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March 19, 1971

Press Release from the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty

This document was made possible with support from Kyungnam University

Office of Los Angeles

Mayor Sam Yorty

Los Angeles, California 20012

Tel: […]

Tom Jardine

Edwin Louie

Ralph Clark

 

NEWS

 

March 19, 1971

 

Mayor Sam Yorty today praised the Mexican government for its speedy action in breaking up a plot by North Korean-trained Mexican guerrillas to overthrow the government and establish a communist regime.

 

"Its vigilance in ferreting out the guerrillas, bringing them to justice, tracing a subversive center to the Soviet embassy in Mexico and courageously ordering five Communist embassy officials out of the country is a courageous action,” said Yorty.

 

“I wish our government exercised the same alertness and decisiveness" said the Mayor.

 

"The Mexican effort to eliminate Russian subversive activity is important to the whole hemisphere. We are fortunate to have such an alert and courageous government in Mexico led by President Luis Echeverria Alvarez, with whom I discussed the problem of international subversive activity when I visited him in Mexico after his election,” he said.

 

"He is turning out to be the great leader his friends and supporters predicted he would be," he added.

 

Mexican police on Tuesday arrested 20 Mexican subversives who had been trained in Communist North Korea with soviet assistance.

 

Mexico's Attorney General Julio Sanchez said the suspects, when arrested, had in their possession M-1 rifles, pistols, about 1,000 shells, a short wave radio, a mimeograph machine, binoculars and even equipment for minor surgery.

 

Sanchez Vargas, according to news dispatches, said the guerrillas left Mexico to study at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow where they had received grants , but in reality were organizing and studying in a camp about 25 miles from Pyongyang, the Communist North Korean capital.

 

The attorney general said the suspects received training in three courses, each one lasting six months to a year. The training included guerrilla techniques, sabotage, and terrorism.

 

In the wake of the arrest of 20 guerrillas, the Mexican government yesterday ordered five Soviet diplomats to leave the country, apparently, in retaliation for Soviet complicity in the case.

 

EL/mg

 

This press release quotes Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty as praising the Mexican government for its effectiveness in clamping down on Communist guerrillas trained in North Korea, action he sees as part of a broader effort to eliminate Russian subversive activity in the hemisphere.

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Document Information

Source

AGN, Fondo Presidentes, Archivo Luis Echeverría Álvarez, caja 2196, sin números de fojas. Obtained by Manuel Guerra de Luna.

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2017-02-23

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134862

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