Human Rights and the Environment

Case Study: Protecting the Rights of Environmental Defenders to Protest Illegal Logging near Copper Canyon

Country: Mexico

Region: North America

Issues: Resource Extraction, Indigenous People, Public Participation

In 2004, Tarahumara Indian anti-logging activists Isidro Baldanegro and Hermenegildo Rivas led efforts to halt logging by outsiders of their indigenous community's old growth pine forests in a remote area near Mexico's Copper Canyon. Baldanegro succeeded in obtaining an injunction to halt the logging, and then local powerbrokers succeeded in having both activists falsely charged with possession of a firearm and marijuana. The activists remained in prison for over a year, while the arresting officers repeatedly failed to attend the court proceedings and present evidence.[1]

Lawyers from a private law firm in the United States orchestrated a broad-based campaign to publicize the matter and to protect and enforce Baldanegro's and Rivas' human rights to freedom of speech, assembly, and participation. Among other things, the lawyers traveled to Mexico to meet with the judge in the case; utilized diplomatic and political contacts; generated interest and involvement on the part of staff and members of the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and Mexican and Latin American environmental NGO's; got articles about the case published in Mexican newspapers; and urged the Attorney General of Mexico and other Mexican officials to meet to discuss the case. In March 2005, Mexican Attorney General Macedo de la Concha held a press conference to announce that Mexico was dropping the charges against the two activists. The arresting officers were charged criminally for their wrongful arrest of Baldanegro and Rivas, and the activists were unconditionally released from prison.[2]

[1] Documentation on file with Marcia Newlands, Esq., Heller Ehrman LLP, Seattle, Washington, USA.

[2] Id.

Last Updated: 09/09/05