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 News from Around the Americas | March 2008 
Charge by Martin's Former Boss 'An Interesting Theory': Macklin
 Valerie MacDonald - Northumberland Today
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| | Alyn Waage | | |
Northumberland-Quinte West Conservative MP Rick Norlock and his Liberal predecessor, Paul Macklin, question the veracity of allegations that the Mexican judicial system is looking for $500,000 before Canadian Brenda Martin is released from a Mexican prison.
Ms. Martin, 51, was a cook at the Puerto Vallarta home of Alyn Waage from May 2000 to March 2001.
Mr. Waage is behind bars in the U.S. for defrauding people of about US$60-million in an Internet fraud scheme. Ms. Martin has been in a Guadalajara jail for over two years on charges she was part of the scheme. She has not been tried or convicted.
In recent published and broadcast media reports Mr. Waage said he agreed to pay $500,000 to Mexican officials, but never did. Instead, he headed for Costa Rica when he was freed on bail.
He alleges Ms. Martin won't be released until the money is paid.
"I can't believe such a thing would be done... in the civilized world," Mr. Norlock said of Mr. Waage's claim.
It was not a subject discussed during last week's trip to Mexico to see Ms. Martin and Mexican officials, because the allegation hadn't yet been made, he continued.
"If I had known that, I would have asked Mexican officials," Mr. Norlock said.
People must look at the origin of this claim, he continued, because it comes from a man already convicted of lying.
"It's an interesting theory and it may have some substance to it," observed Mr. Macklin, who has been working since last summer to have Ms. Martin freed from prison.
Ms. Martin's mother lives in Trenton, part of the local riding, but Ms. Martin has lived in Mexico for the past decade.
It's unlikely people will ever really know why Mr. Waage has said this now, Mr. Macklin added.
Mr. Waage has already provided an affidavit stating that Ms. Martin was not part of the fraud scheme for which he has been convicted and is serving time.
But while Mr. Macklin is not pushing forward on the Waage allegation, he is calling for an inquiry into the handling of the Brenda Martin case by Canadian consular officials in Mexico.
The role of the Canadian consul in Mexico should become the subject of an inquiry, especially the way it dealt with Ms. Martin, a Canadian citizen, when she was jailed back in February 2006, he said.
"If Canadian consular officials had done their homework this (process) would have been shortened," Mr. Macklin said.
There must be an inquiry to avoid this happening again in Mexico - and to look at the process of educating and training Canadian consular officials around the world, he continued.
While saying he was not blaming individuals at the consulate and that it "might be the system," an inquiry is required in this case, Mr. Macklin said. It should deal with Canadians' expectations and what should be done should Canadians "run afoul" of the legal system in Mexico or in any other foreign country.
He also said that expectations about Mexico's justice system, because it is one of Canada's NAFTA trade partners, needs review. Trust in the system "is obviously misplaced.... Clearly they have enormous problems in their justice system," Mr. Macklin said.
Even though Mexico has amended its Constitution to replace the presumption of guilt with the presumption of innocence, it will take time for Mexico's 31 states to approve it.
Another very recent Constitutional change is that no one is to be held in preventive custody longer than two years, Mr. Macklin continued. If Mexican officials actually supported this principle, Ms. Martin would be released immediately because no judgment has been rendered and more than two years have passed since she was jailed.
vmacdonald(at)northumberlandtoday.com |
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