The Uptake | Local Peace Groups Support LA Activist Carlos Montes

Minneapolis peace activists rallied on the Lake Street Bridge on July 6 in support of recently arrested friend and ally, Carlos Montes. He was in the Twin Cities for the Republican National Convention in 2008 and has been vocal in support of peace activists targeted by the FBI.

On May 17 at 5 a.m. the SWAT Team of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and members of the FBI raided Montes’ home. Montes is a longtime Chicano activist and member of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. The SWAT Team smashed his front door and rushed in with automatic weapons as Carlos slept. The team of sheriffs and FBI agents proceeded to ransack his house, taking his computer, cell phones and hundreds of documents, photos, diskettes and mementos of his current political activities in the pro-immigrant rights and Chicano civil rights movement. Also taken were hundreds of historical documents related to Carlos Montes’ involvement in the Chicano movement for the past 44 years. Carlos was arrested on one charge dealing with a firearm code and released on bail the following morning.