Gabe Cazares

Infobox_Politician
name = Gabe Cazares


width = 200px
height = 200px
caption = Gabe Cazares at rally. Placard reads: SOS Save Sparkling Clearwater
birth_date = birth date|1920|1|31|mf=y
birth_place = Alpine, Texas
residence =
death_date = death date and age|2006|9|29|1920|1|31|mf=y
death_place = Clearwater, Florida
office = Mayor of Clearwater, Florida
term_start = 1975
term_end = 1978
predecessor = H. Everett Hougen
successor = Charles F. LeCher
constituency = Clearwater, Florida
office2 = County Commissioner
term_start2 = 1980
term_end2 = 1984
predecessor2 =
successor2 = George Greer
constituency2 = Pinellas County, Florida
office3 =
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term_end3 =
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successor3 =
constituency3 =
party = Democratic party
religion =
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Gabe Cazares (1920-2006) was the former mayor of Clearwater, Florida, a civil rights advocate, and a critic of the Church of Scientology. He died September 29, 2006 in Clearwater at the age of 86.Mike Donila and Robert Farley [http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/30/Northpinellas/For_the_disadvantaged.shtml "For the disadvantaged and against Scientology: Gabe Cazares spoke out, whether it was as Clearwater mayor, to promote civil rights or to fight Scientology."] "St. Petersburg Times" September 30, 2006]

Early history

Gabriel "Gabe" Cazares was born to Mexican parents on 31 January 1920, in Alpine, Texas, as one of nine children. His family moved to Los Angeles, where he worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps. He attended Los Angeles City College on a track scholarship, where set a record for the junior college 2-mile run which stood for 11 years. He also attended Fresno State College and Texas Christian University, were he earned his bachelor of arts degree in sociology, and the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his master's degree in business management from Jackson College in Honolulu, Hawaii. Much of his college work was complete while he was in the military. He joined the Army Air Forces in 1941 after the attacks on Pearl Harbor and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Political career

Cazares retired from military service in 1966 to become a stockbroker. He moved to Clearwater, Florida soon afterwards. In 1975, Cazares entered the mayoral race and won with a resounding victory, considered noteworthy due to being both a Democrat running in a largely Republican city and an ethnic minority in a city that was home to few Hispanics at the time. He ran for Congress twice, losing in 1976 to U.S. Rep. C. W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, and in 1986 to Rep. Mike Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs. Cazares resigned from the mayor's job in 1978, but he rejoined politics two years later as a county commissioner, a post he held until 1984, when he lost the election to Republican George Greer. Greer would later receive national attention as the judge in the controversial Terri Schiavo case.

Cazares was quoted by many newspapers in 1998 after he stated that he felt that the Taco Bell commercials, featuring a Spanish-speaking talking Chihuahua dog, were offensive and demeaning to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.

Cazares again made headlines in 2005, when he criticized TV station CNN for cutting away from a speech by Florida Governor Jeb Bush just as Bush was beginning to repeat a warning about Hurricane Wilma in Spanish after having just made the appeal in English. Cazares felt it was dangerously insensitive to the large population of Spanish-speaking peoples that resided in Florida.

Critic of Scientology

Investigates church

Cazares became an outspoken critic of Scientology after the church decided in 1975 to move major operations into Clearwater (from ships that moved around in the Mediterranean Sea and later the Caribbean). Cazares was suspicious of the group, who were purchasing property under the name "United Churches of Florida." The "United Churches of Florida" leaders told Cazares that they were an ecumenical group that planned to improve the ethics and morality in the Clearwater area, but Cazares wondered why church folks from a "den of iniquity" like Los Angeles, California would travel all the way to Florida to provide Clearwater with moral guidance. Cazares began to investigate the United Churches of Florida and soon discovered that the leaders of the group lied about their intentions. They told Cazares they were renting the historic Fort Harrison Hotel from a group called Southern Land Development Leasing Corporation. Cazares investigated both groups and discovered that both were wholly controlled by Scientologists.

ued by Church of Scientology

Cazares was sued by the Church of Scientology for $1 million after he said that the city was being taken over. Cazares termed the alleged takeover "the occupation of Clearwater." Cazares' suspicions about the group was confirmed by a number of newspapers. On 3 November 1979, the "Clearwater Sun" ran an article with the headline "Scientologists plot city takeover" and later stories claimed that the Scientologists also had international plans to take over the world. ["Clearwater Sun" "Scientologists plot city takeover" 3 November 1979] The "St. Petersburg Times" even won a Pulitzer Prize for one of their stories that exposed the alleged criminal wrongdoings of the Church of Scientology.Project Normandy." The FBI also uncovered information about "Operation Freakout," an operation intended to get Scientology critic Paulette Cooper locked up into a mental hospital. And the raid also revealed information about an "Operation Snow White," wherein the Church of Scientology made plans to infiltrate numerous federal and state government offices. The raid eventually resulted in 11 top leaders of the church in jail. Cazares found it odd that a religious group would resort to using code names for a project to take control of a town, and called the project a "paramilitary operation by a terrorist group." [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5704547942523554352&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en Gabe Cazares video interview for a Clearwater historical society.] ]

Endures harassment

As a result of his questioning, the Church of Scientology made plans to smear him with sex allegations and a phony hit-and-run accident. [ [http://lisatrust.freewinds.cx/legal/snowwhite/USAVMSH%20SENTENCING%20MEMO%201980-01-72.PDF United States of America v. Mary Sue Hubbard, et al.] , Sentencing Memorandum, Criminal Case No. 78-401 (1979), pp. 60-62.] Cazares questioned the church's motives, its purchases of downtown property using fictitious names, and the way its security guards carried Billy clubs and mace. At the Church of Scientology, federal investigators found internal memos outlining plans by church leaders to control public opinion in Clearwater, concoct a sex smear campaign against Mr. Cazares and infiltrate the local media and other institutions called the "Mayor Cazares Handling Project" [ [http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/CoS/docs/handling.html Mayor Cazares Handling Project ] ] and "Speedy Gonzalez." [ [http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/CoS/docs/speedy.html Speedy Gonzalez ] ] These Scientology documents also revealed that church members had staged a phony hit-and-run accident with Mr. Cazares in an attempt to discredit him.

As a result of the harassment Cazares and his wife sued the Church of Scientology for $1.5 million. The church decided against a public trial and instead opted to settle with Cazares in 1986. It was one of several suits between Mr. Cazares and the church over the years.

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtXUz07cYSs Scientology: The Clearwater Conspiracy] , Gabe Cazares featured on 60 Minutes, 1980.
* [http://www.xenutv.com/cw/city-gabe021700.htm Clearwater City Commission Meeting] , Cazares speaks before Clearwater, Florida City Commission, February 17, 2000
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5694888509800082473&q=scientology+duration%3Along Scientology - Above the law?] , Gabe Cazares interviewed (starts at 26:30) in French TV documentary

References