On May 2, the Mexican military arrested Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia, two environmentalists who organized their communities to curb logging in the old-growth forests of the Sierra de Petatlan in southwestern Mexico. Wealthy land owners, angered by disruption to their profitable logging ventures, targeted Montiel and Cabrera and urged corrupt Army officials to arrest them. Since May, Montiel and Cabrera have reportedly been beaten, tortured, and forced to confess to charges concocted by the military--including drug trafficking and belonging to a guerrilla group.

Please write to the Mexican Ambassador and demand that Montiel and Cabrera be released from jail immediately. Tell him that torturing environmentalists is an outrageous violation of basic human rights.

Ambassador Jesus Reyes Heroles
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20006
FAX (202) 728-1698.


You can also write to your representative and encourage him/her to sign the Pelosi letter to free the jailed environmentalists. The Sierra Club has a sample letter that you can use, as well as more information on the Pelosi letter.


For more information on human rights violations and the environment, please visit the Sierra Club's human rights campaign page

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