Chicago woman sentenced for hate crime against Venezuelan neighbors
A 70-year-old Chicago woman was sentenced to nearly three years in federal prison after admitting she firebombed her neighbors’ porch because of their national origin, according to federal prosecutors. Authorities said the attack was motivated by bias against the victims, who are of Venezuelan origin.
The incident occurred on March 16, 2024, at a residential building in Chicago, and the sentence was imposed Thursday in federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Prosecutors identified the defendant as Ana M. Hernandez, 70. Authorities said she threw a glass bottle filled with oil and a washcloth, described as a Molotov cocktail, onto the back porch of her neighbors’ residence, starting a fire on the wooden structure. No injuries were reported.
In a plea agreement, prosecutors said Hernandez admitted she targeted the home because the residents were Venezuelan and that she wanted them to leave the building.
Federal officials said Hernandez later placed a handwritten note on the vehicle of the landlord, who owned and lived in the building. The note included the statement: “We do not want you in the neighborhood. Go back to your country. You can go the easy way or the hard way.”
Hernandez pleaded guilty earlier this year to unlawfully interfering with housing rights, a federal hate crime offense. U.S. District Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins sentenced her to two years and nine months in federal prison.
Federal prosecutors said the case was investigated as a hate crime due to Hernandez’s admitted motive and the explicit language used to intimidate the victims.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
