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 News from Around the Americas | December 2007 
Brenda Martin's Case Goes to Mexican Ambassador
 Charles Rusnell - The Edmonton Journal
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| | Happier days - Brenda Martin |
Edmonton - Supporters of a Canadian woman imprisoned in Mexico for nearly two years will meet with the Mexican ambassador to Canada in Ottawa on Tuesday to press for her immediate release.
Brenda Martin's supporters will argue the Mexican justice system showed bias against the former Trenton, Ont.-native by jailing her while quickly releasing a Mexican citizen - the former deputy police chief of Puerto Vallarta - who was also employed by a former Edmonton con man. Alyn Waage is in prison for operating what is believed to be the biggest Internet-based pyramid fraud scheme in history.
"This is a chance to make a very wrong situation right," said Deb Tieleman, a Waterloo, Ont., businesswoman who is a longtime friend of Martin's.
Tieleman and Martin's new lawyer, Guillermo Cruz Rico of Toronto, secured a meeting with Mexican ambassador Emilio Goicoechea Luna two weeks ago when he made an unannounced visit to Martin in the Puente Grande prison in Guadalajara.
By coincidence, Tieleman and Cruz were also at the prison visiting Martin. They met with Goicoechea for nearly two hours. After hearing Martin's story, he offered to do all he could to expedite Martin's case.
Cruz, who works with high-profile Toronto lawyer Eddie Greenspan, said the ambassador can't make the decision to release Martin but has contacts in the highest levels of the Mexican government. Tieleman wants the Mexican government to abandon its case and extradite Martin to Canada, or failing that, to release her on bail until her case is heard.
"I honestly believe the Mexican ambassador can make it happen if he wants to," Tieleman said.
Martin, now 50, was arrested and jailed in February 2006, nearly five years after Waage was arrested. Between 1999 and 2001, Waage pulled in about $60 million from 15,000 victims worldwide. He operated the scheme from a cliffside mansion in Puerto Vallarta.
Martin, who had lived in Puerto Vallarta for several years, worked as Waage's chef and house manager for 10 months. She has strongly denied any knowledge of the scheme. Waage, who is serving 10 years in an American prison, swore an affidavit before Mexican officials earlier this year attesting to her innocence. Despite that, Martin has been denied bail and has yet to have a trial after 22 months in prison.
Former Puerto Vallarta deputy police chief Gonzalo Cuevas Perez was released after only 15 days in prison. As Waage's bodyguard, Cuevas worked closely with the con man every day.
Cuevas was with Waage in a chartered jet when he was arrested at the Puerto Vallarta airport in 2001 with $4.5 million in cheques and money orders made out to Waage's front company.
In an interview with The Journal at his Puerto Vallarta home in February 2003, Cuevas said he was released after Waage's lawyer posted his bail.
He said he was never charged because Mexican authorities determined he had no knowledge of the fraud scheme.
Mexican court documents show Waage was only charged with not declaring the money found in the jet. Though he was wanted in Edmonton for mortgage fraud, he was released by Mexican authorities after he signed over his $2.2-million Puerto Vallarta mansion to his lawyer, a personal adviser to then president Vicente Fox.
Waage immediately fled to Costa Rica, where he was subsequently arrested and deported to the United States.
Cruz has applied to the Mexican court to have Martin's charges dismissed because he says her basic legal rights under both Mexican and international law were breached. A judge in Guadalajara will hear that argument Jan. 7.
Cruz said there is no credible evidence to support the charges Martin faces for money laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy.
"Brenda Martin has been lost in the Mexican justice system for nearly two years," Tieleman said.
"In light of the abuses of her rights and her unfair treatment compared to a Mexican citizen, she should be released immediately. I don't intend to take no for an answer."
crusnell(at)thejournal.canwest.com |
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