Mexican anti-logging activists win freedom

Two indigenous Tarahumara anti-logging campaigners have been freed from prison following an international campaign on their behalf by human-rights and environmental groups. Isidro Baldenegro and Hermenegildo Rivas were arrested on weapons and drug charges in March 2003 by Chihuahua State Judicial Police. The men’s supporters called the arrests a frame-up aimed at stopping Baldenegro and Rivas from campaigning against logging in the Sierra Tarahumara, their northern Mexico homeland. (See “Freedom sought for anti-logging activists”—EcoAméricas, June ’04.) Baldenegro and Rivas were released on June 23 after Mexican Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha withdrew the charges filed against the pair. They had spent 15 months behind bars. In a statement, the attorney general’s office did not admit irregularities in the... [Log in to read more]

Would you like to Subscribe?