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 News from Around the Americas | February 2007 
Mother of Mexican-Born U.S. War Objector Facing Jail Asks Mexico for Help
 Associated Press
| | US citizen Susana Aguayo, the mother of US soldier Agustin Aguayo (both Mexican born) speaks with the press 19 February 2007 in Mexico City. Aguayo, whose son is under arrest in a US military base in Germany after deserting, is asking the Mexican government to help her get her son released. (Omar Torres/AFP) |
The mother of a Mexican-born U.S. Army medic who refused to return to Iraq and could receive a seven-year prison sentence has come to Mexico to seek help from the government in defending her son.
Susana Aguayo on Monday asked Mexico to appoint a lawyer for her son, Agustin, who faces a court-martial next month at a U.S. military court in Germany on charges of desertion and missing a troop movement. His application for status as a conscientious objector was denied, and he went absent without leave in September after being ordered to return to Iraq.
In an open letter to Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, Susana Aguayo asked for "consular assistance."
"It is urgently necessary that the Mexican Ambassador in Berlin, Jorge Castro Valle, provide a lawyer to give him legal aid ... before it's too late," the letter said.
Agustin Aguayo holds dual citizenship. Mexico routinely provides consular assistance, sometimes including lawyers, to citizens jailed abroad. Government officials were not immediately available to comment Monday on whether they would provide assistance in this case.
Susana Aguayo told a news conference that her son considers the war immoral.
"He made this decision to not continue with this war. I heard him say that he didn't support this unjust, inhumane war," she said.
"When I learned of some things, it hurt, like when I found out that they sent him out at night on patrol, and he did not want to put bullets in his gun," she said. "When I learned of that I felt horrible, to think what lengths his conscience reached, that he would not put bullets in his gun."
Agustin Aguayo, 35, has been arraigned at the U.S. Army's Leighton Barracks in Wuerzburg, and is scheduled to go to trial March 6. In addition to a prison sentence, he faces loss of pay, demotion to the lowest enlisted rank and a dishonorable discharge.
Aguayo served a year as a combat medic in Tikrit, Iraq, in 2004 after the military rejected his request to be considered a conscientious objector. He jumped out of a window of his base housing in Germany on Sept. 2 to avoid another tour with the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment. |
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