Where’s the money? Where are the rights?

Where's the money?

I find it quite interesting that the US government continues to send money to Mexico, yet most of the victims in the TriWest scheme were US citizens. Their money has never been returned and much of it is in the hands of the Mexicans. Part of the agreement Alyn Waage made with US prosecutors was to give them the money trail – which he apparently did. Where is the money? Rebecca Roth certainly doesn’t have it.

If Rebecca is charged and convicted of Use of Illicit Funds, having paid Alyn Waage's personal bills for him, how is it that an attorney can accept a fee for defending Alyn Waage and not face the same charges? Would that attorney not have been paid from the same source of Illicit Funds? If Rebecca is guilty, then why were the charges against Alyn Waage in Mexico reduced to “being in receipt of contraband documents?” Waage was busted at the Puerto Vallarta airport with more than 1,000 undeclared cashier checks stashed in a brief case, worth a total of around 4.5 million dollars. He was in jail for four months, but when released after posting bail, promptly fled to Costa Rica. He was arrested there in September 2001 and extradited to the United States to face trial.

Where are the rights?

Rebecca Roth's conviction in Mexico is the end result of poor representation from the very beginning, it seems. From the original attorney assigned by the court, who was ineffective, had no plan and made no visits or follow through in documentation, to the lack of any interest or action by the US Consulate. More than likely, had the Consulate acted in a timely manner, Rebecca would have been released within 72 hours. However, after pursuing the case for over two years, before taking Rebecca to trial and convicting her on baseless information, the Mexican jusdicial system needed to save face.

Now, with that conviction, Ravi Candidai at the US Consulate in Guadalajara has apparently stated to Rebecca that he cannot do anything and that the US Consulate’s role is no longer about the case, but about the sentence and that the International Treaty obligation supersedes the rights of the individual. Did he do anything from the beginning? It certainly doesn't seem so and Rebecca was frustrated with their lack of involvement from the beginning.

I have been told that our own FBI, in their investigation of Alyn Waage and others, had no interest in Rebecca Roth. I also understand that Alyn Waage signed a statement that Rebecca Roth had no involvement or knowledge of the illegal activities. The Mexican court apparently threw that out, as Mr. Waage was not considered a credible witness.

Why is it that the US State Department does not have the ability to protect the rights of a US citizen and states that the treaty between the two countries supersedes the rights of the individual? Are those treaties not designed to protect the rights of citizens of those countries?

I believe that Rebecca was railroaded and that the US government and its agencies have done nothing to help a citizen of the United States. At every turn, those that are in a position to help a US citizen seem to either turn a blind eye or state that there is nothing that they can do, when it is their job to protect the rights of that US citizen.

I am neither an attorney nor a human rights activist. However, I have been told by individuals that followed this case very closely from the very beginning that the rights of the Canadian Brenda Martin (also simply an employee), arrested at the same time as Rebecca Roth, had her rights violated in many instances. I have been told that those rights were violated under not only the “International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights” and the Vienna Convention, but under the Mexican Constitution and Mexican law, as well. One does not have to reach very far to deduct that those same violations occurred to Rebecca Roth at the same time, in the same place and by the same individuals in authority. It is our Consulate’s duty to ensure her rights are respected under the laws of the country she is being held in. What happened?

This could happen to any of us, literally at any time, any place in the world. We are, when traveling or living in a foreign land, subject to the laws of that country but, shouldn't our country rise to the occasion when our rights are violated? Isn't that what we have all been raised to believe? Isn't that why we have always traveled so freely?

Please take a moment and tell others of the plight of this woman who believed in following her dream, only to wake up on the downside of paradise. Please contact your State Representatives and Senators and ask that they do someting for one of our own.

Find and Contact your representative HERE