|
|
|
 Editorials | Opinions | April 2008 
Why is a Former Lake Oswego Woman in a Mexican Prison?
 Margie Boule - The Oregonian
go to original
| | Oh, Canada, could you stand on guard for us, too? | | |
The next time you see a list comparing the U.S. and Canada (you know: they're colder, we're warmer, etc.) add this one: Canada takes care of its own. And the U.S. turns its back on citizens rotting in Mexican jails, without benefit of trial, for crimes it's likely they did not commit.
At least, that's what the U.S. has done to Rebecca Roth.
It may be a familiar name to some in the Portland area. Rebecca, who's 50, used to live in Lake Oswego. She worked for the Oregon Central Credit Union, says her sister Barbara Roth. Barbara lived in Lake Oswego then, too.
Rebecca moved with her sons to Puerto Vallarta in the late 1990s, Barbara says, "because she was sick so much of the time with asthma in the Northwest."
Rebecca sold her house, car and furniture and headed south. She bought a boutique called Nina Y June.
"One day she's in her shop, and the wife of a very wealthy Canadian man, Alyn Waage, comes in. Rebecca is very friendly to everyone," and the women had a chat. "Later the woman comes back and says, 'My husband would like to meet you.' "
Rebecca joined the couple for dinner, Barbara says, "and he says, 'I'd like you to work for me part time.' He needed her to pay the bills on all the properties he had purchased" in Puerto Vallarta.
In Mexico, Barbara explains, you can't just mail a check to pay utility and other bills. "You have to go in person and stand in line." Alyn Waage was too busy with his "investment" business to stand in line. Rebecca agreed to pay bills for his properties and also to make travel arrangements for Alyn's family, friends and employees.
Barbara says every month Rebecca would compile a list of payments and Waage (pronounced "wage") would deposit that amount, and Rebecca's wages, in her bank account. She would pay the bills for his properties.
Then, in 2001, Waage was arrested at the Puerto Vallarta airport by Mexican authorities. They were expecting a drug lord. Instead they found Waage with a bag holding $4.5 million in money orders and checks, made out to Waage's company.
Waage was savvy as to the ways of the Mexican justice system. He hired a well-connected attorney, then-President Fox's personal attorney Marco (Antonio) del Toro, who arranged a $2.2 million bail payment. Waage jumped bail and was later arrested by American authorities in Costa Rica.
He was extradited to the U.S. and convicted of wire fraud and money laundering for operating what is thought to be the largest Internet-based Ponzi scheme in history. The U.S. attorney in Sacramento estimated Waage had stolen $60 million from 15,000 investors in 29 countries around the world.
After Waage's arrest in Mexico in 2001, Rebecca heard nothing more until February 2006, when she was suddenly arrested by Mexican police. A Canadian woman named Brenda Martin, who'd been Alyn Waage's cook, also was arrested. They were told they'd been arrested for receiving money they knew had been obtained illegally.
Clearly, the women's rights under international law were not respected. "The U.S. and Mexico and Canada are signatories of an international agreement in which people who have not been found guilty should not be housed with convicted criminals," explains Charles Rusnell, a Canadian reporter who has worked for years on this story.
Both women were thrown in the Puente Grande prison in 2006, into overcrowded, miserable cells with convicted murderers and the mentally ill.
They also were not given interpreters.
"Neither Canada nor the U.S. has done anything to ensure their rights," Charles says.
In Mexico, Charles explains, they have Napoleonic law. Which means, "You're guilty until you prove yourself innocent." Rebecca had her boutique employees scrambling to find receipts for Alyn Waage's household bills she'd paid.
Her sister Barbara, who has retired to Ajijic, Mexico, began weekly visits to the prison to provide food, clothing, sanitary products, blankets - not supplied in Mexico's unheated, un-air conditioned prisons. Their elderly mother, who lives in Portland, provided $20,000 for a Mexican lawyer Barbara is unhappy with.
Both women have had health problems in prison, waiting for a trial they feared might never come.
But Brenda Martin had reason for hope. The Canadian media was receptive to her story; it soon was publicized nationally in newspapers and on network TV.
Objections were raised to Mexico's ambassador to Canada. Politicians and high-ranking government officials traveled from Canada to Mexico. Prime Minister Stephen Harper appealed directly to Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Brenda's behalf. A "Don't vacation in Mexico" movement was begun in Canada; newspapers editorialized in favor of a boycott.
But Rebecca's friends and family had no luck catching the interest or attention of the U.S. media or government. There were no network news reports, no governmental appeals.
"I have written e-mail after e-mail, and sent article after article to Sen. Gordon Smith," Barbara says. "He has never once replied personally to me."
His staff sent what Barbara calls a "perfunctory" request for information to the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara. "The consulate sent back something full of misinformation," Barbara says. "I told Sen. Smith's office I would correct it, but they never replied." Smith's press secretary, Lindsay Jackson Gilbride, says "Sen. Smith's office is continuing to work with Ms. Roth and diligently investigating the case."
The consulate reported Rebecca had good health care in prison. But, Barbara says, "the cockroaches were so thick in that clinic, at night they had to keep lights on so they wouldn't crawl on her. I asked the consulate to just get her a doctor when she was so sick. They didn't."
She repeatedly contacted the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and got no help, she says.
Efforts to work with the Mexican justice system have been frustrating and futile. Alyn Waage, in a prison in North Carolina, swore out a statement before a U.S. judge that neither Rebecca nor Brenda ever had any idea his business was a criminal enterprise. He told Canadian reporters that five people knew the true nature of his business, and Rebecca and Brenda were not among them.
Mexican authorities, after requesting Alyn's statement, disregarded it "because they said it was the statement of a criminal," Barbara says.
The U.S. attorney who prosecuted Waage, and the FBI, which investigated his case, were not interested in Rebecca and Brenda and did not have them extradited for trial.
Both women are adamant they had nothing to do with Alyn Waage's crimes.
And yet, when they finally had their hearing before a judge last week, after being held two years without due process, both women were found guilty.
Rebecca Roth was sentenced to nine years in a Mexican prison, Brenda Martin to five.
Alyn Waage, who bilked people out of $60 million, will spend 10 years in a minimum security prison in the U.S. He will get out before Rebecca Roth, who paid his utility bills and made his plane reservations.
Barbara Roth was stunned when she heard the news this week. "I was going to take her out to dinner tonight to celebrate. I had a bottle of champagne chilling. And now she's not coming out."
"I don't know where I'm going to get the strength to keep going, and I really don't know how she will."
"She was not involved in his crimes. But when you're dealing with the Mexican system, you're fighting in the dark. They won't disclose the secrets of their justice process."
It's possible Brenda, the cook, got a lighter sentence because pressure was brought to bear on the Mexicans by Canadians.
"But at least they tried to help her," Barbara says. "They kept track of Brenda, they followed the story. At least the Canadians cared enough to do that."
Margie Boule: marboule(at)aol.com |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us