Scores of antigovernment militiamen occupied a wildlife reserve in Oregon for a second night on Sunday, warning that their protest against the jailing of two ranchers could last months.
The group — thought to number up to 100 — on Saturday began occupying the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon after a rally in support of ranchers Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven, 46, who were jailed over fires on federal land in the area.
The local sheriff’s department on Sunday said in a statement that the building’s seizure was an effort by the group to instigate a confrontation with authorities.
“These men came to Harney County claiming to be part of militia groups supporting local ranchers, when in reality these men had alternative motives to attempt to overthrow the county and federal government in hopes to spark a movement across the United States,” Harney County Sheriff David Ward said in the statement.
He added that efforts were under way to resolve the standoff “as quickly and peaceful as possible.”
However, there was on Sunday night no visible police presence at the reserve, where several militiamen in vehicles guarded the entrance, while others kept watch from a lookout tower.
There have also been no reports so far of any confrontation around the facility, which was closed when the militia moved in.
The Oregonian news Web site reported that the FBI was handling the case.
The protesters holed up inside the refuge — a loose-knit grouping of antigovernment farmers, ranchers and survivalists — said they planned no violence, but would not rule out armed resistance if authorities stormed the site.
School was canceled in the area for the week and the county courthouse said it would be closed yesterday “for security reasons.”
One of the protest leaders is Ammon Bundy, the 40-year-old son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was at the center of an armed antigovernment standoff with authorities in 2014 over grazing rights on public lands. The younger Bundy, who spoke by telephone with CNN on Sunday, called on the government to restore the “people’s constitutional rights.”
His brother Ryan and others in the group have demanded that the Hammonds, who have been ordered to report to a federal prison yesterday, be spared jail and that the government relinquish control of the Malheur reserve.
It was unclear how many of the protestors, if any, were armed.
“We have no intentions of using force upon anyone, [but] if force is used against us, we would defend ourselves,” Ammon Bundy said.
The Hammonds were convicted of arson after lighting what they said was a controlled fire on their ranch in Harney County that spread to government land.
However, witnesses at their trial said that Steven Hammond had illegally slaughtered deer on federal property during a hunting expedition and then handed out matches in order to “light up the whole country on fire,” according to a US Department of Justice statement. The fire consumed 139 acres of public land.
The pair were freed after the father had served three months in prison and his son had served a year, according to local media.
When a judge, in an appeal, ruled in October last year that a five-year sentence was justified and ordered them back to prison to serve the balance, militia groups responded angrily.
After a peaceful rally on Saturday in the town of Burns, a group of demonstrators advanced on the sprawling Malheur reserve about 50km to the southeast, where wild horses, pronghorns and other creatures roam free.
Ammon Bundy told the Oregonian by telephone that the protesters had no intention of leaving anytime soon.
“We’re planning on staying here for years, absolutely,” he said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS