Members of the Justice Department in Washington find themselves investigating a claim of intimidation against Latino voters in the locality of Penns Grove days before the primary elections were held on June 5.

The accusation is based on a flyer that was sent by mail to African-American voters, in which they were told, literally, “We need you to come to the polls on June 5th (next week). We cannot afford to sit home and let Penns Grove be turned over to the Puerto Ricans.”

The flyer goes on to say, “The Puerto Rican, [Abner Mendoza, who was running for mayor] backed by the Scarpacis, has only been in this country for nine years. What debt has he paid to society? What is he going to do for the Afro-Americans? Nothing. It will all be about Puerto Ricans.”

For this action, the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey denounced the Salem County Coalition, whose initials (SCC) provided the signatures to the missive, for distributing this sort of hate literature against the Puerto Rican community of Penns Grove.

Abner Mendoza, an intermediate school Spanish teacher and Puerto Rican candidate who lost the primary election to Mayor John Washington, accused Washington of being responsible for the letter. “The attack was against me personally, but it involved the whole community. The comments were racial and very radical. It pitted two minority communities against each other.”

Washington, who has been mayor for 22 years, could not be located by El Diario / La Prensa for comment.

Martín Pérez, president of the above-mentioned Alliance, said that “it seems unbelievable that at a time when the right to vote is a fundamental issue, this sort of action can come from a mayor who belongs to a minority group.”

He emphasized “we need to determine if there was a concerted effort to intimidate Latino voters with the intention of suppressing their participation in the election. We are asking the authorities to determine whether the actions of the Salem County Coalition violated the laws.”

Pérez indicated that “members of our organization in the County of Salem have been meeting with officials from the elections division, which is part of the Attorney General's office. Later we received a letter saying that the matter has been turned over to the County Attorney, but to date, they have not made any announcement. We are also appealing to the office of the New Jersey Federal Attorney.”

The Department of Justice in Washington did not officially confirm the investigation, but several people interviewed by this newspaper assured us that they were being contacted by Justice Department personnel.

The State Attorney General's office of communications said that “the case of apparent intimidation against the Latino voters of Penns Grove has been referred to the racial crimes unit, which is part of the Attorney General's office.”

Etzion Neuer, regional director of the New Jersey Anti-Defamation League, stated that “appealing to voters – a positively or negatively – based on race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender, or sexual orientation is contrary to the American ideal.”

Meanwhile, Margarita Rodríguez, a community leader in Penns Grove, said, “Since the flyers were distributed, there has been a great deal of intimidation against the Hispanic community, to the point where many people decided not to go out to vote and others felt offended.”