The Editor to the Texas Atty Gen to the FBI Voice of the Mainland 2 8 12

8/3/2019 The Editor to the Texas Atty Gen to the FBI Voice of the Mainland 2 8 12

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Historia Chicana8 February 2012

Voice of the MainlandURL:http://voiceofthemainland.blogspot.com/#!/2012/02/to-texas-attorney-general-and-to.html

Accessed: 8 February 2012

To the Texas Attorney General and to the Federal

Bureau of Investigation

By Bernardo Eureste, Editor

Voice of the Mainland8 February 2012

The public media have gone head over heels over the ranting and raving of Luis Vera, the attorney forLULAC, in the Texas redistricting fight.

The Texas Attorney General said it very clear yesterday when he recognized the major Latino partiesentering an agreement with Texas in the Texas redistricting legal battle and cited: Texas LULAC,

MALDEF, GI Forum, Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, Domingo Garca, The MexicanAmerican Bar Association of Texas, and La Fe Policy Research and Education Center. There were alsothe Southwest Workers Union and NOMAR. These organizations are all well-known Latinoorganizations, known to people nationally and in Texas and very representative of Latinos in Texas.

Many of these organizations were born in Texas.

The Texas LULAC and the Luis Vera LULAC needs some clarification.

The Luis Vera LULAC that is getting all of the media attention is a paper tiger, in Texas and in most ofthe United States.

The Luis Vera LULAC is led by a national board of directors who are elected into office at each year'snational LULAC convention. The election which elected the current slate of national LULAC leaderswas held in Cincinnati, Ohio this past July where LULAC held its national convention.

LULAC has been going through a national struggle for leadership since 1994 when the national electionheld in El Paso, Texas was decided by 325 delegates who were flown in from the island of Puerto Ricoto a convention that normally hosts 450 to 500 delegates from throughout the United States. The El Paso
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convention had just over 800 delegates. The conservative candidate for President won with a margin of1 to 5 votes. There were five counters. Puerto Rico's first thrust into LULAC national politics gave 325delegate votes to the conservative winner. Mainland LULAC'ers broke at about 400 for the liberalcandidate and 77 for the conservative candidate. Puerto Rico voted its entire slate of delegates for theconservative candidate. This new arrangement was repeated each year, since LULAC elects its national

officers each year. In 1998, new candidates had to run, since national office holders cannot serve formore than four years. In 1998 in Dallas, island Puerto Rico showed up with 340 delegates. The victoryagain went to the conservative candidate, who won by 16 votes. Again mainland liberal LULAC'ersmade up 75% of the mainland delegate vote. In 1999-2000, the FBI investigated, charged and gotindictments against island Puerto Rico government officials, some going to prison. Island Puerto Ricostayed out of LULAC politics until 2010, when they showed up with 225 delegates at the nationalconvention in Albuquerque.

The island Puerto Rico strategy regarding LULAC is orchestrated by island Puerto Rico's ruling party,the New Progressive Party, also known as the PNP. Its governor is Luis Fortuno.

In Puerto Rico, the politics of island stauts has the PNP supporting statehood. Opposition parties supportcommonwealth status (current status), independent status and no change in status.

Over the 50 years, Puerto Rico has had three plebiscites on the issue of status, 1967, 1993 and 1998.Each time, statehood and independence have lost out to status quo.

The PNP made a decision in 1994 to use LULAC as its mainland forum to have LULAC lobby for itsstatehood status. They supported that decision by paying for the transportation, lodging and feeding ofthe hundreds of island Puerto Ricans who are flown in to the LULAC national conventions. That runsinto over one million dollars each year. The PNP gets government contractors to pay the bill. InAlbuquerque, the Plaza in downtown Albuquerque had island Puerto Rico entertainment during theLULAC convention there in 2010. Several banquets were hosted by island Puerto Rico. Many mainlandLULACers have given up on the national conventions, why go and spend money if the elections will bedecided by the Puerto Rican PNP.

The history of LULAC has LULAC organized in states throughout the US. The strongest stateorganization of LULAC is Texas, the LULAC cradle.

The current battle in LULAC is to figure out how national LULAC can control Texas LULAC.

In 2011 as we got into the Texas redistricting fight, the word went out from Luis Vera, nationalLULAC's legal counsel, that Texas LULAC should not self-direct its Texas redistricting strategy. TexasLULAC wanted to join the Texas Latino Redistricting Task Force (TLRTF). Luis Vera sent out a moredirect letter. Do not join the TLRTF or heads will roll. The Texas LULAC Board voted to have TexasLULAC join the TLRTF. In response to this decision, Luis Vera engineered a complaint against JoeyCrdenas, the State Director of Texas LULAC. The complaint resulted in a hearing to impeach JoeyCardenas on October 1, 2011. The hearing was rigged. Joey Crdenas was impeached and removed fromoffice. Crdenas had served as state director for 3 years and was in his 4th year as director, his last. Hehad 9 months to serve out his term. He had no challenger


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The national board named Florinda Chvez, the Deputy Director of Texas LULAC, which is the next inline scheme in the organization, as the State Director. Ms. Chvez is on the same page that TexasLULAC is on the matter of the redistricting agreement.

The word on the LULAC street is that the national board will remove Ms. Chavez and replace her with aState Director who dances to the national board's music. On the street LULAC'ers know who that personis.

The purpose of this opinion piece is to ask the question, who is National LULAC and what is its role inthe Texas redistricting process?

Texas LUAC'ers spoke on the Texas redistricting effort. They decided through their board of directors tojoin up with the TLRTF.

What we know of national LULAC is that their politics is controlled by island Puerto Rico money. Why

should that national board be sticking their nose into the Texas redistricting effort?

Luis Vera's only interest in the Texas redistricting effort is to protect the Congressional District ofCongressman Lloyd Doggett.

All of the Latino organizations who joined up to fight for Latino interests in the Texas redistricting fighthave agreed to the redistricting plans that were announced on Monday. The State of Texas is on board.

Luis Vera says...No! With that, National LULAC says...No!

Who is Luis Vera? And who is National LULAC in the Texas redistricting fight when all of the majorLatino organizations are saying that we have an agreement?

National LULAC should be investigated by the Attorney General of Texas for violating the charterprovisions under which LULAC was organized. What is a Texas chartered not for profit organizationdoing being a lobbying agency for island Puerto Rico? What is Luis Vera doing running a lobbyinggame for Lloyd Doggett in the redistricting fight? Is that what national LULAC is all about, becomingthe lobbying arm for causes that are not the causes of mainland Latinos and Texas Latinos?

Who is paying Luis Vera's bill? Lloyd Doggett? National LULAC? Island Puerto Rico? The bill must bein the hundreds of thousands. Who is paying that bill?

The Texas Attorney General should not pay heed to Luis Vera or National LULAC. They are papertigers. The conservatives in Texas LUAC support the State of Texas and the liberals in Texas LULACsupport the agreement that MALDEF was able to work out with the state as the attorney for the TexasLatino Redistricting Task Force. Forget Luis Vera and national LULAC, they are paper tigers.

Island Puerto Rico does not vote in Texas. Island Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States. They donot vote in federal elections. They do not pay federal income taxes. Their per capita is $17, 692, 1/3 ofthe US and they fly 340 delegates to LULAC conventions in the US, some in first class seats. Google r/t


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flights from San Juan to El Paso, Albuquerque, Dallas, Cincinnati to get a feel of the millions of dollarsthat the PNP has spent to control national LULAC.

Voice of the Mainland

URL:http://voiceofthemainland.blogspot.com/2012/02/luis-vera-does-not-speak-for-texas.html#!/2012/02/luis-vera-

does-not-speak-for-texas.html


By Bernardo Eureste, Editor


6 February 2012

Luis Vera Does Not Speak for Texas LULAC

Luis Vera is the attorney for National LULAC. Vera and Rosa Rosales got the National LULAC Board

to remove Joey Crdenas from his position in Texas LULAC as State Director. National LULAC does

not carry much water with LULACers in Texas. It appears that Vera and Rosales interest was to have

National LULAC be the Latino spear for Lloyd Doggett in the Texas redistricting fight. Rather than

push for a Latino agenda, Vera and National LULAC lost their footing and got into the Texas

redistricting battle to support Doggett. Vera and Rosales dont do anything for free. Texas LULACers

supported Joey Crdenas and the Texas LULAC Board who decided to join up with the Texas Latino

Redistricting Task Force in the late summer of 2011. Joey Crdenas had charges drummed up against

him by Vera and Rosales and had Crdenas impeached by the National LULAC Board in October 2011.

National LULAC is controlled by money that is pumped in from the political right of Puerto Rico, where

the government party, the PNP pumps about $1,000,000 to fly island Puerto Ricans to national LULAC

conventions where they outdo the liberal base in mainland LULAC, which is about 70 to 75 of the

delegate count in national conventions. In 1994, island Puerto Rico flew in 325 island Puerto Rico

delegates to the convention in El Paso. They block voted to give the election by 4 votes to a conservative

mainland LULACer. They repeated this strategy in 1995, 1996, 1997 and then again in 1998. In 1998,

they brought in 340 delegates, about 40% of the delegates to the national convention in Dallas. Again,the winning margin was 16 votes for the conservative mainland LULACer who won. The US federal

government, FBI, took down politicians in Puerto Rico in late 1999 through 2001. Island Puerto Rico

was not active in national LULAC until 2010, where they brought 225 delegates to the national

convention to Albuquerque. Again, the conservative LULACer won, Margaret Moran. Luis Vera does

not speak for Texas LULACers.

Bernardo Eureste
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Editor

http://voiceofthemainland.blogspot.com/


URL:http://voiceofthemainland.blogspot.com/2011/07/charges-made-by-members-of-lulac.html#!/2011/07/charges-made-by-members-of-lulac.html


The Charges Made by Members of the LULAC National

Board against Editor on August 28, 2010

By Bernardo Eureste, EditorVoice of the Mainland

4 July 2011

Below you will find a copy of the charges presented by members of the National LULAC Board that

resulted in a hearing held by National to expel the Editor on October 2, 2010. The persons responsible

for the charges are:

Sylvia Gonzales, LULAC National VP for Southwest

Juan Carlos Lizardi, National VP for Southeast

Rolando Gonzalez, National VP for the Elderly

Manuel Rendon, National VP for Young Adults

Magadena Rivera, National VP for Midwest

Esther Degraves , National VP for Northeast

Regla Gonzalez, National VP for Women

Toula Politis Lugo, National Chaplain

Mickie S. Luna, National VP for Farwest

Bertha Urteaga, National VP for Youth

Your responses have been very supportive. I need the address for Manuel Rendn.

I have had several persons asking to be coordinators of any fundraising efforts that might be needed. The

filing against 14 defendants will run at about $1,300.00. The coordinator/s of that effort will be

announced later this week.

I have already written the petition. The facts of the case are clear. The procedure used to expel the

Editor, a member of LULAC, not an office holder is bad. If LULAC were a government, members of
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LULAC could be summarily subjected to midnight raids, taken to the gulag and having the keys thrown

away, like what the German Nazis did to Eurorpeans from 1935 through 1945, what Porfirio Diaz did to

the Maderistas in 1905-1910, what Stalin did to his countrymen in the 1940's and '50's.

LULAC is a civic organization. It has a constitution and a set of by-laws. All members of LULAC are

guided by the constitution as to the duties and rights of officers and members of the organization.LULAC has very clearly drawn out sections in its constitution on how to impeach or remove officers.

Removing members involves a process that starts at the council level. This is the protection that lowly

LULAC members have against tyrant officers in the organization, at any level, at district, at state or at

national. Like the Editor, his problem is with the national board, not with state, district or council. To

expel the Editor, LULAC needed to get members of LULAC Council 612 to initiate a process to

impeach him, to remove him from his council. The district director could not initiate the process, neither

could the state, and neither could the national. The constitution has the step printed in its constitution at

Article VIII, Section 8, subsection b, sub-subsection (2)

"b. Charges against a member or officer may be brought by a Local Council, a member, or anotherofficer, following the guidelines below:

"[F]ollowing the guidelines below" in "b." above should mean something to a LULAC member. The

constitution is his protection, his guide, his rule book, his company's rules.

"(2) Charges against Officers at District, State and National levels and Local Councils shall forward

their charges directly to the National President. Charges against members shall be presented at the

council level;"

A member may be removed in LULAC, but the action, "Charges against members shall be presented atthe council level;" The word "shall" has no equivocation in law.

The LULAC procedure for removing a LULAC person is spelled out in Section 8.b.1 through 9.

b. Charges against a member or officer may be brought by a

(2) Charges against Officers at District, State and National levels and Local Councils shall forward their

charges directly to the National President. Charges against members shall be presented at the council

level;

(3) If the accused is the National President the charges shall be forwarded to the National Treasurer or

any National Vice President;

(4) The National President or the National Treasurer or any National Vice President, upon the receipt of

the charges, shall inform the accused and schedule a hearing for the next meeting of the National Board

of Directors.


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(5) If the National Board of Directors determines that there is reasonable cause to support the charges,

the

case will be dismissed and all references to the charges will be stricken from the record;

(6) If the National Board of Directors determines that there is reasonable cause to support the charges

the National Officer shall be removed from office and this decision will be final;

(7) If the National Board of Directors determines that the accused should also be expelled from the

League, the accused shall have the right to appeal this decision to the National Assembly;

(8) The decision of the National Assembly rendered by a majority vote shall be final;

(9) The accused shall have the right to legal counsel at the hearing before the National Board of

Directors and the National Assembly guidelines below:

(1) Charges must be in writing, sworn to by the individual or council and giving the name of the accused

and the details of causes;

Section 8.b.(9) states very clearly that at a hearing before the board, once you get there, the accused shall

have a right to counsel. A right to counsel was denied the Editor in the telephonic hearing that was held

on October 2, 2010.

Section 8.b.7 states that if the National Board of Directors determines that the accused should be

removed, the "accused shall have the right to appeal this decision to the National Assembly." The

procedure is very "American," but its applied like the Syrian, the Iranian, the Nazi government or

Stalin's government in Russia might have applied it. Summary proceedings, remove the "bastard," off to

the gulag with him,

Section 8.b.(7) If the National Board of Directors determines that the accused should also be expelled

from the League, the accused shall have the right to appeal this decision to the National Assembly;

The Editor was never notified of the Board's action on October 2, 2010. Had he been notified, he would

have appealed the decision to the national assembly.

As you will recall, LULAC was a defunct organization from April 8, 2005 through October 14, 2010.

The Texas Secretary of State had involuntarily dissolved the organization for that period of time.

LULAC as a legal entity ceased to exist on April 8, 2005. Acts for, against, on behalf of LULAC have

no legal standing without a corporate charter. LULAC had no corporate charter during this time period.A mangy dog could have come from the street and pissed all over LULAC from April 8, 2005 to

October 14, 2010 and LULAC, as an organization, would not have been able to mount a legal challenge.

Losing corporate status is serious business. You lose legal standing. If someone wanted to sue LULAC

during that time, you would sue the individuals who were the last persons on the board of the

organization during that time period. If persons acted on behalf of the organization during that time


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period and you wanted to sue the organization for acts or omissions, you would sue the individuals on

the board at the time.

If you are a dissolved organization, the corporation or business entity is informed by the Secretary of

State or by the Texas State Comptroller that the organization is to cease conducting business. LULAC

knew by October 2, 2010 that it did not have a state charter to conduct business. The Editor wroteseveral articles about this dissolved status weeks before that date.

Any article that the Editor wrote from April 8, 2005 through October 14, 2010 that was critical against

LULAC would be like the dog pissing on the stairs of LULAC. The organization had no standing. It had

no legal right to conduct business during that time period.

The Editor's lawsuit is filed against members of the board as individuals. In filing charges against the

Editor, they were acting as individuals.

The Editor will add all members of the Board who actually voted to expel the Editor. They will sued be

individually.

LULAC is included in the lawsuit because the Board became legal tender on October 14, 2010. The

complaint against LULAC is that LULAC did not expel the Editor according to the process that is laid

out in the LULAC Constitution.

The Editor does not believe that the National Board of LULAC has summary powers to have its

members expelled from the organization at will.

You should have been witness to the hearing that was conducted by National in expelling the editor. The

telephone conversation opened with Manuel Escobar talking to the Editor. Escobar is some sort of legal

counsel for national LULAC. When the Editor got on line, Escobar said you will have five minutes to

make your presentation to the Board. The charges were not read out to the Editor. The standard

procedural tradition in criminal proceeding is that the charge is read out to the accused. The party who

takes responsibility for making the charges is identified. Once the charges are read out, you are given

time to present your case, you defense.

All of you have seen enough TV, watched enough movies, read enough books and articles about being

presented with your accuser. Even Abu Ghraib terrorists are given such rights. Who is your accuser?

What are the charges?

One of the charges leveled against the Editor was "(7) Improper or immoral conduct." The charge was

not explained or elaborated on before the Editor. That charge covers a massive area of misbehavior.

What was it that the Editor do to fall into that charge? The Editor was not told.

Not at LULAC, "you have 5 minutes to present your case." The Editor asked Escobar that he would like

his legal counsel, Roger Guevara, an attorney from San Antonio, to represent him in the proceeding and


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the response from Escobar was that that would not be permitted. The Editor made a 3 minute

presentation and the hearing for the Editor ended. There were no questions from the Board, no

discussion that the Editor could hear what was being said about him.

Expelling a member of LULAC at the national board is rare, very likely the first. Its the first time that a

lowly member has had an expulsion initiated by national and concluded at national.

The Editor feels that his case is summary judgment proof.

In the case, Bernardo Eureste versus the 14 named defendants, Eureste, the Editor here, represents the

interests of the "lowly" members of LULAC. Eureste has a BA in political science, a master of social

work from Michigan, a master in public health from Michigan, a doctorate of juris prudence from

Thurgood Marshall School of Law, is a former graduate professor at Our Lady of the Lake University in

San Antonio and a former City Council member, representing District 5 in San Antonio's west side for 8

years. Eureste might be a lowly member of LULAC, but he is not a lowly person. Eureste is not afraid of

a fight. He will stand his ground. He will fight this issue to the end. The Editor's objective is to get re-instated into LULAC. There are better things to do in life. But this is a good fight. Eureste has the high

ground. He is fighting abuse, arrogance, greed, intimidation, corruption from a LULAC national board

that wants to run him, a lowly memebr of LULAC, into the ground. The board wants to use Eureste as

an example of what can happen to members who speak their mind in the organization. That is not going

to happen. The Editor is not going away. Bernardo Eureste is not going away.


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Historia Chicana

Mexican American StudiesUniversity of North Texas

Denton, Texas

The Editor to the Texas Atty Gen to the FBI Voice of the Mainland 2 8 12

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