Human Rights First applauds President Fox' announcement yesterday that he ordered the immediate release of jailed Mexican environmentalists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera.  President Fox' unexpected announcement came 20 days after the October 19 murder of their former lawyer and long-time advocate, Digna Ochoa, and only days before Montiel and Cabrera's case was to be heard by the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights in Washington, D.C. 

In May 1999, the environmentalists were pursued and detained by a convoy of soldiers who had burst into their community in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Targeted by  local authorities because they opposed wildcat logging, they were held and tortured over several days until they "confessed" to marijuana cultivation and illegal arms possession. Despite clear evidence that the men were forced to confess and that remaining evidence was planted, they were convicted of narcotics and weapons charges and sentenced to prison where they remained for over two years in spite of court appeals and other legal interventions.  They were kept in jail even after Mexico's own official human rights commission found over a year ago that soldiers illegally detained and tortured them, and planted evidence. 

Montiel and Cabrera's case illustrates how Mexican criminal justice can be used to put a façade of legality on  injustices against persons targeted by authorities for political or other illegitimate reasons.  Sadly, many others remain in Mexico's prisons under similar circumstances.  Having taken an important step in releasing the environmentalists, President Fox should now turn his attention to examining and resolving other outstanding cases, ensuring those responsible for misdeeds in these cases are prosecuted, and taking urgent measures to reform Mexican criminal justice so that such injustices are not repeated.