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 News from Around Banderas Bay | May 2007 
Canadian Pleads For Help From Mexican Prison
 CTV.ca
| | Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has raised Martin's case with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and the Canadian government has issued a request to Mexican authorities for an update on the situation. |
A Canadian woman says the past 15 months she has spent in a Mexican prison have left her a psychological and physical mess, and she's pleading with Ottawa to step in and help prove her innocence.
Brenda Martin, 50, was arrested in Guadalajara in February of last year, and charged with money laundering and being a member of a criminal gang.
She has been maintaining her innocence ever since she was locked up in a women's prison in Puerte Grande.
"I'm a psychological and physical mess. Sometimes I don't eat for four days. I can't," she told CTV Newsnet on Wednesday, adding that she lost 30 pounds in the first month she was in jail.
Martin said she sleeps on the floor of a cell she shares with six other women - three of whom are murderers.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has raised Martin's case with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, and the Canadian government has issued a request to Mexican authorities for an update on the situation.
MacKay has also pledged to talk to the Mexican secretary of external affairs about Canada becoming involved in investigations into the recent deaths of Canadian tourists in Mexico when he meets with her on Wednesday.
Though MacKay hasn't mentioned discussing Martin's case, he said he'll talk to Patricia Espinosa about "mechanisms" that can be put in place "to expand upon co-operation around investigative techniques."
Martin, a former Trenton, Ont. woman, was formerly employed as a chef to American Alyn Richard Waage who lived in a mansion in Puerto Vallarta.
Waage is serving out a 10-year sentence in a North Carolina prison, convicted on charges of running a $60-million Internet scheme that allegedly ripped off 15,000 investors through his Tri-West Investment Club.
He has recently been quoted in newspaper reports as saying Martin, who only worked for him for 10 months, had no knowledge of his operations and is completely innocent.
Martin told Newsnet that Waage has submitted a written statement to that effect, but the Mexican authorities require a verbal statement.
"I need a verbal testimony and I need Mr. MacKay, who I've heard has promised that he's intervened in this situation - I don't believe he has - I need the government to intervene now and expedite getting this testimony from Mr. Wage."
Martin said she was fired by Waage after 10 months and received severance pay for one year's pay. Knowing he was a successful businessman, but allegedly unaware of his underhanded dealings, Martin said she turned around and invested $10,000 of that severance pay into his company.
However, when Waage learned of Martin's investment prior to his arrest, he returned the money to her account - but Mexican suspicions had already been aroused.
"He made sure I got my money back. They show that money coming back into my account. They do not show it going out of my account," said Martin.
"They're making it look like I'm money laundering."
Martin said she is also trying to get her hands on her original bank statements, which show the complete transaction record, and should prove there was no money laundering.
Canadian Visits to Mexico Decline
TB News Source
Recent violent incidents involving Canadian tourists may be having a negative impact on travel to Mexico.
The most notable case is the murder of Dominic and Nancy Ianiero at a Cancun area resort last February. Thunder Bay residents Cheryl Everall and Kimberly Kim are still said by Mexican officials to be suspects in that murder.
Now, a Cancun newspaper is reporting Canadian visits to the area have plummeted since the Ianiero's deaths. It says the Cancun Hotel Association is reporting the number of Canadian visitors dropped from almost 190,000 in 2005 to just 80,000 in 2006. All this comes at a time when representatives from both the Canadian and Mexican governments says they are looking at new levels of cooperation to investigate such incidents. |
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