Gabe Cazares

Gabriel Cazares (January 31, 1920 – September 29, 2006) was a mayor of Clearwater, Florida, a Pinellas County commissioner, a civil rights advocate, and a critic of the Church of Scientology. He died in Clearwater at the age of 86.

Early life Cazares was born to Mexican parents on 31 January 1920, in Alpine, Texas, as one of nine children. His family moved to Los Angeles, where he worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps. He attended Los Angeles City College on a track scholarship, where he set a record for the junior college 2-mile run which stood for 11 years. He also attended Fresno State College and Texas Christian University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology, and the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his master's degree in business management from Jackson College in Honolulu, Hawaii. Much of his college work was complete while he was in the military. He joined the Army Air Forces in 1941 three weeks after the attacks on Pearl Harbor and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Political career Cazares retired from military service in 1966 to become a stockbroker. He moved to Clearwater, Florida soon afterwards and became a social activist, campaigning for desegregation and improved housing for minorities. The St. Petersburg Times won a Pulitzer Prize for one story exposing the wrongdoings of the Church of Scientology. A 1977 FBI raid on Scientology headquarters uncovered internal documents marked "Top Secret" that referred to their operation to take over Clearwater as "Project Normandy." The FBI uncovered information about "Operation Freakout," an operation intended to get Scientology critic Paulette Cooper committed to a mental hospital. The raid revealed "Operation Snow White," where the Church of Scientology planned to infiltrate federal and state government offices in order to steal documents which reflected negatively on Church founder L. Ron Hubbard, or the Church of Scientology. The raid resulted in 11 top leaders of the church in jail. Cazares said it was odd that a religious group would use code names for a project to take control of a town, and called the project a "paramilitary operation by a terrorist group."

Harassment by the Church The Church of Scientology planned to smear Cazares. Cazares questioned the church's motives, its purchases of downtown property using fictitious names, and the way its security guards carried Billy clubs and mace. and "Speedy Gonzalez." These Scientology documents also revealed that church members had staged a false hit-and-run accident with Cazares in an attempt to discredit him.

Cazares and his wife sued the Church of Scientology for $1.5 million. The church settled with Cazares in 1986.