A recently declassified document shows that in 1969 a CIA operative visited the University of Arizona campus to conduct a “careful review” of a contract between the university and the federal spy agency. 

The declassified document is labeled by the CIA as “Cable on University of Arizona.” 

Though the two-page document is heavily redacted, it confirms the university was working closely with the agency, focusing on monitoring student activists with the Brown Berets, a Latino social justice organization, and Students for a Democratic Society. 

The document also names the “Latin studies department,” likely a typo of Latin American Studies Department. 

The CIA notes in the document that it had a “contingency plan” to recommend the university president shutter a particular line of research at the university. The field of research is redacted. The university president at the time was Richard Anderson Harvill, who led the university from 1951 to 1971.

A UA student and activist with MECHA, a Latino student group founded in the late 1960s that has a presence at dozens of colleges, told Arizona Luminaria that they weren’t surprised to see proof of the CIA’s connection to the university.  

The student didn’t want to be named because they fear repercussions from the university and law enforcement.

The student activist said police and the university closely monitor student political groups. 

“The fact that we’re educated is why they’re afraid,” the student said. “We challenge the status quo of this country’s existence.”

The revelation about CIA operations on UA campus comes from a larger batch of recently declassified documents, which range from the 1960s to the 1980s and were released in late December on the CIA’s website at the request of U.S. Representatives Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif.. 

Axios first reported on the declassified CIA documents related to UA.

According to a press release issued by the lawmakers, the documents “detail an extensive pattern of CIA surveillance and infiltration directed against students, labor organizers, Chicano civil rights leaders, and advocates for Puerto Rican independence.”

A secret history

While it is now illegal for the CIA to conduct domestic operations, for decades the agency surveilled and even experimented on U.S. citizens. That changed in 1981, with an executive order signed by Ronald Reagan, stipulating that the CIA can no longer legally conduct assassinations and is restricted in how it can operate on U.S. soil.

These disclosures show a pattern of government surveillance against Latino students and activists that was intended to undermine their organizing and crush their nascent political power,” Castro told Arizona Luminaria via email. “The University of Arizona disclosures in particular show that the CIA was putting pressure on university leaders to suppress peaceful free speech on campus and silence the growing voices of Latino students.”

Latin American history professor Alexander Aviña suspects that the CIA was “concerned with Latino movement collaborating with Black Power movement and AIM,” the American Indian Movement. 

Aviña teaches at Arizona State University and is the author of “Specters of Revolution,” which covers Mexican revolutionary groups in the 1960s.

“It’s also about the location of the UA, near the border, that added urgency to surveilling students in Latino studies,” Aviña said.

Aviña added that while the threats against students from the CIA or other federal and local agencies may be different, university leadership is today increasing its surveillance and suppression of student activism.

“We’ve seen since last spring American universities close rank and violate free speech rights of their own students to brutally quell the pro-Palestine movements,” Aviña said.  

After pro-Palestinian protests at UA last spring, campus officials announced rules limiting how students and other activists could protest on campus. 

UA spokesperson Mitch Zak said in an emailed statement: “The University of Arizona celebrates its status as a federally recognized Hispanic Serving Institution and its Green Light rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).” 

“While we cannot address events from over half a century ago, the university today embodies a dynamic and culturally rich environment that fosters an inclusive, supportive, and diverse community,” Zak added. 

An anti-protest crackdown at ASU is currently being investigated by the Department of Justice for potential civil rights violations. MECHA’s ASU chapter was also suspended last spring after a social media post allegedly calling for violence. The post has since been removed.

Given the stakes of current polarization and ongoing tension on campuses, Castro is pushing for more clarity and a different approach from Congress. 

“Every few years, Congress considers legislation to reform or revise the authorities held by U.S. surveillance agencies,” Castro said. “A more complete historical record will also help Congress understand the guardrails needed to protect civil liberties and prevent future overreach.” 

Activists say threats renewed under Trump

Raul Aguirre, a longtime Tucson activist and former member of MECHA, was a student at UA from 1974 to 1978. 

“It’s outrageous,” Aguirre said of the CIA’s operations on campus decades ago. “We were cautious during protests and demonstrations, and we’d be joking, ‘Oh watch out or they’ll open a file on you.’ And I guess it was true.”

Aguirre said that even into the late 1970s as they demonstrated on campus for more Latino inclusion and the establishment of a Chicano Studies department, “We would see people on the roofs taking pictures of us.” He said they guessed they were FBI or CIA, but were never able to confirm. 

“We were exercising our First Amendment rights. We were demonstrating that the institutions were failing us as students. Why do we have to be labeled as suspicious? Why were we seen as radicals? If you are demonstrating against systemic failures, demonstrating on behalf of your civil rights, demonstrating on behalf of people that need to be in power and are not being represented, why would you monitor them?”

Aguirre also said that, given Trump coming back into office, activists, particularly Mexican, Mexican American, and Latino, need to be vigilant.

The current UA MECHA organizer agreed. 

They said members of their organization always go to protests in pairs or groups. They keep an eye on their surroundings, hide their faces and even change clothes. They added that they’ve frequently suspected they’ve been monitored by undercover law enforcement. 

“Our generation is focused on both activism and education,” the MECHA organizer said.

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