzalez, said the accusations were "completely false, and everyone in Mexico knows they are false . . . [Hank Gonzalez] travels to the United States frequently, and I don't understand what is motivating these charges."
Hank Gonzalez's son, Carlos, was a close associate of Raul Salinas de Gortari, brother of the former president and a convicted murderer who also has been linked to drug trafficking.
"An analysis of case information shows that [Carlos] Hank-Rhon continues to launder money and was closely associated with the late [Juarez cocaine cartel leader] Amado Carrillo Fuentes," the report says.
Robert Siegfried, a New York-based spokesman for Carlos, said the report was "nothing more than recycled misinformation. . . . Any allegation or assertion that Carlos Hank-Rhon or any of the businesses in which he has an interest have been or are involved in illicit activities are and have been proven to be unequivocally false."
The report was hardest on Jorge, the younger son. He lives in Tijuana, owns its largest racetrack and "is reportedly a close associate of leaders of the Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix drug trafficking organization," the report says.
"Case information indicates that Jorge Hank-Rhon launders money, distributes cocaine and meets with prominent drug traffickers through his businesses," the report said. "Jorge is more openly criminal than either his father or his brother and is regarded as ruthless, dangerous and prone to violence against his enemies."
© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$
(Zimmerman vs De La Fuente -- Ronald Zimmerman responds to an Aug. 2001 - East Bay Express Article about his suit against Councilman Ignatio De La Fuente, for election fraud.)
Dazed and Confucius-ed
Click below...
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/letters/Content?oid=1065930
August 15, 2001 - East Bay Express
I read your story ("7 Days," August 8) mentioning me and my challenge of the citizenship of Ignacio De La Fuente and therefore his qualifications to vote, run for, and occupy public office on the Oakland City Council. Or anywhere else in the USA.
Your attribution to "one City Hall source" "knows his citizenship is indisputable" doesn't show who that "source" is nor the basis for that remark, but tries to verify Iggy's citizenship without proof. BS! You have become part of the spin. Shame on you! Abuse of "freedom of the press." I had several things revealed to me that convinced me that he was not a citizen, but he was so well wired in with his buddy, state Senator Don Perata, that, as he stated in a TV interview: "Don't worry, my friends will take care of me."
At a luncheon group I used to belong to in San Francisco I met a man whose business card proclaimed him to be a high official of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. I told him about my suspicions of the non-citizenship of Iggy, as I call De La Fuente, and he said he would check it out for me, quietly. He later told me that in searching the records twice he could find no record of De La Fuente ever even getting a green card, much less any US citizenship. He said, "There is no file." He did tell me that De La Fuente was a constant thorn in the side of the INS in that he came over and blustered and made problems for them while advocating for other Mexican nationals who were having problems with the INS.
I personally do not care if he was a citizen or not; he was not eligible to run for that office for other reasons, and the facts were never publicly disclosed.
I got a kick out of your calling me eccentric. Shakespeare said in Much Ado About Nothing, "Happy is he who overhears his faults, and can put them to a mending." I will try to be less "eccentric," but I revel in what you call my "eccentricity." I have found the truth in Emily Dickinson's line: "Assent and you are sane, dissent and you are dangerous and handled with a chain."
Your paper would be well served to have a weekly quote from Emily Dickinson, a nice introduction to civility for some of your adherents, God bless them. Confucius said, "If you put me between two coolies, from one of them I will learn something."
His wife responded: "I wondered where you got your education."
See you in eccentric circles. Ron Zimmerman, Oakland
Prominent Mexican Family Viewed As Threat to U.S.
By Douglas Farah Washington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, June 2, 1999; Page A1
Click below...
http://www.madcowprod.com/white-tiger.htm
One of Mexico's wealthiest and most politically powerful families is so involved in drug trafficking and money laundering that the father and two sons "pose a significant criminal threat to the United States," according to a recent report by the U.S. government's main drug intelligence task force.
While U.S. law enforcement officials have spent years investigating the family – Carlos Hank Gonzalez and his sons Carlos Hank Rhon and Jorge Hank Rhon – the assessment by several agencies marks the first time that all three have been linked directly to the operations of major Mexican drug organizations.
The report said the Hank family also "has begun to extend its interests from Mexico to the United States. [It] has purchased or exercises control over several U.S. banks, investment firms, transportation companies and real estate properties." The report mentioned, for example, that Carlos Hank Rhon purchased shares of Laredo National Bankshares, the holding company of two Texas banks, through two of his holding companies. It also gave examples of the family's efforts to gain influence over U.S. gambling businesses.
The Hank family, often described as Mexico's Rockefellers, is known for its multi-billion-dollar transportation, construction and financial empire and its great influence within the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which has ruled Mexico for seven decades.
Hank Gonzalez, the patriarch, was mayor of Mexico City, held two cabinet positions in the government of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari and used his position as minister of agriculture to mobilize electoral support for Salinas's successor, President Ernesto Zedillo.
Spokesmen for the Hank family denied the report, and Mexican officials said the allegations were politically motivated and designed to embarrass the Zedillo government.
A senior Clinton administration official acknowledged the authenticity of the report. "Allegations that significant sums of foreign drug money are being invested in the United States are extremely serious," the official said.
The report was written by the National Drug Intelligence Center, which coordinates investigations by different agencies. It accuses the Hank family of using its businesses to move cocaine to the United States and launder millions of dollars in drug money. The family enjoys impunity in Mexico because of its high-level political connections, the report says.
The report drew on information from the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, U.S. Customs Service, CIA, Interpol and others. The report says intelligence agencies had "intercepted conversations of the Hank family coordinating drug shipments" at TMM – a giant Hank-owned shipping company – and personally meeting with drug kingpins.
Stamped "Law Enforcement Sensitive," the internal document was first described Monday in the Mexican newspaper El Financiero, and The Washington Post obtained a copy.
The investigation of the Hank family, known in Mexico as Grupo Hank, was approved Dec. 9, 1997 and concluded earlier this year.
"Several years of investigative information strongly support the conclusion that the Hank family has laundered money on a massive scale, assisted drug trafficking organizations in transporting drug shipments, and engaged in large-scale public corruption," the document says.
"Grupo Hank poses a significant criminal threat to the United States," the report continues. "Its multibillion-dollar criminal and business empire, developed over several decades, reaches throughout Mexico and into the United States."
Carlos Arguelles, a spokesman for Hank Gonzalez, said the accusations were "completely false, and everyone in Mexico knows they are false . . . [Hank Gonzalez] travels to the United States frequently, and I don't understand what is motivating these charges."
Hank Gonzalez's son, Carlos, was a close associate of Raul Salinas de Gortari, brother of the former president and a convicted murderer who also has been linked to drug trafficking.
"An analysis of case information shows that [Carlos] Hank-Rhon continues to launder money and was closely associated with the late [Juarez cocaine cartel leader] Amado Carrillo Fuentes," the report says.
Robert Siegfried, a New York-based spokesman for Carlos, said the report was "nothing more than recycled misinformation. . . . Any allegation or assertion that Carlos Hank-Rhon or any of the businesses in which he has an interest have been or are involved in illicit activities are and have been proven to be unequivocally false."
The report was hardest on Jorge, the younger son. He lives in Tijuana, owns its largest racetrack and "is reportedly a close associate of leaders of the Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix drug trafficking organization," the report says.
"Case information indicates that Jorge Hank-Rhon launders money, distributes cocaine and meets with prominent drug traffickers through his businesses," the report said. "Jorge is more openly criminal than either his father or his brother and is regarded as ruthless, dangerous and prone to violence against his enemies."
© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$
(Zimmerman vs De La Fuente -- Ronald Zimmerman responds to an Aug. 2001 - East Bay Express Article about his suit against Councilman Ignatio De La Fuente, for election fraud.)
Dazed and Confucius-ed
Click below...
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/letters/Content?oid=1065930
August 15, 2001 - East Bay Express
I read your story ("7 Days," August 8) mentioning me and my challenge of the citizenship of Ignacio De La Fuente and therefore his qualifications to vote, run for, and occupy public office on the Oakland City Council. Or anywhere else in the USA.
Your attribution to "one City Hall source" "knows his citizenship is indisputable" doesn't show who that "source" is nor the basis for that remark, but tries to verify Iggy's citizenship without proof. BS! You have become part of the spin. Shame on you! Abuse of "freedom of the press." I had several things revealed to me that convinced me that he was not a citizen, but he was so well wired in with his buddy, state Senator Don Perata, that, as he stated in a TV interview: "Don't worry, my friends will take care of me."
At a luncheon group I used to belong to in San Francisco I met a man whose business card proclaimed him to be a high official of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. I told him about my suspicions of the non-citizenship of Iggy, as I call De La Fuente, and he said he would check it out for me, quietly. He later told me that in searching the records twice he could find no record of De La Fuente ever even getting a green card, much less any US citizenship. He said, "There is no file." He did tell me that De La Fuente was a constant thorn in the side of the INS in that he came over and blustered and made problems for them while advocating for other Mexican nationals who were having problems with the INS.
I personally do not care if he was a citizen or not; he was not eligible to run for that office for other reasons, and the facts were never publicly disclosed.
I got a kick out of your calling me eccentric. Shakespeare said in Much Ado About Nothing, "Happy is he who overhears his faults, and can put them to a mending." I will try to be less "eccentric," but I revel in what you call my "eccentricity." I have found the truth in Emily Dickinson's line: "Assent and you are sane, dissent and you are dangerous and handled with a chain."
Your paper would be well served to have a weekly quote from Emily Dickinson, a nice introduction to civility for some of your adherents, God bless them. Confucius said, "If you put me between two coolies, from one of them I will learn something."
His wife responded: "I wondered where you got your education."
See you in eccentric circles. Ron Zimmerman, Oakland
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