Venceremos (, Spanish for "We shall win") was an American far-left and primarily Chicano political group active in the Palo Alto, California area from 1969 to 1973. In 1972 members of the group killed a federal prison guard while attempting to free an inmate from custody.
History
The organization was founded in 1966 by Aaron Manganiello (a former Brown Beret) as a largely Latino left-wing group; it evolved to an increasingly Maoist/Communist group. According to Franklin, "... these collectives had been heavily involved in youth organizing within white proletarian communities, in factory organizing and in anti-imperialist struggles on the campuses. [...] The new combined organization was multi-national, extremely diversified in its activities and base, and quite militant."
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. The organization's ultimate stated goal was the overthrow of the government. The House Committee on Internal Security considered Venceremos a serious political threat, as described in its 202-page report America's Maoists: the Revolutionary Union, the Venceremos Organization (1972).
Venceremos members often participated in City Council and School Board meetings in Palo Alto with a verbal aggressiveness rarely seen before in the city's politics. Member Jeffrey Youdelman was known for offensive shouting down of council members and presenting petitions for radical left causes. Venceremos members ran for local office in Palo Alto, including Jean Hobson and Youdelman who unsuccessfully
During this period, Venceremos held weekly rallies at Lytton Plaza in Palo Alto, which they dubbed "The People's Plaza." In May 1971, Venceremos's Easter Division drifted away from the center and began organizing through the United Farm Workers union.
A small group of Venceremos members attempted to free a federal prisoner on October 6, 1972; several members were involved in the murder, which hit the headlines. Member Jean Hobson had been romantically linked to federal prison inmate Ronald Beaty, who was incarcerated at Chino Prison. She and other Venceremos members made a plan to gain Beaty's escape. According to police and Beaty, who became the prosecution's star witness, two unarmed prison guards were taking Beaty to a court appearance in San Bernardino when their vehicle was ambushed near Chino. 23-year-old Venceremos member Robert Seabok shot both guards at point blank range, killing Jesus Sanchez and wounding his partner George Fitzgerald.
After the police captured Beaty and Hobson nearly a month later, Beaty named Venceremos members Hobson, Seabok, Andrea Holman Burt, and Benton Burt as the perpetrators of the fatal assault on the prison guards. Former professor H. Bruce Franklin, four Venceremos members, and three Arizona residents were arrested in this case in late December 1972. 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.
The Communist Party USA (Provisional) also traces its origins to the 1973 split within Venceremos.