Outcry Over Conviction of Prominent Mexico Enviros

by Diego Cevallos and Danielle Knight

Seen as a severe blow to human rights and environmental protection in Mexico, the two farmers, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, were sentenced to six years and eight months in prison by a state district judge.

"A battle was lost but we will not flag in our efforts (to obtain their release), because these two peasant farmers are innocent, and their only crime was to oppose the destruction of forests at the hands of powerful business interests," Mario Patron, a lawyer for the local Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, which is defending the two men, told IPS.

The Sierra Club and Amnesty International believe that the arrest and conviction of Montiel and Cabrera stem from their efforts to stop illegal logging in the mountains around their village north of Acapulco.

"The Mexican authorities have demonstrated complete disregard for the human rights of these two men and sent a chilling message to other environmental activists," says Diego Zavala of Amnesty International USA.

In 1988, Montiel organized peasants in the region to fight the commercial logging that he believed was causing erosion, disturbing the water supply, and leading to crop losses.

Montiel's activism began when he became concerned for his crops when logging in the mountains of Guerrero began disturbing the forest watershed and drastically decreasing the region's water supply and quality. With only a first grade education, he wrote letters to federal officials that laws were being violated.

When the letters were never answered, Montiel formed an environmental organization, Campesinos Ecologistas or Farmer Ecologists, and his activities led U.S.-based Boise Cascade to abandon the logging it began in 1995.

But his group -- called an "eco-guerrilla" organization by the State Attorney General's Office -- has infuriated wealthy land owners and the generals at a nearby garrison.

In May 1999 the two farmers were arrested and reportedly beaten and tortured by members of the 40th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army. During the raid, the soldiers shot and killed another local farmer.

According to testimony by the prisoners and Amnesty International, Montiel and Cabrera were then threatened at gunpoint and forced into confessing involvement with an armed opposition group and illegal possession of weapons.

The human rights center Agustin Pro Juarez in Mexico has taken on the legal defense of both Montiel and Cabrera. But since the organization took on the case, its members have received several death threats. In August 1999, the coordinator of the law program, Digna Ochoa y Placido, was kidnapped for several hours by unidentified assailants and beaten.

In an attempt to highlight the plight of these two farmers, they were awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for their efforts.

"The Goldman Environmental Foundation calls on President-elect Vicente Fox to prove his commitment to human rights and environmental protection by repealing the conviction of these men immediately upon assuming office," says Richard Goldman, president of the California-based foundation, which awards international unsung heroes of the environment.

On Jul. 14, Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights, a governmental organization, acknowledged that Montiel and Cabrera had been illegally detained and tortured by members of the Mexican army. The report also rejected the allegation that the two men were carrying weapons at the time of their arrest.

Alejandro Queral, director of the Sierra Club's Human Rights and the Environment Program, who visited Montiel in prison in April, said both prisoners have lost weight and have been refused medical care on several occasions. He said they are forced to sleep on the cold floor of the shower rooms and treated inhumanely.

"The arrest, torture and conviction of Montiel and Cabrera are clearly linked to their efforts to protect the forests in Guerrero," says Queral. Without someone to speak out on behalf of the ecology of Guerrero, the forests are beginning to disappear in the region, he adds.

Forensic doctors working for the Danish branch of Physicians for Human Rights confirmed the torture after examining Montiel and Cabrera. They concluded that the physical signs and symptoms of the two activists coincide conclusively with the timing and methods of torture.

"We aren't against anybody...but hope that everybody will look out for the ecology, because to damage the ecology is to do damage to ourselves," said Montiel in a statement distributed by the Goldman Foundation.