cannabisnews.com: Mexico Finds Activist Guilty In Drug Case





Mexico Finds Activist Guilty In Drug Case
Posted by FoM on August 29, 2000 at 07:47:00 PT
Peasant Won Goldman Environmental Prize 
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
A peasant activist who won the prestigious Goldman environmental prize for fighting rampant deforestation in western Mexico was convicted yesterday on drug and weapons charges and given a hefty jail sentence. Rodolfo Montiel, who has been held without bail for 15 months, was found guilty of arms possession and growing marijuana in the state of Guerrero and received a sentence of six years and eight months. A colleague, Teodoro Cabrera, was also found guilty of arms possession and given a 10-year term. There was no immediate explanation for the sentencing discrepancy. 
Numerous human rights groups have said that the two men were tortured while in custody and that the charges against them were trumped up with the aim of ending their attempts to protect some of Mexico's last old-growth forests. ``They are both innocent farmers who have a commitment to protecting their area,'' said Richard N. Goldman, president of the San Francisco-based Goldman Environmental Foundation. ``The evidence we have shows that the charges were all fabricated and confessions done under stress.'' The arrest of Montiel, who won the $125,000 Goldman Prize in April, has drawn extensive international interest. London-based Amnesty International has declared both Montiel and Cabrera to be prisoners of conscience, and the Sierra Club has started a campaign for their release. Yesterday's ruling by Fifth District Court Judge Maclovio Murillo of the small town of Iguala did not come as a surprise, but human rights groups that worked hard for the jailed farmers' release were visibly disappointed. ``It's an unjust decision,'' said Edgar Cortes, director of the Mexico City-based Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, which represented the two peasant leaders. ``The only evidence against them is a confession coerced under torture.'' Cortes, who said the center had not studied the judge's 150-page brief, said his group would appeal both the verdict and sentences. He also questioned whether a report by the government's own human rights commission had been taken into account. That panel, which rarely criticizes any government body, issued a report in July stating that the two men had been tortured and that evidence incriminating them had been planted. Homero Aridjis, director of the most influential Mexican environmental group, the Group of 100, had harsh words for U.S. environmental groups' handling of the activists' plight. He said that they acted arrogantly by not working closely with local Mexican groups in a complex case where political and environmental concerns overlapped. ``This is a defeat for the Mexican and the American environmental movements,'' he said. ``We need a coalition to work to liberate these two men, not paternalism directed from California.'' ``Western environmental groups say that peasants should defend their land. But when they do, there is immediate repression (by the state). So (those same) environmental groups must be involved in human rights work, too.'' Trouble began for the two campesinos shortly after the U.S. forest products company Boise Cascade signed a contract in 1995 to buy wood from commercial loggers in Guerrero's Sierra de Petatlan. The development was spurred by the North American Free Trade Agreement, which allowed the sale of timber rights by local ejidos, or communal farms. As the logging gathered momentum, Montiel, 44, gradually observed a decline of water and crop quality and erosion in his community. By 1997, he had begun organizing farmers along the mountains' rugged slopes to fight the logging. When legal authorities ignored the complaints of Montiel's grassroots group, known as the Ecologist Farmers of the Sierra de Petatlan, the peasants organized protests to shut down the logging mills and erected a tollbooth along the main route to collect compensation from passing logging trucks. By mid-1998, Boise Cascade halted its purchases in Guerrero, citing ``difficult business conditions.'' The protest campaign brought Montiel, who has a first-grade education, into conflict with local political bosses who supported the longing. They razed the tollbooth, and the state government sent troops to occupy villages where the protesters were strong. Many were arrested, and several were shot and killed. On May 2, 1999, Montiel and Cabrera were arrested amid accusations by the state attorney general's office that they were members of an ``ecological guerrilla organization.'' In following months, the pair told human rights groups that they confessed after being beaten and tortured by electric shock, and denied medical attention. Prosecutors, however, said Montiel, Cabrera and three other men fled from a house after an army patrol entered the village of Pizotla. The five allegedly opened fire on the soldiers. Local authorities have said they were protecting marijuana plants. Aridjis said ``there are hundreds of cases like this one in Mexico,'' where those fighting for environmental protection face state repression. ``This one became complicated because they were charged with drug trafficking, which is a very serious charge,'' he added. Environmentalists, however, are hopeful that President-elect Vicente Fox will release Montiel and Cabrera after he assumes the presidency on Dec. 1. Amnesty International already has petitioned Fox to intervene, and according to Goldman, Fox showed ``great interest'' after meeting with several environmental groups in Washington last week. ``He told an aide, `We have to pursue this,' '' said Goldman. ``I hope he does what is proper.'' Mike Brune, director of the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network's old-growth campaign, called yesterday's ruling ``tragic'' and faulted Boise Cascade for tacitly encouraging destructive logging through its purchase of timber in areas not subject to U.S. environmental protection laws. Chronicle Foreign Service By Wendy PattersonTuesday, August 29, 2000 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Copyright: 2000 San Francisco ChronicleContact: chronletters sfgate.com Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/Rain Forest Action Networkhttp://www.ran.org/ran/Rodolfo Montiel Flores - Goldman Prizehttp://www.goldmanprize.org/recipients/recipients.htmlCannabisNews Cannabis Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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