Cynthia (Cyndy) Vanier, the Canadian charged with organized
crime, falsifying documents and attempted human smuggling in an alleged plot to
spirit Saadi Kadhafi – former dictator Moamer Kadhafi’s third son – from Niger
to Mexico, is now incarcerated in one of the worst prison systems in all of
Mexico.
Vanier, who was arrested in Mexico on November 10, 2011, has
insisted on her innocence, claiming no knowledge of the plot. She argues that
she has been set-up, and that the false Mexican electoral identification card
found on her person was in a wallet given to her twenty minutes before her
arrest.
She has also complained of rough treatment, most notably of
being elbowed in the kidneys by a female police officer while en route to a
detention centre.
Other complaints include being denied bathroom access and medical
attention. According to Ms. Vanier, she has suffered "physical, mental and
emotional abuse and trauma, and my rights as a Canadian citizen have been
violated based on my international human rights as well as the Mexican
constitution."
Now that she and co-accused Gabriela Davila Huerta have been
transferred from a detention facility in Mexico City to a woman’s prison in Chetumal,
in the state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatan peninsula, Vanier can expect to
face a fairly rough go of it. Quintana Roo was ranked in 2010 by Mexico’s Diagnóstico
de Supervisión Penitenciaria, a federal organization that provides prison
oversight, as one of the worst of Mexico’s 32 states for prison conditions.
Quintana Roo shared the bottom rankings along with Sinaloa
and Tabasco, scoring 4.45 out of an ideal of 10. Sinaloa received a score of
3.88, and Tabasco a score of 4.01. The
scores have resulted in jokes among Mexicans that Quintana Roo took the honour of
being “first among the last” in prison conditions.
According to the assessment, which was prepared by Mexico’s
National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH), Quintana Roo’s problems
are getting worse, not better. In 2006, the state’s score
was 5.67; in 2007, 5.93; in 2008, 5.86; and in
2009 the score fell to 4.45 – where it remained in 2010.
Specific to the
facility in Chetumal, the score was slightly better, at 4.95. But it seems that
this bump was due more to Chetumal’s moderately better administrative efficiency.
When it came to basic
human rights for a “dignified” life in prison – which covers medical,
psychological and psychiatric as well as material conditions, including maintenance
of kitchens, dining rooms, and lavatories – the state as a whole eked out a
4.40.
Most worrying
perhaps for Ms. Vanier is the weak scoring for personal safety and the hygienic
conditions in the cells themselves. When it comes to “ensuring physical and
moral integrity” Quintana Roo could only muster a 3.82.
And it would be
wrong to assume that because Ms. Vanier is in a woman’s prison she is somehow
going to have an easier go of it. Last October 24 dangerous federal prisoners –
two of them women – were transferred out of Chetumal to a high security island prison
in Tepic Nayarit.
These criminals
were being held on a variety of crimes, including drug trafficking. They are
now being held in one of the last convict islands on the planet – the Maras
Islands, off the coast of Puerto Vallarta.
The convicts were
considered so dangerous the Mexican authorities transferred them by a Boeing 727 owned by the federal police. The prisoners were moved from the prison to the airport in Chetumal in what
is called a
“rhino” – essentially a heavily armoured truck – which was
escorted by four federal police patrols.
There have been
other, more recent, moves of this sort. Quintano Roo’s governor, Roberto Borge
Angulo, signed an agreement with the federal government on December 8, 2011,
allowing for the transfer of another 28 convicts to the federal maximum
security prison on the Maras Islands. These, too, were transported in a rhino
and flown out in a Boeing 727.
The governor stated that the agreement to move convicts out
of Quintana Roo’s prisons to the Maras Islands was twofold: first, to reduce
the number of dangerous prisoners; and second, to reduce chronic over-crowding.
In commenting on the latest transfer, Borge Angulo said that the majority of these prisoners,
who came from Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico, were linked to murder, organized crime, drug trafficking, and crimes committed with the use of weapons only
allowed by the Mexican military.
Short
of moving all prisoners to an island, however, it is virtually impossible to
keep Quintana Roo’s prisons safe.
Last
summer two 380 magnum handguns and 56 rounds of ammunition were discovered in a
prison in Cancun, resulting in renewed efforts to clear weapons out of all
facilities – including at Chetumal.
Only
a few days before, the director of the Chetumal prison had been dismissed for
allowing a prohibited item into the prison.
The
item in question was not a weapon, or drugs. It was a suitcase. The girlfriend
of an inmate almost got him out in the case after a conjugal visit, but her
plan was foiled by some guards.
He almost made it
As
it stands, the prison conditions at Chetumal have caused Ms. Vanier some
distress. She has complained that she has to purchase her own food, yet this is
normal practice in Mexican prisons, where inmates are usually only provided the
basics: rice and beans.
And,
though she may still be found innocent of any wrongdoing, for now Ms. Vanier is
unlikely to get much sympathy from the authorities – or fellow inmates.
For a detailed look at the Cynthia (Cyndy) Vanier story, including a detailed timeline, check out
Twitter: @TimothyEWilson
Email: lapoliticaeslapolitica [at] gmail [dot] com
N.B.: If you are
having difficulty submitting to the e-mail feed at the top of this page, press
"enter" on your keyboard instead of the "submit" button.
Also, if you have read this far, perhaps you would support our efforts? We do this for free. Supporting La politica es la politica
is easy - simply click on the "donate" button on the upper right-hand
side of the page. We are talking small generosities, not big bucks. As a
heads up, Pay Pal will insist that you use it if you are already on
account. For direct credit card payment, you will then have to use a
number and email that Pay Pal doesn't recognize in order to escape their
benevolent grasp.
