Officials bash rumors that Alamo, other missions will be run by U.N.

Possible designation of the Alamo as a World Heritage site has sparked rumors in recent weeks, via email and social media, that the United Nations would manage the shrine. Possible designation of the Alamo as a World Heritage site has sparked rumors in recent weeks, via email and social media, that the United Nations would manage the shrine. Photo: San Antonio Express-News File Photo Photo: San Antonio Express-News File Photo Image 1 of / 54 Caption Close Officials bash rumors that Alamo, other missions will be run by U.N. 1 / 54 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO – Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, whose office oversees the Alamo, had two key words Wednesday about rumors that the state shrine could fall under control of the United Nations.

“Horse hockey,” Patterson, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, said Wednesday in a statement.

Rumors have circulated in recent weeks, via email and social media, that the U.N. would manage the Alamo if it — and San Antonio's four other Spanish colonial missions — are granted World Heritage status.

The story began to swirl in September with an emailed piece titled “The New Battle of the Alamo” by George Rodriguez, former president of the San Antonio Tea Party.

Rodriguez said he wrote his report as a “cautionary piece,” having lost faith in local elected leaders. In his piece, he wrote that the Alamo “may fall under U.N. influence.” Knowing that the Alamo stands for freedom, Rodriguez said, he did nothing wrong.

“I'm just constantly saying 'may' or 'might,'” in the article, Rodriguez said late Wednesday. “I'm never once saying that this is going to happen. We need to be aware.”

A similar version was posted Tuesday on infowars.com, a website linked to radio talk show host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who spoke at an Oct. 19 gun-rights rally at the Alamo.

A release by the Texas General Land Office, the Alamo's custodian, called the rumors “spectacular and erroneous.”

“The people of Texas own the Alamo now and in the future. Nothing is going to change that,” said Patterson, who also spoke at the rally.

The land office has supported the heritage site nomination and is offering an exhibit at the 1836 battle site that focuses on its origins as a Spanish mission. The National Park Service, which runs the other missions, also is working in support of the nomination.

The articles place blame on Mayor Julián Castro, though he has no direct jurisdiction over the state-run Alamo or the federally managed missions.

“It's unfortunate, the untruths that blogs like this regularly put out, and even worse that there are folks who are inclined to believe it. But for those who are wondering, it's 100 percent untrue,” Castro said by phone from Japan, where he and others from San Antonio are meeting with Toyota officials.

“The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) designation is a significant and advantageous designation that does not in any way relinquish control, and it's a designation that the Statute of Liberty and the Grand Canyon and other sacred American sites already have,” Castro said.

In his piece, Rodriguez wrote that Texans should not let the Alamo be influenced or managed by “any foreign interest” and that Castro “may have started a new 'battle of the Alamo.'”

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“Castro is a liberal who believes in a 'global society,' and apparently he sees no problem with the U.N. influencing or even managing the Alamo,” he wrote.

The infowars.com article said leaders of other countries such as China or France could oversee and influence Alamo operations. It claims the mayor “is currently negotiating with the United Nations” for the site designation, “meaning that a blue U.N. flag may fly above the historic shrine of liberty once it falls under U.N. control.”

William E. “Bill” Grisham, a tea party supporter who circulated the article by email in mid-September, said he “liked what it had to say.”

“The Alamo is a Texas thing, San Antonio in particular,” said Grisham, a historical re-enactor. “I don't trust international bodies for anything. It's a top-down bureaucratic system.”

For more than a year, local officials have addressed concerns that the state, which owns the Alamo, might lose its control of the site, which was previously managed by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

Suzanne Scott, general manager of the San Antonio River Authority, which is assisting with the heritage nomination, said in August 2012 that the status is simply “a prestigious designation” that will provide economic and cultural benefits.

A decision by a committee of UNESCO is expected in 2015.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, a leading proponent of the nomination, dismissed the rumors as “scare tactics” driven by politics.

The Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore are among the 21 World Heritage sites nationwide that have met UNESCO standards for integrity, completeness and other criteria, Wolff said.

He added that the nomination has bipartisan political support. A recent study done for the county estimates that the heritage designation, the first in Texas, would generate an additional $44 million to $105 million annually in local tourism dollars and more than 1,000 new jobs

“The overall impact is that it would protect these sites,” Wolff said. “I think it's all positive.”

shuddleston@express-news.net

Staff Writer Josh Baugh contributed to this report.