Posted on 08/31/2007 10:03:53 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
EDMONTON -- When Brenda Martin's hair recently got infested with lice, she didn't have money for medication, so jailers shaved her head to stop the infestation from spreading to the 11 other women, and a two-month-old baby, crammed together in a 2 1/2-by-3 1/2-metre Mexican prison cell.
The week before, Martin, who now weighs less than 100 pounds, refused to eat, saying she intended to starve herself to death.
Disoriented and too weak to stand, she was taken to the prison infirmary, shackled to a bed and fed intravenously until the veins in her right arm collapsed, she said.
The head shaving and forced feeding of a Canadian citizen in a Mexican jail seems too inhumane to be true, but it has been confirmed by an American prisoner in the same jail.
"They are torturing my daughter," said Martin's mother, Marjorie Bletcher of Trenton, Ont. "Why can't they just let her go?"
Martin, 50, wants to die because she has lost all hope she will ever be released from the Puente Grande prison on the outskirts of Guadalajara.
Martin has been held there without bail, and without a trial, for the past 18 months.
"I am going to die," she said in a phone interview, her voice a chilling dull, flat monotone. "I don't want to live anymore. They are killing me."
From the moment Mexican federal agents grabbed Martin off the street in Puerto Vallarta on Feb. 17, 2006, she has proclaimed her innocence.
Martin, a caterer and chef, was jailed nearly five years after her former employer, Alyn Waage of Edmonton, was arrested in Puerto Vallarta.
Waage and several other Canadians and Americans were indicted in California for operating what was believed to be the largest Internet-based fraud scheme in history.
Between 1999 and 2001, Waage and his crew pulled in an estimated $60 million US from 15,000 investors around the world through a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.
Martin was hired by Waage at $500 a week as a chef and general household manager.
Mexican authorities claim she participated in the criminal conspiracy and took money from Waage that she knew came from the proceeds of crime. But Waage, who is serving a 10-year-sentence in a North Carolina jail, has said Martin was not involved in the scheme and swore an affadavit that verified Martin's version of events.
That was more than three months ago and there is still no indication of when the Mexican judge might render his decision.
Martin's fragile mental state worsened when she recently learned that under Mexican law, the judge could take up to eight years before he is required to issue a ruling.
Martin is now so mentally unstable her family and friends have no doubt she is capable of committing suicide. If she dies, they say her blood will be on the hands of Mexican authorities and the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which they say has done little to help.
"It is incredible that Canada's government would allow an innocent Canadian citizen to be treated worse than a dog would be in America or Canada," said family friend Charlie Flynn of Vancouver, who has maintained phone contact with Martin.
The Harper government has refused to intervene in Martin's case, saying it can't interfere with another country's judicial system. Former Foreign Affairs minister Peter MacKay said in March he had raised Martin's case with Mexican president Felipe Calderon.
Foreign Affairs also has offered some aid to Martin, visiting her regularly and arranging a weekly phone call from Martin to her mother through the Canadian consul in Guadalajara.
Citing privacy issues, Foreign Affairs would not respond to questions about Martin or her case. Calls to the Mexican embassy in Ottawa were not returned.
Martin's supporters say her first lawyer - hired by her friends and family - took more than $10,000 US, then did nothing. Three other Mexican lawyers have requested payments of between $45,000 and $60,000 US, claiming they needed the money to bribe various justice officials, including the judge.
A representative of the lawyers recently called Martin's elderly mother and asked for $60,000. When she told him she didn't have it, he asked her, "How much is your daughter worth to you?"
The same representative then approached Flynn and demanded $15,000, claiming they had paid $13,000 to the jail's warden to ensure Martin's "security" and another $2,000 "downpayment" to the judge on her case.
Flynn refused to pay, but suspected the reference to Martin's security may have been a veiled threat.
crusnell@thejournal.canwest.com
Edmonton Journal
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
“Swift and sure punishment?”
Anyone own a helicopter?
Mexico is a third world country with no functioning legal system. It's a very dangerous place. Much like most of Africa, something very bad can happen to you just for visiting the country.
Owl_Eagle
If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.
Crime doesnt pay.
Who cares? Let them solve this problem themselves
Well, shoot! No wonder they all run to TX, AZ and CA!
And that anchor-baby mother/illegal alien “Elriva” wants us to think the U.S. is treating HER poorly?
Someone must interevene. I’m going to send this off to O’Reilly. I know he’s been wrong about FR recently, but this is the kind of thing he often publicizes on his program.
Don’t look for this on “60 Minutes.” Those bozos love Mexico.
I think that theheads of returned male illegals should be shaved
Works for me! This poor woman has been through enough.
“Martin has been held there without bail, and without a trial,
for the past 18 months.”’
Just confirming my supposition that most Mexican illegals in the USA...
are willing to invade the USA because living in an American prison ain’t
such a bad gig.
Compared to being in a Mexican prison.
Send it to Bush while you’re at it. He cares and is compassionate.
Remind me again why anybody in their right mind would want to visit Mexico?
The lawyers in this case seem to be doing alright.
I know this is soooo bad of me, but I couldn't help but think of Baby Face Finster from the Bugs Bunny Show.
Why do they have a baby in there? I can understand the breastfeeding and bonding issues, but to keep a baby constantly under those conditions is just wrong.
Why anyone would want to travel to Mexico .... for any reason, I have no idea.
There are 44 missing Americans, kidnapped in Mexico. And their families have been having to handle that themselves.
Do not ever step over the Mexican border. What despicable filth. And Bush works so hard to bring all that into the US.
I will never set foot in the corrupt shi$hole known as Mexico. This are the same people who were chanting, “Osama, Osama, Osama” at a US vs Mexican soccer game. These are the same bunch of wetbacks that booed Miss America when she slipped and fell. I am sick of this “brown entitlement” mentality that wants to take our country and our jobs. Mexico can go to hell!
Semper Fi’
Jarhead
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