The Republican Party of New Mexico’s building was blown up and tagged with “ICE = KKK” over the weekend.
The Albuquerque Fire Rescue and Bernalillo County Fire Rescue received a call about a “structure fire” before 6 a.m. on Sunday.
It took personnel five minutes to put out the fire, which destroyed the entryway and ruined the building with smoke damage.
From The Albuquerque Journal:
The Republican Party of New Mexico’s entryway was destroyed by what party chairwoman Amy Barela described as a “deliberate act of arson” in a news release Sunday morning.It is unclear if there are any suspects.”This horrific attack, fueled by hatred and intolerance, is a direct assault on our values, freedoms, and our right to political expression,” Barela said.
The Albuquerque Fire Rescue is conducting an “active arson investigation.” The FBI and ATF are also investigating.
Barela claimed the “investigators told her that a Molotov cocktail was used to start the fire.”
Barela added: “We are deeply relieved that no one was harmed in what could have been a tragic and deadly attack. Those who resort to violence undermine our state and nation must be held accountable, and our state leaders must reinforce through decisive action that these cowardly attacks will not be tolerated.”
The Democratic Party of New Mexico responded:
The Democratic Party of New Mexico condemns “any vandalism at the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters as strongly as possible,” spokesperson Daniel Garcia said in a statement.”We firmly maintain that this sort of act has absolutely no place in our democracy, and that peaceful discourse and organization are the only ways to approach political differences in our country,” Garcia said. “We hope whoever is responsible is found and held accountable.”
This is the third attack on the party in New Mexico since 2017:
In March 2019, the state GOP headquarters was hit by a vandal who spray-painted the word “traitors” on the building. In July 2017, two activists from a radical left group spray-painted an “A” on the headquarter’s sign.
In fact, authorities arrested a former aide to Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham when she served in Congress in 2020 in connection to the 2019 attack.
They later dropped those charges.
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