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 News from Around the Americas | April 2007 
Canadian Jailed in Mexico Gains Allies
 Charles Rusnell - EdmontonJournal.com
| | Happier days - Brenda Martin |
Edmonton — Two Thunder Bay women who were falsely accused of murdering a Toronto-area couple in Cancun, Mexico, last year have joined the growing campaign to free a Canadian woman who says she has been wrongfully imprisoned in a Mexican jail for the past 14 months.
Cheryl Everall and Kimberley Kim were on Parliament Hill earlier this week demanding that Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay pressure Mexican officials to publicly clear their names in the high-profile murders of Domenic and Nancy Ianiero.
They also raised the case of Brenda Martin, a 50-year-old woman formerly of Trenton, Ont. She has been jailed since February 2006 in the squalid Puente Grande Prison in Guadalajara for her alleged role in a $60-million US Internet-based fraud scheme operated by former Edmontonian Alyn Richard Waage.
Waage ran the scheme from a mansion in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, between 1999 and 2001. Martin worked for Waage as a chef for about 10 months and says she had no knowledge or involvement in Waage’s illegal activities. Although Waage, who is serving a 10-year sentence in North Carolina, has provided the Mexican court with a sworn affidavit that exonerates Martin, her case has remained mired in the Mexican legal system.
The Ianieros were found with their throats slashed at a five-star resort near Playa del Carmen on Feb. 20, 2006. Everall and Kim were staying at the same resort and departed the morning the Ianieros’ bodies were found. They were shocked when local Mexican authorities named them as suspects after they had left the country. Both have strongly professed their innocence.
Everall and Kim realize they could have been in the same situation as Martin. On Thursday, they told reporters “that it was only a few hours that separated us from sitting in a Mexican prison, wrongfully accused, and likely suffering the consequences of our government’s inaction.”
They stressed that Brenda Martin’s health has been rapidly deteriorating.
“For her, time is of the essence. We therefore request that Canada lodge a formal diplomatic protest with Mexico, to assist our case as well as Ms. Martin’s.”
The two Thunder Bay women have pledged their support for a national legal defence fundraising campaign begun recently by Paul Macklin, the former Liberal MP for the area.
On Friday, Macklin stood outside a government liquor store with a Save Brenda Fund sign and a donation box.
“We’re only just getting started, but the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has agreed to open a national account for Brenda so anyone can donate anywhere in the country,” he said. “This woman is Canadian, she is innocent and she needs our help. I think people understand that.”
crusnell@thejournal.canwest.com |
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