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 News from Around Banderas Bay | August 2007 
Con Vouches for Brenda Martin's Innocence
 Charles Rusnell
 |  | I am going to die, I don't want to live anymore. They are killing me.
- Brenda Martin |  | |
Edmonton - When Brenda Martin's hair recently became infested with lice, she didn't have the money for medication, so jailers shaved her head to stop the infestation from spreading to the 11 other women, and two-month old baby crammed into the nine-by-12-foot Mexican prison cell.
The week before, Martin, who now weighs less than 100 pounds, refused to eat, saying she intended to starve herself to death. Disoriented and too weak to stand, she was taken to the prison infirmary, shackled to a bed and fed intravenously until the veins in her right arm collapsed, she said.
"They are torturing my daughter," said Martin's mother, Marjorie Bletcher of Trenton, Ont. "Why can't they just let her go?"
The head shaving and force-feeding of a Canadian citizen in a Mexican jail seems too inhumane to be true, but the story has been confirmed by an American prisoner in the same jail.
Martin, 50, wants to die because she has lost all hope she will ever be released from the teeming Puente Grande prison on the outskirts of Guadalajara. She has been held there without bail and without a trial for the past 18 months, since the day she was arrested in connection with a $60-million US investment scam run by her former employer, an Edmontonian now serving time in an American prison. Martin, who worked as the man's chef and household manager, insists she knew nothing about the phoney investment scheme, which her former employer verified in a sworn affidavit.
Family friend Charlie Flynn of Vancouver has maintained phone contact with Martin. He said she is being driven insane by harsh prison life and what she views as the hopelessly inept and corrupt Mexican justice system that seems intent on denying her a chance to prove her innocence.
Martin is now so mentally unstable her family and friends have no doubt she is capable of committing suicide. If she dies, they say, her blood will be on the hands of Mexican authorities and the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which they say has done little to help.
Flynn, a wealthy international businessman and long-time Conservative supporter, is furious the Canadian government has not intervened.
"It is incredible that Canada's government would allow an innocent Canadian citizen to be treated worse than a dog would be in America or Canada," said Flynn. "The most egregious part of the story is this treatment comes from a major NAFTA trading partner."
"Our young soldiers are dying to ensure people in Afghanistan do not suffer the same sort of treatment, yet a blind eye is turned by the prime minister to a Canadian's plight. It is time our government stood up for Canadians."
The Harper government has refused to intervene in Martin's case, saying it can't interfere with another country's judicial system. But some diplomatic work has been done. Former Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said in March he had raised Martin's case with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
Foreign Affairs has also offered some aid to Martin, visiting her regularly and arranging a weekly phone call from Martin to her mother through the Canadian consul in Guadalajara. Citing privacy issues, Foreign Affairs will not respond to questions about Martin or her case. Repeated calls to the Mexican embassy in Ottawa over the past several months have not been returned.
Martin's supporters are not surprised her nightmarish experience with the Mexican justice system has caused her to lose hope. The first lawyer hired by Martin's friends and family took more than $10,000 US, they say, then did nothing. Three other Mexican lawyers have requested payments of between $45,000 and $60,000 US. The lawyers said they needed the money to bribe various justice officials, including the judge, if Martin ever hoped to be released. One of the lawyers who asked for bribe money was on a list of lawyers provided to her supporters by the Canadian consul in Guadalajara.
Martin asked the court to remove her current lawyers - her fourth - because they had attempted to extort money from her family and friends in Canada. A representative of the lawyers recently called Martin's elderly mother and asked for $60,000. When she told him she didn't have it, he asked her: "How much is your daughter worth to you?"
The same representative then approached Flynn and demanded $15,000, claiming they had paid $13,000 to the jail's warden to ensure Martin's "security" and another $2,000 "down payment" to the judge on her case. Flynn refused to pay, but suspected the reference to Martin's security may have been a veiled threat.
Martin's supporters say that according to her lawyers there is no credible evidence to support charges she is a money launderer and member of a criminal gang.
Martin has proclaimed her innocence from the moment Mexican federal agents grabbed her off the street in Puerto Vallarta on Feb. 17, 2006. But she said the Mexican justice system has repeatedly thwarted her attempts to prove her innocence.
Martin, a caterer and chef, was jailed nearly five years after her former employer, Edmontonian Alyn Waage, was arrested in Puerto Vallarta. Waage and several other Canadians and Americans were indicted in California for operating what was believed to be the largest Internet-based fraud scheme in history. Between 1999 and 2001, Waage and his crew pulled in an estimated $60 million US from 15,000 investors around the world through a sophisticated Ponzi scheme where money from later investors was used to pay earlier ones.
Waage operated the scheme from a Puerto Vallarta mansion. Martin had lived in the popular tourist destination for three years before she met Waage. She was hired at $500 a week as a chef and general household manager.
Mexican authorities allege Martin participated in the criminal conspiracy and took money from Waage that she knew came from the proceeds of crime. But Waage, and at least two others directly involved in the scheme, have told The Journal that Martin had nothing to do with the scheme and wasn't told anything about it, because they didn't trust her to keep quiet. Martin told Mexican authorities before and after her arrest that Waage had given her money, but said it was severance paid after he fired her for insulting his elderly mother.
Waage, who is serving a 10-year-sentence in a North Carolina jail, swore an affidavit and provided testimony to Mexican officials that verified Martin's version of events. That was more than three months ago and there is still no indication of when the Mexican judge might render his decision.
Martin's fragile mental state worsened when she recently learned that under Mexican law, the judge could take up to eight years before he is required to issue a ruling.
For months, a small group of expatriate Canadians and Americans from a suburb of Guadalajara provided aid to Martin, visiting her weekly and providing food, toiletries and phone cards. But Martin's increasingly erratic behaviour eventually alienated them.
Now a handful of diehard supporters in Canada are trying to find a Mexican lawyer they can trust to take over her case. Given their past experience, there is no way they can know for certain the lawyer would act in Martin's best interest, just as there is no way to determine when the judge in her case might finally issue a ruling.
After 18 months in prison and with no end in sight, Martin believes she is now being held hostage and tortured by the Mexican justice system.
Months ago, during phone calls to her mother, friends and journalists, an unhinged Martin would rail maniacally against the Mexican justice system.
Those calls nearly always ended with an emotionally spent Martin sobbing hysterically and pleading for help. Not anymore.
"I am going to die," she said in a phone call to a Journal reporter, her voice a chilling dull, flat monotone. "I don't want to live anymore. They are killing me."
crusnell@thejournal.canwest.com |
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