Mexican environmentalists sentenced
Rodolfo Montiel Flores, the imprisoned leader of a campesino environment group in the western Mexican state of Guerrero, was notified on August 28 that he had been sentenced to six years and eight months' jail for allegedly planting marijuana, using a firearm without a permit and possessing a weapon for the exclusive use of the army. Another member of his organisation, Antonio Cabrera Garcia, was sentenced to 10 years' jail for possessing a military weapon.
Both men, activists against the deforestation of the Petatlan Sierra region by Mexican and United States forestry companies, were arrested and tortured by federal soldiers in May 1999 and have been held in the federal penitentiary in Iguala, Guerrero. Montiel received the Goldman Environmental Award in April.
One day earlier, the Mexican daily La Jornada reported that investigations have been opened into possible involvement in drug trafficking by General Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro Escapite and General Francisco Humberto Quiros Hermosillo. Both worked in military intelligence against guerrilla movements in Guerrero in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
US judge linked to Texaco
The longstanding suits against Texaco oil on behalf of thousands of Ecuadoran indigenous people for environmental damage and health problems around oilfields the company developed in Ecuador's Oriente region took a new turn on September 1 when the plaintiffs' lawyers filed a motion asking Judge Jed Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan to excuse himself from the case because of the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Rakoff attended an all expenses paid six-day seminar on environmental issues at a Montana ranch in September 1998. The seminar — which was attended exclusively by federal judges and included dinners, hikes and fishing trips — was run by the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, which receives regular donations from Texaco. One of the lecturers was retired Texaco chair and chief executive officer Alfred DeCrane Jr.
The case involves suits filed in New York state, where Texaco's headquarters are located, which Rakoff dismissed in 1996 and 1997 on the grounds that the case should be tried in Ecuador. The US Court of Appeals reversed Rakoff's decision in October 1998 and returned the case to him. He has apparently not acted on it since.
Mexico loses 'expropriation' suit
An international three-member arbitration panel set up under provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) ruled on August 30 that Mexico would have to pay $16.7 million to a small California firm, the Newport Beach-based Metalclad Corporation, on the grounds that the company was "expropriated" because of local environmental regulations.
Metalclad had built a hazardous waste processing facility in San Luis Potosi after receiving state and federal approval. But the state government, under pressure from local environmentalists, later declared the region an ecological reserve, and the plant has never opened.
The panel, operating behind closed doors, ruled that Mexico's actions amounted to an expropriation. This is expected to strengthen claims in several other NAFTA suits in which companies are seeking to overturn local environmental or business practice regulations.
[Abridged from Weekly News Update on the Americas. To
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