Mexico's Fox Frees Two Jailed Environmentalists\r\n<\/p>
November 9, 2001<\/strong> Fighters for the Forests Are Released From Mexican JailBy GINGER THOMPSON \nEXICO CITY, Nov. 8 — Faced with mounting pressure from international human\nrights groups, President Vicente Fox ordered the release of two ecologists\ntoday after they had been tortured by soldiers and jailed for leading a campaign\nto stop the destruction of forests in the Pacific Coast state of Guerrero.\n<\/p> The ecologists, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, who were considered\nprisoners of conscience by Amnesty International, walked out of a jail in\nthe town of Iguala, in Guerrero, shortly after noon. The two leaders of the\nOrganization of Peasant Farmer Ecologists, who had won many international\nawards for their work, were rushed away by car. Later in the afternoon, they\naddressed a small crowd of reporters.<\/p> Mr. Montiel, his voice barely rising above a whisper, reiterated his\ncommitment to the fight for the forests. \"I only want to say that it seems\nnow, little by little, we can begin to trust in justice,\" he said. \"This\nis a first step, but we cannot stop here.\"<\/p> In a terse statement to the press, President Fox said, \"With this, we\nshow by our actions, my government's commitment to the promotion and observance\nof human rights in our country.\"<\/p> The government's decision to release the two leaders came less than\na month after the assassination of a high-profile human rights attorney who\nhad defended them. The lawyer, Digna Ochoa, 37, was shot execution style\nin her office here on Oct. 19. She had received numerous death threats, and\nwas once assaulted in her home by men in ski masks. Investigators have linked\nMs. Ochoa's murder to her work on behalf of the ecologists, and have said\nthat \"lines of investigation\" may link the murder to the military. <\/p> In the past week, Mexico has been alarmed by new death threats against\nseveral other human rights activists. Yesterday, lawyers for Mr. Montiel\nand Mr. Cabrera expressed concern for the safety of their clients. <\/p> \"It is hard to tell whether or not the threats are serious,\" said Sergio\nAguayo, one of the human rights defenders who was listed on a death threat\nlast week. \"It could have come from some crazy person. But what worries me\nis that it could have come from some powerful forces trying to destabilize\nthe Fox government.\"<\/p> The lawyers for the two ecologists also said today that they would continue\nto seek prosecution for the soldiers accused of torturing Mr. Montiel and\nMr. Cabrera. One lawyer, Mario Patron, also said that Ms. Ochoa's assassination\nmight eventually be linked to early speculation that the ecologists were\ngoing to be released.<\/p> President Fox, the first opposition politician to win the presidency\nin seven decades, had promised to impose the rule of law and end systematic\nabuses by government security forces. <\/p> He had also promised to create a truth commission to investigate the\nmost important government abuses in recent history and to abide by international\nhuman rights accords. The president had also indicated his willingness to\nseek the release of Mexico's most prominent political prisoners.<\/p> Since Ms. Ochoa's assassination Mr. Fox has argued that it takes time\nto dismantle a 71-year-old system of corruption and injustice. But human\nrights activists and government officials said that Mr. Fox's promises have\nbeen stalled by forces from within his own cabinet led in particular by the\nMexican military and Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha.<\/p> \"I find all this troubling,\" said Eric Olson of the Washington Office\non Latin America, a human rights group. \"When you ask President Fox whether\nhe is in favor of ending torture, he says all the right things. But then\nwhen it comes to stepping on people's toes, and making things happen, he\nbacks away. And it makes me wonder whether he has a gut- level understanding\nof these issues.\" <\/p> Signs of internal disputes within the government have become evident\nin the cases of political prisoners like Mr. Montiel and Mr. Cabrera, who\nwere detained on weapons and drug charges. Before they were arrested in May\n1999, the men had organized a series of roadblocks to stop wildcat logging\nby local political bosses. <\/p> Human rights groups, including the government's own National Human Rights\nCommission, had contended that Mr. Montiel and Mr. Cabrera were illegally\ndetained by the military and tortured into signing false confessions. Yet\nhuman rights investigators said that in an appeal earlier this year, the\nMexican military submitted a brief that denied the accusations of torture.<\/p> Officials at Amnesty International said that the Mexican attorney general's\noffice had also filed briefs that argued against the release of Brig. Gen.\nJosé Francisco Gallardo, who was convicted of corruption despite inconclusive\nevidence. Human rights groups contend that General Gallardo was jailed because\nhe spoke out about military abuses. <\/p> Attorney General Macedo, who is also an army general, was in charge\nof military justice before he was appointed to Mr. Fox's cabinet. He was\nalso involved in defending the army against human rights investigations in\nthe cases of the ecologists and General Gallardo.<\/p> Human right activists speculated that General Gallardo could be released in the days ahead.<\/p> Mexican officials said that President Fox had been seeking the release\nof Mr. Montiel and Mr. Cabrera for months. They said that the president had\nwanted the release to come through legal processes rather than through presidential\ndecree. \"He wanted to help strengthen the judicial system, not short-circuit\nit,\" said Foreign Minister Jorge G. Casteñeda. <\/p> But after Ms. Ochoa's murder, officials said, Mr. Fox decided that the ecologists' release could not wait.<\/p><\/td><\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/nytimes.com","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"President Vicente Fox ordered the release of two ecologists today after they had been tortured by soldiers and jailed for leading a campaign to stop the destruction of forests in the Pacific Coast state of Guerrero.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/11\/mexico.html","filesize":"6.4 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/11\/12794.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]} |