Boycott Mexico
Joe_Stalin @ Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:09 pm
Why visit or spend any Canadian dollars in this banana republic?
$1:
Brenda Martin found guilty in Mexico
'This is awful. This is probably going to kill her,' Martin's mother says
Charles Rusnell, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
GUADALAJARA, Mexico -- Canadian Brenda Martin has been found guilty by a Mexican judge of accepting funds from an Internet scam and sentenced to five years in prison.
In a brief ruling issued Tuesday afternoon, Judge Luis Nunez Sandoval said Martin is guilty of the charge of accepting illicit funds. She was also fined 35,850 pesos -- about $3,400.
But Sandoval issued a warning to the prosecution. He said that if they attempt to appeal Martin's sentence, "she may return in a casket to her home," according to a Canwest News Service/Global translator.
Martin's mother, Marjorie Bletcher, said she was horrified by the ruling.
"This is awful. This is probably going to kill her. I might not ever see her again," she said.
"I know she's not guilty and I guess it's all to save face. I just have to pray that she's going to be OK because I mean, this has got to be devastating for her. I mean, to know that you are innocent and to get this verdict ... this is crazy. I guess Mexico's going to make her pay."
Outside the court, Martin's lawyer, Guillermo Cruz Rico of Toronto, said she was shocked by the judge's ruling.
He said he was with Martin when she received the news and she collapsed and began to scream.
Cruz said Martin has threatened to kill herself.
Bletcher expressed the fear that the ruling might worsen Martin's fragile mental state.
"She's in such a fragile state that I'm afraid this might just take her over the edge," she said. "Bring her back right away. She needs help.
"Brenda, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I know you're innocent. I guess if I'd had money ... Or maybe we'd had a proper lawyer, this might not have happened. There is so much corruption in Mexico."
Deb Tieleman, Martin's childhood friend and advocate, immediately began to yell after the decision was read.
"This is incredible," she shouted. "There is no justice in this country.
"There was never any evidence against Brenda Martin."
Jeff Marder, a spokesman for the Canadian embassy in Mexico City, said the Canadian government would issue a statement about Martin very soon. It is believed Ottawa will announce that Martin will be transferred home to Canada as soon as possible, possibly under an agreement with Martin that would reduce her sentence based on time served.
Martin's legal nightmare began on Feb. 17, 2006. She had arranged to meet a potential client who wanted her to cater a birthday party for his mother.
They met on a Puerto Vallarta street near her apartment. The client turned out to be an undercover police officer. He grabbed her by the wrist and several other Mexican federal police officers suddenly appeared. She was placed in a waiting vehicle.
She was eventually charged with knowingly accepting illicit funds from a scam run by her former boss, Alyn Waage.
Waage, a former Edmonton resident, masterminded what's believed to be the largest Internet-based fraud scheme in history, bilking 15,000 investors in 59 countries out of about $60-million.
Martin worked as a chef for Waage for 10 months until he fired her in early 2001 for insulting his elderly mother. He paid her $26,000 in severance pay and, without his knowledge, she invested about $10,000 into what she believed was his legitimate investment business. After Waage's arrest in April, 2001, she asked him to return her investment and he complied.
The bank account evidence of the severance pay and the investment became the prosecution's principal piece of evidence against Martin. In fact, the prosecution conceded it had no direct evidence against Martin, but insisted it had enough circumstantial evidence to "infer" that she should have known the money she obtained from Waage came from the proceeds of his crime.
Martin always maintained she knew nothing of her employer's criminal scheme and Waage swore an affidavit in support.
A series of lawyers hired by friends and family, and a public defender provided by the Mexican government, all made promises to free Martin. But for nearly two years, none delivered.
Martin became increasingly frustrated and depressed because she could never understand what was happening with her case. And the judge in her case set repeated deadlines that were subsequently changed.
Tieleman, learned about Martin's plight in September 2007 and immediately started a public campaign to free her.
She hired Cruz Rico and publicly criticized the Canadian government's lack of effort on Martin's case.
Cruz reviewed Martin's file and concluded there was no evidence to support the charge against her. He learned she had not been provided with an interpreter, either by police or the courts -- a breach of both Mexican and international law.
The file also revealed that no one from the Canadian consulate in Guadalajara had asked to review Martin's file until she had been imprisoned for nearly 18 months.
The revelations caused a media firestorm and Martin's story figured prominently in the news for weeks after.
A constitutional challenge based on the violation of Martin's rights failed and Martin, physically weak and mentally ill, was placed on a suicide watch.
Responding to public pressure, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier sent a diplomatic note to Mexico on March 11, raising concerns about Martin's rights.
Bernier also removed junior minister Helena Guergis from the file, replacing her with MP Jason Kenney.
After Martin's lawyer filed her defence earlier this month, the Mexican judge said he would try to issue a ruling by April 18. That deadline, however, was pushed back to today.
Edmonton Journal
http://www.nationalpost.com/nationalpos ... ?id=464261
'This is awful. This is probably going to kill her,' Martin's mother says
Charles Rusnell, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
GUADALAJARA, Mexico -- Canadian Brenda Martin has been found guilty by a Mexican judge of accepting funds from an Internet scam and sentenced to five years in prison.
In a brief ruling issued Tuesday afternoon, Judge Luis Nunez Sandoval said Martin is guilty of the charge of accepting illicit funds. She was also fined 35,850 pesos -- about $3,400.
But Sandoval issued a warning to the prosecution. He said that if they attempt to appeal Martin's sentence, "she may return in a casket to her home," according to a Canwest News Service/Global translator.
Martin's mother, Marjorie Bletcher, said she was horrified by the ruling.
"This is awful. This is probably going to kill her. I might not ever see her again," she said.
"I know she's not guilty and I guess it's all to save face. I just have to pray that she's going to be OK because I mean, this has got to be devastating for her. I mean, to know that you are innocent and to get this verdict ... this is crazy. I guess Mexico's going to make her pay."
Outside the court, Martin's lawyer, Guillermo Cruz Rico of Toronto, said she was shocked by the judge's ruling.
He said he was with Martin when she received the news and she collapsed and began to scream.
Cruz said Martin has threatened to kill herself.
Bletcher expressed the fear that the ruling might worsen Martin's fragile mental state.
"She's in such a fragile state that I'm afraid this might just take her over the edge," she said. "Bring her back right away. She needs help.
"Brenda, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I know you're innocent. I guess if I'd had money ... Or maybe we'd had a proper lawyer, this might not have happened. There is so much corruption in Mexico."
Deb Tieleman, Martin's childhood friend and advocate, immediately began to yell after the decision was read.
"This is incredible," she shouted. "There is no justice in this country.
"There was never any evidence against Brenda Martin."
Jeff Marder, a spokesman for the Canadian embassy in Mexico City, said the Canadian government would issue a statement about Martin very soon. It is believed Ottawa will announce that Martin will be transferred home to Canada as soon as possible, possibly under an agreement with Martin that would reduce her sentence based on time served.
Martin's legal nightmare began on Feb. 17, 2006. She had arranged to meet a potential client who wanted her to cater a birthday party for his mother.
They met on a Puerto Vallarta street near her apartment. The client turned out to be an undercover police officer. He grabbed her by the wrist and several other Mexican federal police officers suddenly appeared. She was placed in a waiting vehicle.
She was eventually charged with knowingly accepting illicit funds from a scam run by her former boss, Alyn Waage.
Waage, a former Edmonton resident, masterminded what's believed to be the largest Internet-based fraud scheme in history, bilking 15,000 investors in 59 countries out of about $60-million.
Martin worked as a chef for Waage for 10 months until he fired her in early 2001 for insulting his elderly mother. He paid her $26,000 in severance pay and, without his knowledge, she invested about $10,000 into what she believed was his legitimate investment business. After Waage's arrest in April, 2001, she asked him to return her investment and he complied.
The bank account evidence of the severance pay and the investment became the prosecution's principal piece of evidence against Martin. In fact, the prosecution conceded it had no direct evidence against Martin, but insisted it had enough circumstantial evidence to "infer" that she should have known the money she obtained from Waage came from the proceeds of his crime.
Martin always maintained she knew nothing of her employer's criminal scheme and Waage swore an affidavit in support.
A series of lawyers hired by friends and family, and a public defender provided by the Mexican government, all made promises to free Martin. But for nearly two years, none delivered.
Martin became increasingly frustrated and depressed because she could never understand what was happening with her case. And the judge in her case set repeated deadlines that were subsequently changed.
Tieleman, learned about Martin's plight in September 2007 and immediately started a public campaign to free her.
She hired Cruz Rico and publicly criticized the Canadian government's lack of effort on Martin's case.
Cruz reviewed Martin's file and concluded there was no evidence to support the charge against her. He learned she had not been provided with an interpreter, either by police or the courts -- a breach of both Mexican and international law.
The file also revealed that no one from the Canadian consulate in Guadalajara had asked to review Martin's file until she had been imprisoned for nearly 18 months.
The revelations caused a media firestorm and Martin's story figured prominently in the news for weeks after.
A constitutional challenge based on the violation of Martin's rights failed and Martin, physically weak and mentally ill, was placed on a suicide watch.
Responding to public pressure, Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier sent a diplomatic note to Mexico on March 11, raising concerns about Martin's rights.
Bernier also removed junior minister Helena Guergis from the file, replacing her with MP Jason Kenney.
After Martin's lawyer filed her defence earlier this month, the Mexican judge said he would try to issue a ruling by April 18. That deadline, however, was pushed back to today.
Edmonton Journal
http://www.nationalpost.com/nationalpos ... ?id=464261
kenmore @ Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:39 pm
I agree with you on this one Joe.. I went to Mexico recently and it is still a very backward place.. they depend alot on tourist dollars but treat the tourists like shit.. I have to laugh when they show the so called 3 amigos supposedly working on the NAFTA agreement.. Mexico has fuck all to import so why bother.. Canadians should boycott and show them we wont put up with this shit..
mixedfarmer @ Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:08 pm
IF they appeal the judge will make sure she comes home in a casket? I don't have money to visit Mexico anyway .I know stories of people from our area that had to pay allot of money to get a son out of a Mexican prison. Yes I think we should cut ties with this shitty country and call for all Canadians to avoid Mexico as we can not guarantee their safety.
BartSimpson @ Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:17 pm
Time to send in a few troops to get her out.
Two members of a certain nations military were once arrested in Tijuana and their relatives were told to pay up or the two boys would die. The night the extortion demand was received a mysterious black helicopter deposited some equally mysterious men on the roof of the TJ jail who then extracted the two boys.
Mr. Harper should authorize the same.
hurley_108 @ Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:09 pm
For all my left wing views, I prefer to vacation in the safety and familiarity of Hawaii rather than chance Mexico or Cuba.
ManifestDestiny @ Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:16 pm
They hate white people there what do you expect you know how many Americans this happens to.
sasquatch2 @ Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:52 pm
BartSimpson
$1:
Time to send in a few troops to get her out.
Two members of a certain nations military were once arrested in Tijuana and their relatives were told to pay up or the two boys would die. The night the extortion demand was received a mysterious black helicopter deposited some equally mysterious men on the roof of the TJ jail who then extracted the two boys.
Mr. Harper should authorize the same.
Canada has good relations with that certain country and those resources are still available. What are friends for? Besides, those "mysterious" men know the layout.
ManifestDestiny @ Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:57 pm
how many times we gotta beat up Mexico we did it in 1845 and forced them to sell us the South West.
May be if Obama wins to trump Jimmy Carter for giving back the Panama Canal (which we bought ang paid for) he will give back the south west.
inquiksilver @ Tue Apr 22, 2008 9:14 pm
I was arrested in Puerto Vallarta on my senior spring break, i guess for disorderly conduct. The police decided it was necessary to tackle me to the pavement, in turn cracking open my chin, for this type of misdemeanor. Luckily 20 American dollars equaled a free ticket out of jail, and I was on my way to the hospital where I left with 12 stitches, and headed back to Senor Frog's.
lostalex @ Sat Apr 26, 2008 9:00 am
my best friend was gang raped in cancunn(sp) during spring break.
i love Mexican people, and i am totally against the current imigration policies of my country, but personally i would never go to mexico.
i'm sure the country is beautiful, and i know many mexicans here in california. so i know they are beautiful friendly epople. it's just the justice system that turn me off, and the corruption. Not just Mexico though, i'm very paranoid of many countries. i just have a paranoia of getting itno some kind of legal trouble and having no way of defending myself.
I love the Mexican people, but hate their currupt public officials and justice system! i hope in the future we stop treating them as sub-human, the immigrants i mean, and as far as i'm concerned we should welcome them all as refugees and invite them to become full citizens.
Although i dispise john mccain for his position on foreign policy (specifically the war), and would never vote for him, the one redeeming quality if he wins, is that he'll finally pass a reasonable immigration bill, and give all the great mexican people that have come to America a chance to become full citizens!
i think about it this way. if america continues down it's current path, in 20 years us liberal minded americans will be in a similar position in our refugee status in canada. so i definitely support all immigrants fleeing corrupt governments to find a better life.
Mexico is a government, not it's people, just like America is a government, not it's people. Humans are born to the planet, not to a government.
EyeBrock @ Sat Apr 26, 2008 9:39 am
kenmore kenmore:
I agree with you on this one Joe.. I went to Mexico recently and it is still a very backward place.. they depend alot on tourist dollars but treat the tourists like shit.. I have to laugh when they show the so called 3 amigos supposedly working on the NAFTA agreement.. Mexico has fuck all to import so why bother.. Canadians should boycott and show them we wont put up with this shit..
You hit the nail on the head kenmore. It still is a very backward country. I've done the Canadian tourist thing at Playa de Carmen and I had no hassle but then I wasn't hammered out of my skull at Senor Frogs.
Canadians thinking that Mexico is similar to Canada really need to give their head a shake.
Travelling to any 3rd world country should not be taken lightly.
Things that are a mere liquor ticket in Toronto can end up as a good kick-in by the local cops and a lengthy spell in a nasty jail cell, finished up with a good bribe.
Remember that you are no longer home.
mtbr @ Sat Apr 26, 2008 10:00 am
I went to Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta 20 years ago, wasn't impressed than and never will return.
Cheap booze and partyin is all its good for.........Senor Frogs....ay ya ya 