Two Mexican environmentalists imprisoned on what they and their supporters say were false charges were pardoned yesterday by President Vicente Fox. Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, who have led opposition to commercial logging in southwestern Mexico by Boise Cascade and other companies, had been sentenced to almost seven years and 10 years in jail, respectively, on charges of weapons possession and growing marijuana. Their supporters say they confessed to the charges under torture, and that the arrests were designed to discourage environmental activism. Calls by environmentalists worldwide for the release of Montiel and Cabrera intensified last month, after one of their lawyers, human rights activist Digna Ochoa, was murdered.
