Copyright 2001 Reuters
November 09, 2001
By Kieran Murray, Reuters

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Vicente Fox released two prominent environmentalists from prison Thursday after hearing mounting evidence that they were tortured into confessing to trumped-up crimes.

Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera led protests against illegal logging in the southern state of Guerrero before being convicted of weapons and drug offenses and being sent to prison in May 1999.

Both men say that the charges were bogus and that they signed confessions only after being beaten and tortured for several days. They say they were being punished for attempting to defend the forests of the Sierra Madre mountain range from rapacious loggers.

International human rights groups led a campaign for their release, and Montiel and Cabrera received several prestigious human rights and environmental awards while in prison.

Fox came under heightened pressure to do something after the murder three weeks ago of Digna Ochoa, a leading human rights activist and former attorney for the environmentalists. The two were freed Thursday from a prison in Iguala, Guerrero. Fox said he took into account requests for their freedom, their medical condition, and a recent report from a U.N. working group that said they had been arrested arbitrarily and in violation of their human rights.

GOVERNMENT COMMITMENT CITED

"With these actions, we demonstrate through deeds my government's commitment to the promotion and observance of human rights in our country,'' Fox said.

Interior Minister Santiago Creel said the men were freed on humanitarian grounds and would be given government protection.

Human rights organizations and environmental groups welcomed the release but criticized Fox for not explicitly recognizing their innocence or opening an investigation into their cases. The two men suffered eye, genital, and other injuries. "We are happy that they have been released, but defenders of human rights and the environment in Mexico will not be truly free and safe until those who threaten, torture, and murder these heroes are brought to justice,'' said Alejandro Queral of the U.S.-based Sierra Club environmental group.

"I am free, but they haven't recognized that I am innocent. I have always been innocent,'' said Montiel.

Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said last year that the evidence against Montiel and Cabrera was fabricated, and lawyers earlier this year presented evidence that they had been tortured after their arrest by an army patrol. The U.N. report in September added to the pressure on Fox.

Although Fox inherited the case when he took office last December, the case had undermined his repeated promises to improve human rights in Mexico, where police torture is widespread and most murders go unpunished.

LAWYER KILLED IN OCTOBER

The ecologists' plight returned to the spotlight when Ochoa, their former lawyer, was shot to death in her Mexico City office Oct. 19. Ochoa represented Montiel and Cabrera during their trial, and she was twice kidnapped in 1999, on one occasion being attacked and tortured in her home.

Human rights group Amnesty International, which campaigned for the release of Montiel and Cabrera, welcomed Fox's move Thursday, describing it as a "good first step'' in improving Mexico's human rights record. "There had already been a lot of pressure from all over the world, and with Digna Ochoa's death, it really brought to light that Fox hadn't done much on human rights. He was under a lot of pressure to do something,'' said Carmen Reed, Amnesty's advocacy director for the Americas.

Officials believe Ochoa's murder was linked to the ongoing disputes between environmentalists and logging interests in Guerrero.

Montiel was imprisoned for almost seven years after being convicted of cultivating marijuana and possessing weapons, while Cabrera received a ten-year sentence for gun crimes. The sentences were upheld earlier this year by Mexican courts, but rights groups alleged corruption in the justice system, and members of Fox's Cabinet openly expressed doubt about the men's guilt. Error: Unable to read footer file.