Oregon. The leaders of the occupation are sons of Cliven Bundy, whose standoff with federal officials in 2014 in Nevada may have emboldened his sons to repeat the effort. Bundy's sons have accused the Bureau of Land Management of harming the livelihood of ranchers--this after two ranchers were sentenced to short prison sentences for setting fires on public grazing land.
The small town of Burns Oregon, population 7,000, has been besieged by gun toting militia men. Others have also flocked to the refuge, including New Mexico’s own Garret Veneklasen. An avid outdoorsman and hunter, Veneklasen is the Executive Director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation.
For those who may be confused about the Cliven Bundy references or why this is an important issue for New Mexico, we've rerun an interview we first aired in the summer of 2014 with Ryan Lenz with the Southern Poverty Law Center. Lenz had just authored a report for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors Hate Groups, called War In The West, on Cliven Bundy and the impact of his actions of western land tensions. We replay that interview now to give context on how right wing militia groups are being emboldened to defy the federal government when it comes to our public lands. To listen, 0000017d-7605-defd-ab7f-f737cdee0000">Click Here.