Alvarez

MEMORANDUM **

Miguel Angel Oliva Alvarez, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) summary affirmance of an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) order denying his application for asylum. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review the BIA’s decision for substantial evidence, see Ramos-Vasquez v. INS, 57 F.3d 857, 861 (9th Cir.1995), and we deny the petition.

Substantial evidence supports the BIA’s conclusion that Oliva Alvarez did not establish persecution based on a statutorily enumerated ground. In Elias-Zacarias v. INS, 502 U.S. 478, 482 , 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992), the Supreme Court held that a guerilla organization’s attempt to forcibly recruit a person into service does not constitute persecution on account of political opinion. Oliva Alvarez’s attempt to distinguish his case from Elias-Zacarias by arguing that his neutrality constituted a political opinion is unavailing, as there is nothing in the record to compel the conclusion that Oliva Alvarez was a target for recruitment because of his neutral political opinion. Id. at 483 , 112 S.Ct. 812 .

The BIA’s conclusion that Oliva Alvarez does not…