Film on Controversial FBI Program Shown in Colo.
April 02--A history of the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program will be the focus of a documentary and panel discussion Wednesday night at Colorado State University-Pueblo.
The Counter Intelligence Program, more popularly known as COINTELPRO, was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the FBI aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting and disrupting domestic political organizations.
The political organizations targeted by COINTELPRO were those associated with civil rights, socialists, communists and anti-war movements. The aim of the program was to destroy movements for self-determination and liberation for blacks, Hispanics/Chicanos, Asian and indigenous people.
CSU-Pueblo's University Archives is hosting the showing of the documentary COINTELPRO 101 followed by a discussion from three well-known Chicano activists who are featured in the film.
The event is scheduled to begin with a reception at 6 p.m. followed by the showing of the documentary at 7 p.m.
The panel discussion with Chicano activists Priscilla Falcon, Francisco "Kiko" Martinez and Richard Romero will follow at 8 p.m.
All activities will be in room 109 of the Library and Academic Resource Center.
Falcon is a Chicana activist and professor of Hispanic studies at the University of Northern Colorado.
Her husband, Ricardo Falcon, was killed in a racially motivated altercation with a gas station attendant in Oro Grande, N.M., in 1972 while en route to the La Raza Unida convention in El Paso.
Martinez is a civil rights attorney in Alamosa. He was the target of law enforcement and FBI surveillance in the early 1970s because of his Chicano and leftist political views expressed through his legal and community work.
Martinez was indicted in 1973 for mailing three package bombs in Denver and after a long series of court battles, he was exonerated.
Romero is a Chicano activist active in immigrants rights. In 1981, he refused to testify before a grand jury, along with other activists, in providing information on activities of political activist organizations.
Falcon, Martinez and Romero were all interviewed as part of the documentary.
The 56-minute film will provide a glimpse of understanding a history of COINTELPRO during the social justice movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
In addition to Romero, Martinez and Falcon, other activists appearing in the film are:
Muhammad Ahmad (Max Stanford), founder of Revolutionary Action Movement and a professor at Temple University.
Bob Boyle, an attorney representing many activists and political prisoners targeted by COINTELPRO.
Kathleen Cleaver, former leader of the Black Panther Party and now a law professor at Emory and Yale universities and an expert on COINTELPRO.
Ward Churchill, removed professor at the University of Colorado who has written extensively about COINTELPRO.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, a longtime Native American activist and educator.
Geronimo Ji-Jaga Pratt, former leader of the Black Panther Party who was falsely imprisoned for 27 years in COINTELPRO case.
Jose Lopez, director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago and a longtime advocate of Puerto Rican independence.
Lucy Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican Independentista and former political prisoner.
Akinyele Umoja, an African American history scholar at Georgia State University.
Laura Whitehorn, a radical activist and former political prisoner who was targeted by the federal government.
Copyright 2012 - The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.