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Mexican Enviromentalists Convicted! Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera convicted, after a 16 month imprisonment, of charges they confessed to under torture On Sunday morning, May 2, 1999, anti-logging environmentalist Rodolfo Montiel Flores stood with his wife and daughter on the main street of the tiny town of Pizotla in the state of Guerrero, México, talking to neighbors and friends. Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by gunshots. "We didn't understand what was going on," said Montiel during a hearing before a judge on August 27. "We just ran, we didn't know if they were the military or someone else. They were shooting to kill." One local farmer was shot on the head and killed immediately. Rodolfo Montiel and his colleague Teodoro Cabrera Garcia were detained and taken to a military camp. For the next several days they were both tortured, threatened at gunpoint, and forced to confess to charges concocted by the military--including that they were drug traffickers and belonged to a guerrilla group. However, like other environmental activists around the world who are increasingly targeted for retribution by governments and corporations, their only "crime" was to organize supporters against logging in the Sierra de Petatlán in southwestern Mexico. Since the spring of 1995 when Boise Cascade Corp., the Idaho-based multinational logging company, signed a five year deal with the state of Guerrero to buy from local forestry ejidos (villages organized as communal production units), Mexican farmers or campesinos have watched as entire forests have been logged and hauled away by the truckload. The deal, made possible only by terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), caused a dramatic surge in the rate of destruction of one of North America's last old-growth pine and fir forests. As the logging continued, the healthy mountain forests--which are an essential component of the water cycle--began to show signs of strain as streams and springs began drying up. The campesinos grew concerned about the area's capacity to produce basic food staples like corn and beans. "We used to harvest up to three tons [of corn] per hectare, without fertilizer, and now we don't even get half a ton," said a local man in an interview last year. "Now I can't even harvest enough for my own kids." Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia were among many campesinos of the Sierra who decided something had to be done to protest the massive destruction of their forests. In the summer of 1995, a group of farmers belonging to the Campesino Organization of the Southern Sierra (OCSS by its name in Spanish) was on its a way to stage a demonstration in the capital of the state when they were stopped by hundreds of federal police officers. Without warning, the police began shooting, killing 17 campesinos and injuring 20 more. Intimidated but not defeated, other villages began organizing. In late 1997, Rodolfo Montiel and other campesino leaders formed the Organization of Ecologists of the Sierra de Petatlán. Their tactics were simple and peaceful. They wrote letters to government officials asking that the Mexican forestry agency evaluate the ecological effects of logging on the Sierra and distributed information sheets, educating other campesinos of the consequences of indiscriminate logging. On a few occasions their protests actually stopped the logging, forcing subsidiaries of Boise Cascade like Costa Grande Forest Products to sit at the table with the campesinos and listen to their requests. Eventually, Boise Cascade left the area, claiming that the inconsistency of wood supply had forced them to close shop. But many others were convinced it was directly related to the activities of Rodolfo's organization. Among the people most angered by the campesino activists and community leaders were the caciques, or land owners, who profited from selling the hardwoods to Boise Cascade. Many caciques have close ties to the military and to corrupt government officials. They blacklisted several community organizers, including Rodolfo, and accused them of planting marihuana and belonging to leftist guerrilla movements. The Mexican army began looking for Rodolfo and the other campesino leaders who were hiding in the Sierra. The army used intimidation to track down the leaders, threatening innocent townspeople that they would be killed or tortured if they didn't give them information on the whereabouts of Rodolfo and the others. After months of hiding in the mountains, Rodolfo and Teodoro were illegally arrested on May 2, 1999. Hardwood logging resumed almost immediately after their arrests. Rodolfo and Teodoro were tortured and forced to confess to crimes they did not commit. They and over 100 Mexican environmental and human rights organizations are convinced that they have not broken any Mexican laws. Their lawyers are demanding that the charges against them be dropped immediately and unconditionally. Meanwhile, the forests continue to disappear. In order to compete with Boise Cascade, several Mexican logging companies have increased their production more than ten-fold. Without someone to protect them, the last old-growth forests in the continent are rapidly disappearing. The Mexican army has created a state of terror and intimidation among the small and isolated communities of the southern mountains of Guerrero. Rodolfo and Teodoro's case is not an isolated situation, as environmental activists in the area and all over Mexico face a dangerous future defending the environment, their land, and their rights. What You Can Do Despite their convictions, international pressure on the Mexican government is key to securing the unconditional release of Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera. Because of its trading status with the US and other nations, Mexico is sensitive about its human rights record. Please write to President-elect Vicente Fox care of the Mexican embassy urging that Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera García be released from jail immediately. President-elect Vicente Fox Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use |
