Free Mexican Ecologist from Jail
8/17/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: ACTION ALERT---FREE RODOLFO MONTIEL FROM JAIL
Source: Global Response's "Quick Response Network"
P.O. Box 7490
Boulder CO, USA 80306-7490
Phone: 303/444-0306
Fax: 303/449-9794
http://www.globalresponse.org
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 17, 1999
Dear Members of Global Response's "Quick Response Network":
This Emergency Action Alert is circulated by the American Lands
Alliance. Read it carefully for the link to our Action Alert on Boise
Cascade's chipmill in Chile (GR Action #2/99. For full text, see
http://www.globalresponse.org). Please send letters to free
environmental activist Rodolfo Moniel Flores from a Mexican jail.
ACTION ALERT---FREE RODOLFO MONTIEL FROM JAIL
Mexican Campesino-Ecologist Leader that Stopped U.S.
Logging Giant Boise Cascade is Tortured, Imprisoned by Soldiers
On May 2, 1999, Rodolfo Montiel Flores, the Mexican campesino who last
year successfully led public opposition against destructive logging
operations by one of the world's largest timber corporations, Boise
Cascade, in the coastal state of Guerrero, was arrested by federal
soldiers on charges of running guns and drugs. According to
investigators from Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, he was
badly beaten and is now in solitary confinement in the prison of
Coyuca de Catal n, Guerrero. Leaders of local campesino,
environmental, and human rights groups say that, not only is Rodolfo
Montiel innocent, but his being denied adequate medical treatment,
food, and water is a violation of his basic human rights and he should
be freed immediately.
Guerrero's forests have been identified by the World Resources
Institute as one of North America's last "frontier forests," that is,
one of the world's few remaining large tracts of relatively
undisturbed forest. Mexico ranks fifth in the world for species
diversity, according to the United Nations.
Mexican soldiers entered the small village of Pizotla around 10
o'clock Sunday morning, May 2, shooting upon unarmed people. One
campesino, Salom, S nchez Ortiz, was shot dead. Rodolfo Montiel,
along with Teodoro Cabrera Garcia, were taken into custody and beaten.
Military officials characterized the two as "members of an ecologist-
guerrilla organization."
Rodolfo has been accused of such illegal activities ever since he
helped found the Organization of Campesinos and Ecologists of the
Sierra de Petatl n. Poor farmers and ecologists united to protect
Guerrero's forests from logging by the Guerrero-based subsidiary of
Boise Cascade (of Boise, Idaho) that contracted with leaders of
communal land holdings, or ejidos, to supply logs for export. When
destructive logging practices in the hills diminished water to farmers
below, community opposition brought the cutting to a halt.
Key beneficiaries of Boise Cascade's operations have previously
threatened Rodolfo Montiel by personally showing up at community
meetings armed, acting aggressively toward him, and demanding that
logging restart. Three months after logging was suspended, Boise
Cascade's manager of human resources in Guerrero, Bernardo Fernandez,
was quoted in local papers as saying, "there is no official decision
about the closure of the operations." Immediately after Rodolfo's
arrest, some of Boise Cascade's local contractors began logging again.
Local community pressure has, for now, stopped them. More than one
year after suspending operations, Boise Cascade's continuing role in
Guerrero is still unclear. What is clear is that one of the leading
critics of their Guerrero operations is in prison.
It is not clear why Rodolfo was arrested at this time. Forest
protection groups who are successfully campaigning against Boise
Cacade's proposed investment in Chile believe that the company may be
going back to access other potential sources of wood. The Cascada
Chile project would log some of the world's few remaining native
coastal temperate rainforest to feed the world's largest chip mill.
Several environmental lawsuits and a one million dollar government
fine for destroying archaeological remains has complicated, delayed,
and increased the costs for Boise Cascade's plans in Chile.
Boise Cascade signed deals for exclusive rights with with then-
governor Rub,n Figueroa Alcocer to log Guerrero's forests shortly
after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into
effect. Figueroa was later forced out of office after national
television broadcasted a video exposing his covering up the "Aguas
Blancas" massacre, where state police ambushed dozens of peasants
(killing seventeen and wounding twenty others) who were protesting
other logging in the region.
Boise Cascade's behavior in Mexico is not unlike the story of Shell
Oil in Nigeria, where a powerful global corporation depends on local
corruption to extract resources for export, often at the expense of
local communities, the environment and human rights. Shell was the
target of international outcry for not intervening to stop the
Nigerian government's execution of one of Shell's biggest critics, Ken
Saro-Wiwa. As potentially the greatest beneficiary from Rodolfo
Montiel's arrest, Boise Cascade risks being put in the same light as
Shell by not intervening on his behalf.
Please join the national and international campaign for the freedom
and respect of the civil and human rights of Rodolfo Montiel Flores
and the other defenders of the forest jailed with him. Demand their
immediate release from prison. See below details of "what you can
do."
REQUESTED ACTION:
Send letters or faxes to the Mexican government officials listed
below, and to Boise Cascade. A model letter is provided.
MODEL LETTER TO BOISE CASCADE AND MEXICAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS:
Dear Sirs,
We are aware of the arrest and violent treatment of Rodolfo Montiel
Flores and other defenders of the forest in Mexico's state of
Guerrero. We deplore this violation of their civil and human rights
and call upon you to work for their immediate release and to guarantee
their safety.
We further recognize that Rodolfo Montiel Flores, Teodoro Cabrera
Garcia, and others jailed or killed in May of 1999 had protested
against the logging contracted by U.S. logging giant Boise Cascade.
We call upon Boise Cascade Corporation to immediately intervene on his
behalf, to secure his release from prison, and to ensure his personal
safety, as well as those of his family and community. Anything less
will be regarded as evidence of continued collusion with corrupt
officials in Guerrero.
We, of the international community, support the right of local
communities to protect their forest resources from degradation.
We support the efforts of the campesinos of Guerrero to resist the
degradation of their forest for the financial benefit of transnational
corporations like Boise Cascade.
We call on you to obtain the immediate release from prison of Rodolfo
Montiel Flores, Teodoro Cabrera Garcia and others.
We call on the Mexican President of the Human Rights Commission to
urgently intervene and to defend the international and constitutional
human rights of Rodolfo Montiel Flores and other related campesinos
within this case.
We call on the Mexican General Prosecutor to intervene and clarify
with law the false accusation of Rodolfo Montiel Flores and other
campesinos related in this case, deny the accusation and punish the
murderers of dead campesinos.
We call on the Federal Environmental Defender and Prosecutor to stop
the illegal process of destruction of the forests, the violation of
Mexican Environmental Law, and punish the eventual complicity of
PROFEPA's Guerrero State officials.
We call on the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and
Fisheries to apply all its legal authority and take all mesures to
stop the violations of Mexican Environmental Law, and the eventual
complicity of other SEMARNAP officials.
ADDRESSES:
George Harad, Chief Executive Officer
Boise Cascade
PO Box 50, Boise Idaho 83728
Tel: 208-384-6161
Fax: 208-384-4912
M. en C. Antonio Azuela, Procuraduria Federal de Defensa del Ambiente
(PROFEPA)
Periferico Sur No. 5000, Col. Insurgentes , Cuicuilco, Coyoacan C.P.
04530, Mexico D.F., MEXICO
Fax: (525) 528-5432
Lic. Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR)
Reforma Norte No. 75, sotano, Col. Guerrero 06300, Mexico, D.F.,
MEXICO
Fax: (525)626-4419/4003
M. en C. Julia Carabias Lillo
Secretaria del Medio Ambiente Recursos Naturales y Pesca (SEMARNAP)
Periferico Sur 4209, 6 piso, Frac. Jarndines en la Montaa, Delegacion
Tlalpan
14210 Mexico, D.F.
Fax: 525-628-0643
Dra. Mireille Rocatti, Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDH)
Periferico Sur 3469, Col. San Jeronimo Lidice 10200 Mexico, D.F.,
MEXICO
Fax: (525) 681-5482
For more information or sources of the above information contact:
Pat Rasmussen
American Lands Alliance
726-7th St. SE
Washington, DC 20003