On June 15, indigenous and environmental activists Isidro Baldengro andHermenegildo Rivas were released from a prison in Chihuahua after spending 15 months in jail on false charges of weapons and drug possession. Considered prisoners of conscience by leading environmental and human rights organizations, the two Tarahumara men were arrested in March 2003 while blocking the felling of an old-growth pine forest in Colorados de la Virgen, an area traditionally occupied by the Tarahumara people.
Disputes over land and forest allocation have occurred in the area since the Mexican government granted much of the Tarahumara’s land to colonists roughly 50 years ago. The Tarahumara have recovered part of their land by legal means and continue to resist non-indigenous loggers.
The police who arrested Baldengro and Rivas are now under investigation for fabricating evidence to frame the activists. It is believed that the arrests were politically motivated. If found guilty, the police officers will face prison sentences.
