Mexican judge jails ecologists for up to 10 years
Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited
August 28, 2000
By Monica Ballesca
MEXICO CITY, Aug 28 (Reuters) - A Mexican judge on Monday sentenced two peasants fighting to save one of North America's last virgin forests to up to 10 years in jail on charges of growing marijuana and possession of arms, their lawyer said.
One of the two, Rodolfo Montiel, 44, was awarded the $125,000 Goldman Environmental Prize last April, considered one of the top global ecological prizes and given out to six grass-roots activists around the world every year by the San Francisco-based foundation.
Montiel and his colleague Teodoro Cabrera were arrested by the Mexican military in May 1999.
The two were members of an ecological organisation aimed at stopping logging in the southwestern state of Guerrero, also home to the Marxist-inspired guerrilla group, the Popular Revolutionary Army.
``They notified us as their defence lawyers of the judge's sentence in the morning,'' Edgar Cortez, head of the religious human rights' body that is defending the two in court, told Reuters by telephone.
Cortez, president of the Mexican Agustin Pro Juarez Centre for Human Rights, said the charges against Montiel were growing marijuana, carrying arms without a license and possessing arms exclusively for the army's use. He was sentenced to six years and 10 months in jail, Cortez said.
Cabrera, charged with possessing arms exclusively for the use of the Mexican army, was sentenced to 10 years.
Cortez said he would appeal the judge's decision on Tuesday. ``It is an unfair sentence, because we are convinced the only proof ... (is) the confessions the authorities obtained under pressure,'' he said.
Amnesty International and the Sierra Club, among other organisations, are crusading for the unconditional release of the two men, saying they were arrested on trumped-up charges of drug trafficking and guerrilla activity and then beaten and tortured into making false confessions.
The two are being held in a penitentiary in the city of Iguala, some 122 miles (195 km) south of Mexico City.
Homero Aridjis, president of the environmental organisation Group of 100, said the sentence was an enormous injustice.
``It is an enormous perversion of justice in Mexico. The government's message is that by defending your woodland, your river, you go to jail,'' he said.
Last week, Alejandro Calvillo, Greenpeace director in Mexico, said the arrest of the peasants coincided with ``the political and economic interests of some people in the area who are keen for the deforestation to continue.''
Prior to their detention, Montiel, Cabrera and other members of their organisation had blocked the path of trucks belonging to the Idaho-based U.S. firm Boise Cascade Corporation (NYSE:BCC - news), which has logged Guerrero forests for four years.
The company stopped operations there in 1998, citing difficult conditions for business.