Immortal Technique
03-08-2008, 09:44 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXzyQbutX5I
A Canadian woman who spent more than two years in a Mexican prison isn't sure whether her case will be delivered Friday
Two women -- one American, one Canadian -- have vowed to do what Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay apparently can't.
The two say they won't quit until they win the expedited release of Brenda Martin, a Canadian who has spent 2 years in a Mexican jail as a suspect in a former Edmontonian's $60-million fraud scheme.
The women don't know each other and only recently met Martin, 50, by coincidence. But after meeting her, both emerged from the squalid Puente Grande jail in Guadalajara convinced of her innocence, and deeply concerned by her fragile physical and emotional state.
"She was obviously once a very attractive woman, but she has lost a lot of weight -- she is like a walking skeleton," said Ann Dyer, a retired businesswoman from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who now operates a bed and breakfast in Ajijic, Mexico, south of Guadalajara.
Dyer, an interior designer, has lived in Mexico for about 20 years. She read a story in a local English language newspaper about Martin and thought it was the same woman who had been a client of the design business she operated for a time in Mexico.
But even after she met Martin and realized it wasn't the same person, she decided she could not turn her back on her.
Kim Liddle of North Bay, Ont., met Martin earlier this month while visiting the prison as part of church group.
"Brenda came up to our group and said she was a Canadian," Liddle said. "I immediately sensed how desperate she was.
"She appeared very anxious, very distraught."
Liddle added: "She is skeletal thin. She is very, very emotionally low. I am afraid she can't hang on for much longer."
Since her arrest in Puerto Vallarta on Feb. 17, 2006, Martin has been trapped in a nightmarish legal limbo in which she says she has been repeatedly denied the chance to prove her innocence by obtaining sworn testimony from her former employer, Alyn Richard Waage.
Waage, a former Edmonton resident, was convicted in the United States in 2005 of masterminding what is believed to be the biggest Internet-based fraud in history. About 15,000 investors were bilked out of about
$60 million US.
Waage ran the scheme from a palatial mansion in the hills above Puerto Vallarta between 1999 and 2001, when it was shut down by American and Mexican authorities.
Martin started working for Waage in May 2000 as a chef, earning about $500 a week. Waage fired her in March 2001 at the behest of his mother, who had been offended by Martin. Waage paid Martin severance of a year's salary -- $26,000
A Canadian woman who spent more than two years in a Mexican prison isn't sure whether her case will be delivered Friday
Two women -- one American, one Canadian -- have vowed to do what Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay apparently can't.
The two say they won't quit until they win the expedited release of Brenda Martin, a Canadian who has spent 2 years in a Mexican jail as a suspect in a former Edmontonian's $60-million fraud scheme.
The women don't know each other and only recently met Martin, 50, by coincidence. But after meeting her, both emerged from the squalid Puente Grande jail in Guadalajara convinced of her innocence, and deeply concerned by her fragile physical and emotional state.
"She was obviously once a very attractive woman, but she has lost a lot of weight -- she is like a walking skeleton," said Ann Dyer, a retired businesswoman from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who now operates a bed and breakfast in Ajijic, Mexico, south of Guadalajara.
Dyer, an interior designer, has lived in Mexico for about 20 years. She read a story in a local English language newspaper about Martin and thought it was the same woman who had been a client of the design business she operated for a time in Mexico.
But even after she met Martin and realized it wasn't the same person, she decided she could not turn her back on her.
Kim Liddle of North Bay, Ont., met Martin earlier this month while visiting the prison as part of church group.
"Brenda came up to our group and said she was a Canadian," Liddle said. "I immediately sensed how desperate she was.
"She appeared very anxious, very distraught."
Liddle added: "She is skeletal thin. She is very, very emotionally low. I am afraid she can't hang on for much longer."
Since her arrest in Puerto Vallarta on Feb. 17, 2006, Martin has been trapped in a nightmarish legal limbo in which she says she has been repeatedly denied the chance to prove her innocence by obtaining sworn testimony from her former employer, Alyn Richard Waage.
Waage, a former Edmonton resident, was convicted in the United States in 2005 of masterminding what is believed to be the biggest Internet-based fraud in history. About 15,000 investors were bilked out of about
$60 million US.
Waage ran the scheme from a palatial mansion in the hills above Puerto Vallarta between 1999 and 2001, when it was shut down by American and Mexican authorities.
Martin started working for Waage in May 2000 as a chef, earning about $500 a week. Waage fired her in March 2001 at the behest of his mother, who had been offended by Martin. Waage paid Martin severance of a year's salary -- $26,000