TEGUCIGALPA -- In a stunning decision, Mexican environmentalists Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia, who have spent the past 16 months in prison on trumped up charges of illegal possession of weapons and drug trafficking, were convicted today of those charges.  The ruling by a Mexican court is likely to send a chilling effect throughout the Mexican environmental community and will likely upset efforts to protect the environment in Mexico.

"The losers here are Rodolfo Montiel, Teodoro Cabrera, and the condition of human rights and environmental protections in Mexico," said Jorge Varela, executive director of the Committee for the Protection and Development of the Flora and Fauna of the Gulf of Fonseca (CODDEFFAGOLF).  "Despite our best efforts locally to stand with Montiel and Cabrera as members of the Human Rights and the Environment Campaign of the Sierra Club and Amnesty International, the Mexican government found these earth defenders guilty of crimes they clearly did not commit.  This is a sad day for them and for us all."

Montiel, one of the founding members of the Organization of Campesino Environmentalists of the Sierra de Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan, was a recipient of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize for his efforts to organize farmers to oppose the rampant and possibly illegal logging in the mountains in Guerrero, Mexico.  On May 2, 1999, Montiel and Cabrera were arrested by members of the 40th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army.  They were subsequently brutally tortured until they signed blank pieces of paper later filled in with false confessions.

On July 14, 2000, Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights, a governmental organization, acknowledged that Montiel and Cabrera had been illegally detained and tortured by members of the Mexican Army.  The report also rejected the allegation that the two men were carrying weapons at the time of their arrest.

Forensic doctors working for the Danish section of Physicians for Human Rights confirmed the torture after examining Montiel and Cabrera, and concluded that the physical signs and symptoms coincide conclusively with the timing and methods of torture previously described by the two activists.

"Environmental protection is only possible when people can organize their communities to protest excessive resource extraction and pollution," said Jorge Varela.  "We, here in Tegucigalpa, are standing with environmentalists around the world who are targeted for human rights violations out of retribution for their environmentalism.  We condemn this decision and will continue to work to free Montiel and Cabrera and to defend the human rights of environmentalists everywhere."