15 May 2003
We have received the following urgent message from Fuerza Ambiental, a non–governmental organization in the state of Chihuahua that offers environmental law services to the public. It concerns an illegal response on the part of the state authorities to the non–violent struggle of indigenous citizens to protect the forests in their local area of the Sierra Tarahumara. As you are aware, the Urgent Action Network has received previous appeals from communities in the Sierra Tarahumara which for many years have been engaged in a campaign to persuade the Mexican federal and Chihuahua state authorities to take the required legal steps to protect the region's forests. (Please check the Urgent Actions from May 2002 and April 2000 on the SJC web–site for more details on previous appeals.)
On March 29th 2003, ISIDRO BALDENEGRO, a leader and environmental activist in the indigenous community of Ejido Coloradas de las Virgenes in the Municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo in the Sierra Tarahumara mountains of the state of Chihuahua, was illegally arrested by a special anti–drug squad of the Chihuahua State Judicial Police. He was arrested without a warrant after his home had been searched also without a warrant. According to reliable witnesses, during the arrest the police themselves "planted" the weapons (an AK rifle and a 9mm pistol) and a sack of marijuana that they then claimed to have found in Sr. Baldenegro's possession. He was made to pose with these weapons for a photograph that subsequently (together with what should have been confidential legal information regarding his pre–trial investigation) appeared in Chihuahua newspapers.
Because of the gravity of his alleged crimes, Isidro Baldenegro is not eligible for bail. If he is convicted, he faces a possible prison sentence of ten years or more without any possible reduction of time served. It is reported that behind these actions are the interests of the Fontes family and the members of the Fontes "cartel", with whom the State Judicial Police would appear to be in complicity.
Isidro Baldenegro has led the efforts of his community to put an end to the illegal and excessive logging of their territory. Their struggle has been waged by means of legal complaints to the appropriate government authorities and by acts of civil resistence. According to the newspaper La Jornada, on October 2nd 2002, Isidro Baldenegro and other members of the community of Ejdido Coloradas de la Virgen travelled to the Chihuahua City office of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources in order to protest the excessive logging of their forest. In response to their protest, the Ministry suspended the logging permits that it had previously granted to Artemio Fontes Lugo.
Fuerza Ambienta have indicated that the residents of this area of the Sierra Tarahumara have been struggling since 1985 to stop the logging of their region, and that the Fontes family "cartel" (headed by Artemio Fontes Lugo) is allegedly responsible for the assassination of Isidro's father and of a member of the local indigenous government as well as the for the deaths of approximately thirty other indigenous people engaged in the struggle against logging. The Fontes, who are allegedly involved in planting and selling illegal drugs, have tried through fraudulent tactics to appropriate ejidal lands.
It was also reported in La Jornada that, following the positive outcome of their October 2002 visit to the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, Isidro Baldenegro and eight other residents of Ejido Coloradas de la Virgen who made up the delegation to the Ministry have received death threats. These threats have been officially reported to both the Office of the Federal Attorney General and the Office of the Chihuahua State Attorney General.
Please write to the Mexican government expressing your shock at learning that indigenous environmentalist Isidro Baldenegro has been illegally arrested by the Chihuahua State Judicial Police acting in apparent collusion with the Fontes family. Please point out that the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources had, in late 2002,suspended the Fontes family's logging permit in response to the petition of the residents of Ejido Coloradas de la Virgen who are seeking to halt the excessive logging of their region.
Please ask for Sr. Baldenegro to be released from custody immediately and for all charges against him to be dropped.
In view of the very serious allegations against them, please ask for a thorough criminal investigation of the activities of the so–called Fontes "cartel".
Please ask for an inquiry leading to the appropriate legal penalties into the conduct of the members of the Chihuahua State Judicial Police responsible for ordering and carrying out the illegal arrest of Isidro Baldenegro.
Please ask for prompt measures to be taken to protect the all of the citizens of Ejido Coloradas de la Virgen who have received death threats especially including the following persons: Isidro Baldenegro, Lino Martínez Acuña, Luciana Torres Palma, Alfonso Molina Carrillo, Martín Valdez Ramos, Adelina Fontes Medina, Gumersindo Torres Molina, Josefa Chaparro, and Jesús Carrillo.
Please request that the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources undertake a full assessment of the forest in the Municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo in consultation with local communities, so that appropriate decisions can be taken regarding the long–term preservation of the forest.
Please write to the Canadian government to inform them of the above incident and asking them to make known to the Mexican government the extent to which the Canadian government deplores this illegal and abusive resource to the legal system as a means of discouraging the legitimate activities of environmental activists.
For Mexico:
Lic. Vicente Fox Quesada Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Residencia Oficial de Los Pinos Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico D.F., C.P. 11850,
MEXICO
FAX: 011 52 55 522 4117 or 516 9537 or 515 1794 radio@presidencia.gob.mx webadmon@appresidencia.gob.mx
If you are unable to get your message through, please send it to the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa with a brief covering letter requesting that the message be forwarded immediately to President Fox.
Please send copies of your letter to the following persons:
Lic. Victor Lichtinger (Minister of the Environment)
Secretario de SEMARNAT
Lateral de Anillo Periférico No. 4209
Jardines de la Montaña, delegación Tlalpan C.P. 14210, Mexico D.F., MEXICO vlichtinger@semarnat.gob.mx
Lic. José Ignacio Campillo García (Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection)
Procurador Federal de Protección al Ambiente Periférico Sur No. 5000 Col. Insurgentes, Cuicuilco Delegación Coyoacán
C.P. 04530, Mexico D.F., MEXICO
jcampillo@correo.profepa.gob.mx
Dr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
correo@cndh.org.mx
Her Exellency Maria Teresa Garcia Segovia
Ambassador for Mexico
45 O'Connor St, suite 1500, Ottawa, Ont. K1P 1A4
FAX 613 235 9123 info@embamexcan.com
If possible, please also send copies of your letters to Fuerza Ambiental info@fuerzaambiental.org
FOR CANADA:
Hon. Bill Graham
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2
FAX: 613 996 9607
graham.b@parl.gc.ca
Ms. Susan Gregson,
Director
Human Rights, Humanitarian Affairs and International Women's Equality Division (AGHH)
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trad
125 Sussex Drive B4
Ottawa, Ontario
FAX 613 943 0606
susan.gregson.agh@defait-maeci.gc.ca
Indigenous ecologist in Sierra Tarahumara subjected to death threats, illegal arrest
We have received the following urgent message from Fuerza Ambiental, a non–governmental organization in the state of Chihuahua that offers environmental law services to the public. It concerns an illegal response on the part of the state authorities to the non–violent struggle of indigenous citizens to protect the forests in their local area of the Sierra Tarahumara. As you are aware, the Urgent Action Network has received previous appeals from communities in the Sierra Tarahumara which for many years have been engaged in a campaign to persuade the Mexican federal and Chihuahua state authorities to take the required legal steps to protect the region's forests. (Please check the Urgent Actions from May 2002 and April 2000 on the SJC web–site for more details on previous appeals.)
On March 29th 2003, ISIDRO BALDENEGRO, a leader and environmental activist in the indigenous community of Ejido Coloradas de las Virgenes in the Municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo in the Sierra Tarahumara mountains of the state of Chihuahua, was illegally arrested by a special anti–drug squad of the Chihuahua State Judicial Police. He was arrested without a warrant after his home had been searched also without a warrant. According to reliable witnesses, during the arrest the police themselves "planted" the weapons (an AK rifle and a 9mm pistol) and a sack of marijuana that they then claimed to have found in Sr. Baldenegro's possession. He was made to pose with these weapons for a photograph that subsequently (together with what should have been confidential legal information regarding his pre–trial investigation) appeared in Chihuahua newspapers.
Because of the gravity of his alleged crimes, Isidro Baldenegro is not eligible for bail. If he is convicted, he faces a possible prison sentence of ten years or more without any possible reduction of time served. It is reported that behind these actions are the interests of the Fontes family and the members of the Fontes "cartel", with whom the State Judicial Police would appear to be in complicity.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Isidro Baldenegro has led the efforts of his community to put an end to the illegal and excessive logging of their territory. Their struggle has been waged by means of legal complaints to the appropriate government authorities and by acts of civil resistence. According to the newspaper La Jornada, on October 2nd 2002, Isidro Baldenegro and other members of the community of Ejdido Coloradas de la Virgen travelled to the Chihuahua City office of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources in order to protest the excessive logging of their forest. In response to their protest, the Ministry suspended the logging permits that it had previously granted to Artemio Fontes Lugo.
Fuerza Ambienta have indicated that the residents of this area of the Sierra Tarahumara have been struggling since 1985 to stop the logging of their region, and that the Fontes family "cartel" (headed by Artemio Fontes Lugo) is allegedly responsible for the assassination of Isidro's father and of a member of the local indigenous government as well as the for the deaths of approximately thirty other indigenous people engaged in the struggle against logging. The Fontes, who are allegedly involved in planting and selling illegal drugs, have tried through fraudulent tactics to appropriate ejidal lands.
It was also reported in La Jornada that, following the positive outcome of their October 2002 visit to the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, Isidro Baldenegro and eight other residents of Ejido Coloradas de la Virgen who made up the delegation to the Ministry have received death threats. These threats have been officially reported to both the Office of the Federal Attorney General and the Office of the Chihuahua State Attorney General.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Please write to the Mexican government expressing your shock at learning that indigenous environmentalist Isidro Baldenegro has been illegally arrested by the Chihuahua State Judicial Police acting in apparent collusion with the Fontes family. Please point out that the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources had, in late 2002,suspended the Fontes family's logging permit in response to the petition of the residents of Ejido Coloradas de la Virgen who are seeking to halt the excessive logging of their region.
Please ask for Sr. Baldenegro to be released from custody immediately and for all charges against him to be dropped.
In view of the very serious allegations against them, please ask for a thorough criminal investigation of the activities of the so–called Fontes "cartel".
Please ask for an inquiry leading to the appropriate legal penalties into the conduct of the members of the Chihuahua State Judicial Police responsible for ordering and carrying out the illegal arrest of Isidro Baldenegro.
Please ask for prompt measures to be taken to protect the all of the citizens of Ejido Coloradas de la Virgen who have received death threats especially including the following persons: Isidro Baldenegro, Lino Martínez Acuña, Luciana Torres Palma, Alfonso Molina Carrillo, Martín Valdez Ramos, Adelina Fontes Medina, Gumersindo Torres Molina, Josefa Chaparro, and Jesús Carrillo.
Please request that the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources undertake a full assessment of the forest in the Municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo in consultation with local communities, so that appropriate decisions can be taken regarding the long–term preservation of the forest.
Please write to the Canadian government to inform them of the above incident and asking them to make known to the Mexican government the extent to which the Canadian government deplores this illegal and abusive resource to the legal system as a means of discouraging the legitimate activities of environmental activists.
Addresses
For Mexico:
Lic. Vicente Fox Quesada Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Residencia Oficial de Los Pinos Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico D.F., C.P. 11850,
MEXICO
FAX: 011 52 55 522 4117 or 516 9537 or 515 1794 radio@presidencia.gob.mx webadmon@appresidencia.gob.mx
If you are unable to get your message through, please send it to the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa with a brief covering letter requesting that the message be forwarded immediately to President Fox.
Please send copies of your letter to the following persons:
Lic. Victor Lichtinger (Minister of the Environment)
Secretario de SEMARNAT
Lateral de Anillo Periférico No. 4209
Jardines de la Montaña, delegación Tlalpan C.P. 14210, Mexico D.F., MEXICO vlichtinger@semarnat.gob.mx
Lic. José Ignacio Campillo García (Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection)
Procurador Federal de Protección al Ambiente Periférico Sur No. 5000 Col. Insurgentes, Cuicuilco Delegación Coyoacán
C.P. 04530, Mexico D.F., MEXICO
jcampillo@correo.profepa.gob.mx
Dr. José Luis Soberanes Fernández
Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos
correo@cndh.org.mx
Her Exellency Maria Teresa Garcia Segovia
Ambassador for Mexico
45 O'Connor St, suite 1500, Ottawa, Ont. K1P 1A4
FAX 613 235 9123 info@embamexcan.com
If possible, please also send copies of your letters to Fuerza Ambiental info@fuerzaambiental.org
FOR CANADA:
Hon. Bill Graham
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0G2
FAX: 613 996 9607
graham.b@parl.gc.ca
Ms. Susan Gregson,
Director
Human Rights, Humanitarian Affairs and International Women's Equality Division (AGHH)
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trad
125 Sussex Drive B4
Ottawa, Ontario
FAX 613 943 0606
susan.gregson.agh@defait-maeci.gc.ca