Meet Our New Radical Ambassador to El Salvador: Maria del Carmen Aponte

Yesterday on August 19th Obama took advantage of the Senate’s recess to push through four people for political positions by Recess Appointment. One of the four raised a few eyebrows, and for good reason. She is Maria del Carmen Aponte and she is now our Ambassador to El Salvador. First the Official Story.

On December 9th 2009 Obama nominated her for the position, but has been unable to get her through the Senate and you will see why.  She was appointed with the following announcement and bio: (Emphasis mine)

President Obama Announces Recess Appointments to Key Administration Posts. Four Appointees Have Waited an Average of 303 Days for Senate Confirmation.

WASHINGTON – President Obama announced today his intent to recess appoint four nominees to fill key administration posts that have been left vacant for an extended period of time.

“At a time when our nation faces so many pressing challenges, I urge members of the Senate to stop playing politics with our highly qualified nominees, and fulfill their responsibilities of advice and consent,” President Obama said. “Until they do, I reserve the right to act within my authority to do what is best for the American people.”

The President announced his intent to recess appoint the following nominees:

Maria del Carmen Aponte, Nominee for Chief of Mission, Republic of El Salvador
Maria del Carmen Aponte is currently an attorney and independent consultant with Aponte Consulting and serves on the Board of Directors of Oriental Financial Group. From 2001-2004, Ms. Aponte was the Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA). Prior to that, she practiced law for nearly twenty years with Washington D.C. based law firms. Ms. Aponte also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of La Raza, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the University of the District of Columbia. She is also a member of the Board of Rosemont College. She served as president of the Hispanic National Bar Association; the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia; and as a member of the District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Commission. In 1979, as a White House Fellow, Ms. Aponte was Special Assistant to United States Housing and Urban Development Secretary Moon Landrieu. Ms. Aponte has a B.A. in Political Science from Rosemont College, an M.A. in Theatre from Villanova University, and a J.D. from Temple University.

So a former Board Member of Radical La Raza (The Race) is now our Ambassador to El Salvador. Let’s take an indepth look into La Raza before we get back to Mrs Aponte. From Discover the Networks:

Founded in 1968 as the Southwest Council of La Raza, the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States. It works “to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans,” who are, in its estimation, an oppressed minority that suffers much injustice and discrimination in American society. Through its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations, NCLR is active in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. To achieve its mission, NCLR conducts applied research, policy analysis, and advocacy, “providing a Latino perspective” in the following areas:

• Advocacy and Electoral Empowerment: In an effort “to reduce poverty and discrimination and improve life opportunities for Hispanics,” NCLR works for “increased Latino participation in the political process.”
• Civil Rights and Justice: “Discrimination severely limits the economic and social opportunities available to Hispanic Americans. NCLR [seeks] to promote and protect equality of opportunity in voting, justice issues, education, employment, housing, and health care for all Americans.”
• Community and Family Wealth-Building: Lamenting the Hispanic community’s “lack of access to capital,” this program aims “to measurably increase the level of … assets” held by that demographic. Toward that end, NCLR has initiated America’s largest Hispanic Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI) to provide low-cost capital.
• Education: This program “focuses its investment in the areas of early childhood education and high-school reform, where the disparity between Latinos and other groups is greatest. NCLR [engages in] advocacy for policy outcomes that will make the nation’s public school system more responsive to the needs of Latino children.” NCLR also supports the DREAM Act, which is designed to allow illegal aliens to attend college at the reduced tuition rates normally reserved for in-state legal residents.
• Employment and Economic Opportunities: This initiative “seeks to advance the economic well-being of Latinos by focusing its program and policy work on closing the employment and skills gaps between Latinos and other Americans … [and] in increasing access to federally-funded job training services and opportunities for Latino workers.”
• Farmworkers: “NCLR conducts policy analyses and advocacy activities in this area in order to improve conditions and opportunities for the nation’s farmworkers. NCLR also works very closely with the Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc. a national advocacy group for migrant and seasonal workers [illegal aliens].”
• Health and Family Support: NCLR collaborates with a variety of organizations — state, local, and national — to promote “reform” that would give illegal immigrants full access to taxpayer-funded health care services.
• Immigration: NCLR strives “to encourage immigration policies that are fair and nondiscriminatory, to encourage family reunification, and to enact necessary reforms to the current immigration system.” In short, it favors amnesty for illegals already residing in the U.S., and open borders henceforth. In La Raza’s calculus, any restriction on the free movement of immigrants constitutes a violation of their civil rights, and any reduction in government assistance to illegal border-crossers is “a disgrace to American values.” Thus La Raza supports continued mass Mexican immigration to the United States, and hopes to achieve, by the sheer weight of numbers, the re-partition of the American Southwest as a new state called Aztlan — to be controlled by its alleged rightful owners, the people and government of Mexico. La Raza is also a sponsoring organization of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride Coalition, which seeks to secure ever-expanding rights and civil liberties protections for illegal immigrants, and policy reforms that diminish or eliminate future restrictions on immigration. At many of the “pro-immigration” rallies that NCLR members have attended in recent times, their signature slogan has been: “La Raza unida nunca sera vencida!” (“The united [Hispanic] race will never be defeated!”)

With regard to national security concerns, NCLR has strongly opposed most of the U.S. government’s post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts, alleging that they have “undermined” the rights of “noncitizen Latinos.” For example: La Raza was a signatory to a March 17, 2003 letter exhorting members of the U.S. Congress to oppose Patriot Act II on grounds that it “contain[ed] a multitude of new and sweeping law enforcement and intelligence gathering powers … that would severely dilute, if not undermine, many basic constitutional rights”; it has endorsed the Community Resolution to Protect Civil Liberties campaign, a project that tries to influence city councils to pass resolutions to be non-compliant with the provisions of the Patriot Act; it endorsed the December 18, 2001 “Statement of Solidarity with Migrants,” which was drawn up by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and called upon the U.S. government to “end discriminatory policies passed on the basis of legal status in the wake of September 11”; and it endorsed the Civil Liberties Restoration Act of 2004, which was designed to roll back, in the name of protecting civil liberties, vital national-security policies that had been adopted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

NCLR’s major policy positions also include the following:

• It supports access to driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.
• It opposes the REAL ID Act, which requires that all driver’s license and photo ID applicants be able to verify they are legal residents of the United States, and that the documents they present to prove their identity are genuine. According to La Raza, this law “opens the door to widespread discrimination and civil rights violations.”
• It opposes the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act (CLEAR), which would empower state and local law-enforcement authorities to enforce federal immigration laws. La Raza argues this would “result in higher levels of racial profiling, police misconduct, and other civil rights violations.”
• It lobbies for racial and ethnic preferences (affirmative action) and set-asides in hiring, promotions, and college admissions.
• It supports bilingual education and bilingual ballots.
• It supports voting rights for illegal aliens.
• It supports stricter hate-crime laws.
• It opposes the Aviation Transportation and Security Act requiring that all airport baggage screeners be U.S. citizens.

It opposed President Bush’s signing of the “Secure Fence Act of 2006” which authorized 700 miles of new border fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.

As columnist Michelle Malkin reports, La Raza seeks to inculcate young people with its worldview by funding a number of charter schools that advocate ethnic separatism and anti-American, anti-white attitudes.

The organization’s current President is Janet Murquia, who worked at the White House in various capacities from 1994 to 2000, ultimately as deputy assistant to President Bill Clinton. Immediately prior to joining NCLR, she was the Executive Vice Chancellor for University Relations at the University of Kansas.

At the March 2008 “Take Back America” conference sponsored by Campaign for America’s Future (CAF), NCLR joined CAF and five additional leftist organizations in announcing plans for “the most expensive [$350 million] mobilization in history this election season.” The initiative focused on voter registration, education, and get-out-the-vote drives. Other members of the coalition included MoveOn.org, Rock the Vote, ACORN, the Women’s Voices Women Vote Action Fund, and the AFL-CIO.

If theres any confusion what La Raza represents heres a couple videos. First up in 2006 their President tried to defend their illegal policies regarding illegal aliens.

And next, the Radical side. Ron Gochez calling for a Communist Revolution against “Frail, racist white people” I don’t have a date for this but have heard around 2005

If you think she severed all ties to them, think again. NCLR issued a press release in honor of her appointment:

Washington, DC—NCLR (National Council of La Raza), the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, applauds President Obama’s decision to move forward with a Recess Appointment of Maria del Carmen Aponte, as the next U.S. Chief of Mission to the Republic of El Salvador.

The Hispanic community celebrated Ms. Aponte’s nomination last December as a positive step forward in the relationship between the United States and El Salvador; she was further welcomed by informed observers on U.S.-Latin American relations along the entire political spectrum as an inspired choice. Her distinguished career in the private sector, through her law practice, and in public service at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and in heading the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, make her uniquely qualified for this distinguished honor.

In addition, Ms. Aponte has a strong history of personal and professional leadership in the U.S. Latino community, specifically through her service on the board of directors of numerous national Hispanic-serving organizations, including her election as the first female Chair of the Hispanic National Bar Association.

“Ms. Aponte’s familiarity with the Salvadoran-American community makes her a natural choice for U.S. Chief of Mission to El Salvador,” said Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO. “The Senate’s delay in concluding her confirmation process has been unacceptable to the United State’s national interests and it is hard for us to believe, absent any evidence to the contrary, that any legitimate concerns can explain the repeated delays to which this nomination has been subjected.”

Following the approval of her nomination by the Foreign Relations Committee in April, Ms. Aponte’s confirmation vote was delayed by an anonymous “hold.” During her confirmation hearing in March, which was itself the subject of several delays, Ms. Aponte was questioned in detail by members of the Senate about a 20-years-gone romantic relationship with a Cuban national, then employed by the Cuban Interests Section. The FBI first investigated this issue in 1999, after which Ms. Aponte was granted a diplomatic security clearance and nominated for an ambassadorial position. She was again successfully vetted in 2009 by the FBI and the State Department, leading to her current nomination.

“The president’s decision to move forward with Ms. Aponte’s appointment should serve as a strong reminder to some members of the Senate that political games are never acceptable where our nation’s future is concerned,” concluded Murguía.

Now for more detail into why she was not confirmed in the Senate we turn to the Washington Post:

The most contentious of the appointments is Maria del Carmen Aponte, the administration’s pick for ambassador to El Salvador.

Senate Republicans questioned her during a March confirmation hearing about a former romantic relationship with a Cuban national connected to Cuban intelligence.

She denied any contact with Cuban intelligence officials but said she met some Cuban officials socially over the course of the relationship.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and other Republicans later placed a hold on Aponte’s nomination as they sought additional information about her background.

“The White House continued to deny senators information, despite numerous requests, and then recess appoints her to circumvent the advice and consent process. So much for transparency and accountability,” said DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton.

Ok lets add it all up. We have a former board member of a radical Communist organization that admits ties to Cuban officials but not to Cuban intelligence officials going to represent the United States in the Powder Keg of Central America where half the countries basically swear allegiance to Hugo Chavez. Hugo Chavez pays homage to Fidel Castro, his mentor,every chance he gets. Any tie to Castro is a direct line to Hugo Chavez. He has been buying up more tanks jet fighters and weapons then he can afford from Russia and China and in addition to his Socialist Empire has significant ties to Iran and various South American and Islamic terrorist organizations. Hugo Chavez has brought a defacto Cold War to Central & South America in his pursuit of a Socialist Empire and I fear this ambassadorial pick will play right into his hands.

Video references:

President Defends Illegal Immigration

Ron Gochez calling for Communist Revolution