Venceremos (political organization)

Venceremos (Spanish for "We will be victorious") was an American far-left and primarily Chicano political group active in the Palo Alto, California area from 1969 to 1973.

[1] The organization was founded in 1966 by Aaron Manganiello (a former Brown Beret[2]) as a largely Latino left-wing group; it evolved to an increasingly Maoist/Communist brigade.

[citation needed] In 1971 they were joined by a faction of the Maoist organization Revolutionary Union (RU), led by H. Bruce Franklin, a Stanford University English professor.

"[5] Venceremos publicly advocated armed self-defense by the citizenry, community control of the police, and reform of the prison system.

To these ends, the group's members engaged in a number of legal activities, such as working to educate prisoners and defend Vietnam War protesters.

Beaty was freed when Venceremos member, 23-year-old Robert Seabok, shot both guards at point blank range, killing Jesus Sanchez and wounding his partner George Fitzgerald.

A total of fourteen people were arrested; twelve were charged either with murder or, as was Franklin, with harboring Beaty, classified as a federal fugitive.

Calling himself General Field Marshal Cinque, he co-founded the Symbionese Liberation Army with Patricia Soltysik, a white woman, and a few mostly white associates he met as a prisoner and member of the Black Cultural Association at Vacaville Prison, including former Venceremos members Joe Remiro and Willie Wolfe.