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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2008 
Meeting Between Foreign Ministers Steps Up Pressure to Free Jailed Chef
 Charles Rusnell - Edmonton Journal
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| | Lawyer for Brenda Martin suggests constitution allows Mexico to free 'inconvenient' foreigners. | | |
Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier will meet with his Mexican counterpart today in Washington to try find a resolution to the high-profile case of imprisoned Canadian Brenda Martin.
Supporters of the emaciated and suicidal Trenton, Ont., native say there is a quick and easy solution that would free her from the Guadalajara prison where she has languished without trial for more than two years.
"Under the Mexican constitution, the executive council (of Mexico's cabinet) has the power to expel any foreigner who has become inconvenient for Mexico," Martin's Toronto lawyer, Guillermo Cruz Rico, said Sunday.
Martin has become inconvenient for both Mexico and the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The scene of a disturbed Martin sobbing uncontrollably while pleading for her life has been played and replayed in the media for weeks. Hundreds of angry Canadians have contacted the government and their MPs, demanding her release. Websites are springing up calling for a boycott of Mexican tourism and trade.
Bowing to public pressure, the government quietly removed junior minister Helena Guergis from Martin's file last week. Bernier responded immediately, calling Mexico's foreign affairs minister, Patricia Espinosa, and following that up with a diplomatic note.
Bernier issued the diplomatic note in direct response to a ruling by a Mexican court last week that found Martin's constitutional rights had not been violated. Her lawyers had claimed she was not provided with an approved translator either by police or the courts, in contravention of both Mexican and international law. Bernier could not be reached for comment Sunday.
After reviewing the 400-page ruling, Martin's lawyer said he found absolutely no justification for rejecting her constitutional challenge. The judge in the case claimed Martin had signed a confession, admitting to her crimes, but Cruz said there is nothing in her court file that shows she confessed to anything.
Canwest News revealed that Mexico's top prosecutor, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, had personally visited Martin in prison and, in front of a Canadian consular official, berated her for making the constitutional challenge and warned her not to appeal.
Santiago also told her the judge in her criminal case had already written his decision, which shocked Cruz since he had yet to file his defence in the case.
The visit from the deputy attorney general and the unsolicited legal advice, without Martin having legal representation present, was "extremely irregular," Cruz said.
Liberal consular services critic Dan McTeague was less diplomatic.
"The fix is in," McTeague said.
He called on Harper to phone Mexican president Felipe Calderon and demand she be released because of the numerous breaches of her rights.
Martin was employed as a chef for a former Albertan, Alyn Richard Waage, in Puerto Vallarta for 10 months in 2001. Waage was operating an Internet fraud scheme at the time. He was eventually arrested, and is serving a 10-year sentence in an American jail.
Five years after Waage's arrest, Martin was charged with money laundering and being part of a criminal conspiracy. Although Waage has provided a sworn affidavit stating Martin had no involvement in or knowledge of his operations, she has remained in jail since Feb. 17, 2006.
Martin's lawyers have said there is no evidence in the investigative file to support the charges against Martin, and they say the breaches of her right to due process are blatant.
Martin can't understand why the Mexican government is apparently so intent on keeping her in prison.
"I am a nobody, I am a nothing," she said Friday. "I was the chef ... and all I got was $26,000 in severance pay. That's it, that's all. Why won't they just let me go?"
Martin's childhood friend, Deb Tieleman, said Sunday that Mexico's ambassador to Canada, Emilio Goicoechea Luna, is very concerned about Martin's deteriorating physical and mental condition.
"He wants to find a solution and get Brenda out of there as soon as possible," Tieleman said. "He doesn't believe she can last much longer."
Cruz, a constitutional law expert and university lecturer in his native Mexico, said the president could release Martin in one day if he wished.
"If they are seriously looking for a solution, this is it," Cruz said. "They just need to make the decision."
crusnell(at)thejournal.canwest.com
'I Don't Know How Much the Government Thinks I Can Take'
Joe Warmington - Sun Media
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If Brenda Martin is not released from a Mexican prison before March 29, her supporters will protest at Parliament Hill on that date.
But the 51-year-old Trenton native, whose emaciated body is down to just 90 pounds, said this morning that she didn't think she would make it that far.
"I don't know how much the Canadian government thinks I can take in here," said told AM640's John Oakley in a radio interview.
Canadian Foreign Affairs minister Maxime Bernier is meeting with his Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa today and Martin's supporters are hopeful an agreement can be made to allow her release.
She is charged in a $60-million internet fraud case that was brought against former Albertan Alyn Waage. Martin worked as a chef for Waage in Puerto Vallarta for less than a year in 2001.
"I had no knowledge," she said of Waage's criminal enterprise.
Five years Waage's arrest, Martin was arrested. She has remained in jail for more than two years.
Waage has provided a sworn affidavit stating Martin had no involvement in his business.
"My human rights have been violated," Martin said.
There are 11 other women and an outhouse in her jail cell, she said.
If this is not settled, The Save Brenda Fund put out a release stating her supporters will have the rally "to raise public awareness of the plight of jailed Canadian Brenda Martin. The rally will also help to continue to bring pressure on the federal government to act on Brenda’s behalf before it is too late."
Organizer and former Liberal MP Paul Macklin has also written Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"No Canadian citizen ever should have to face the nightmare that Brenda Martin has during the past agonizing two years in a Mexican prison. We are putting this rally together to continue our efforts to fight for the release of Brenda Martin and for her safe return her to Canada."
Martin told the Oakley Show she believes today's meeting in Washington will not be enough.
"I think the prime minister will have to call the Mexican president," she said. |
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