JUSTICE DENIED IN MEXICO. The election last year of reformer Vicente Fox as president of Mexico raised hopes that imprisoned environmental activists Rodolfo Montiel (at right) and Teodoro Cabrera would be set free. Those hopes were dashed in July, when a Mexican judge denied their final appeal. Although the two ecologistas were arrested in 1999 and forced to confess to drug and weapons charges, their real "crime" was fighting to save old-growth forests. The Sierra Club and Amnesty International are calling on President Fox to release Montiel and Cabrera immediately and unconditionally. (See "Defending the Forest, and Other Crimes," July/August 2000.)
CANADA TO PAY FOR CLEARCUTTING. An unusual coalition of environmental groups and American logging companies won a partial victory in August, when the U.S. Commerce Department agreed to impose a 19.3 percent tariff on softwood lumber imported from Canada. (The Canadian government quickly challenged the decision, saying that it violates World Trade Organization rules.) The coalition claims that the high subsidies Canada gives its $10 billion lumber industry encourage clearcutting and create an unfair advantage over U.S. companies. The tariff, while smaller than the group had hoped, may encourage Canada to create a system that's easier on the competition-and on the trees. (See "Buzz Cut," September/October 2001.)
