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 News from Around the Americas | March 2007 
Canadian Man Detained in Mexican Prison for Two Years Returns Home
 Jeremy Nuttall - The Globe and Mail
Vancouver - When a Mexican official ripped a telephone from Peter Kimber's hand and told him he was leaving an immigration detention centre in Mexico City, he had no idea what to think. Confusion became worry when he was put in the back of a truck with all of the possessions he had accumulated after two years in prison.
"I knew it was a one-way trip," said Mr. Kimber, who is from Mission, B.C. "I just didn't know to where."
The destination turned out to be Mexico City's airport, then Canada. Mr. Kimber arrived in Toronto on Wednesday night after more than two years in a Mexican prison. In the end, he said yesterday, it took a hunger strike to get him home.
Mr. Kimber, who has a criminal record in Canada for some minor drug offences and a 1996 assault, was imprisoned in Huatulco in 2004 after a business contract to build a small hotel there went sour. A British couple, Kevin and Tess Hunneybell, accused him of spending only $5,000 on the project and pocketing $19,000. Mr. Hunneybell also contends that Mexican locals in La Bocana had signed a petition to have him removed from their community.
Mr. Kimber says he was beaten in prison, starved and denied medical treatment. He was released earlier this month after raising $20,000 from friends and a website campaign. He said the money was considered bail and would allow him to be set free. It was paid to Mexican officials through a "bail account" owned by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Kimber said that, as he was leaving the courthouse in Huatulco the day of his release on March 10, Mexican immigration officials detained him to "sign some papers."
"They grabbed me as I was coming down the stairs," he said. "They told me it would just be for a few hours."
However, he was taken to immigration holding facilities in Salina Cruz, and eventually to Mexico City. Mr. Kimber says he was frequently told he was just days away from being able to leave. Finally, he had a conversation with a human-rights lawyer. "He said, 'You're going to be here for a couple of months. So, get comfortable.' "
Mr. Kimber said, at that point, he'd had enough. On Sunday night, he began a new approach.
"I wrote a four-page document explaining what I wanted," he said. "Then I refused to eat or drink."
On Wednesday, while he was talking to a friend in Toronto, a guard grabbed the phone from his hand and hung it up.
"He said, 'We're tired of listening to you; you're leaving,' " said Mr. Kimber, who was alarmed because he didn't know where he was being taken.
He says he still wasn't at ease when he saw the airplane and worried, "They were planning something nasty."
But a few hours later, he was in Toronto. "It feels great," Mr. Kimber said. "I can't wait to get back to B.C."
He said he expects to return to the province on Monday - but has no plans to return to Mexico.
Mexican officials were not available for comment. |
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