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Environmentalists Under Attack in Mexico
Sierra Club, Amnesty International run ads demanding release of Prisoners of Conscience
Mexico City, Mexico: Concerned for two farmers and environmental
activists who were arrested, beaten and allegedly tortured by members of the Mexican
military, a pair of international grassroots organizations are taking unprecedented
actions on their behalf. In a first-ever move, the Sierra Club and Amnesty International
are jointly running ads in Mexican publications and are sending representatives to Mexico
to meet with officials and to show support for Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera.
Amnesty International has declared the two men "Prisoners of Conscience."
"We have the profound conviction that the only "crime" committed by
these men was to protect the forests by protesting the rampant logging," said
Alejandro Queral of Sierra Club. "By organizing to preserve the trees and water
supply in their community, Montiel and Cabrera threatened those who would profit from the
destruction of the forest."
During the week of April 2, the Sierra Club and Amnesty International will join with
Mexican human rights group Centro de Derechos Humanos "Miguel Agustín Pro
Juárez" A.C. (PRODH) to run open letter print ads in the news daily Reforma and the
newsweekly Proceso, calling on President Ernesto Zedillo to immediately and
unconditionally release the two men from prison. Additionally, Sierra Club and Amnesty
International are sending observers to Mexico to meet with Mexican and U.S. officials.
Montiel, one of the founding members of the Organización de Campesinos Ecologistas de la
Sierra de Petatlan y Coyuca de Catalan, A.C. (Organization of Farmer Environmentalists of
the Sierra de Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan), has been organizing farmers to oppose the
rampant, and possibly illegal, logging in these mountains in Guerrero, Mexico.
On May 2, 1999, Montiel and Cabrera were arrested by members of the 40th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army, who beat them, threatened them at gunpoint and allegedly tortured the two
men, forcing them to confess to trumped-up charges of drug trafficking and illegal
possession of weapons. The Sierra Club and Amnesty International believe that these
charges were created to imprison Montiel and Cabrera for their environmental activism.
"These are serious allegations of human rights abuse," said Diego Zavala of
Amnesty International. "Those responsible for the harm inflicted on Montiel and
Cabrera must be held accountable. We must send a strong message that we will not tolerate
human rights abuses against those who peacefully defend the Earth."
This case is part of a pattern of human rights violations in Guerrero. Most recently,
Maximino Marcial Jaimes, another member of the environmental organization, was reportedly
abducted on March 13 by members of a paramilitary group. Amnesty International is
concerned for his safety.
Last year the Sierra Club and Amnesty International launched a joint campaign,
"Defending Those Who Give the Earth A Voice." The case of Montiel and Cabrera
was one of the first cases taken on by the new campaign.
Founded in 1892 by John Muir, Sierra Club is the oldest and largest non-profit grassroots
environmental organization in the world, with more than 550,000 members, 65 chapters and
400 local groups. The Sierra Club actively promotes conservation by influencing public
policy through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying and litigation.
Amnesty International, founded in 1961, is the world's largest grassroots human rights
organization, whose one million members are dedicated to freeing prisoners of conscience,
to gaining fair trials for political prisoners, to ending torture, political killings and
"disappearances," and to abolishing the death penalty throughout the world.
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