January 23, 2016 - SILVER CITY, N.M.— In the wake of failed attempts to spark revolution against the federal government with its occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, the Bundy-led militia in a signing ceremony today recruited another rancher, Adrian Sewell, from Silver City, N.M.
Today’s agreement formalizes a plot in which another rancher agrees to illegally stop paying federal grazing fees and armed militia commit to meet resulting federal law enforcement with the threat of violence. Recruiting this New Mexico rancher threatens to up-end civil society and frighten and enrage people in Silver City, just as has occurred in Burns, Ore.
“Southern New Mexico rejects coercion of forest rangers and privatization of public lands,” said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Silver City welcomes visitors who want to share the wonderful Gila National Forest, but we don’t need armed bigots brutalizing our community.”
While their failure to recruit more than a single new rancher into its scheme is notable, the specter of more armed Bundy-militia standoffs in the West — complete with closed schools, shuttered government services and terrorized civilians — is nonetheless troubling.
Today's agreement moves signers and the Bundy militia members from an illegal seizure of federal property to establishing and coordinating an active terrorist network whose aim is to overthrow the federal government.
Kierán Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, is at the Malheur refuge and photographed today’s signing ceremony.
“New Mexico rancher Adrian Sewell will not be thanked for bringing to New Mexico communities the same emotional, physical, economic, cultural and environmental terror that Harney County, Oregon residents continue to suffer during the Malheur refuge occupation,” Robinson said.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 990,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Biological Diversity Reports New Mexico Rancher to Bring Bundy Militia Terror Home
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