Defending the Forests: The Struggle of the Campesino Environmentalists of Guerrero

The deforestation of Guerrero's Petatlan and Coyuca de Catalan mountain ranges dates back to the 1950's. In the 1970's logging increased, accompanied by militarization and repression of Guerrero's rural communities. In 1994, with the signing of NAFTA, the transnational Boise Cascade Corporation began what resulted in the exploitation of thousands of kilometers of virgin forests, leaving in its wake deserts. Defending the Forests is the story of the Organization of the Campesino Environmentalists (OCE) created in 1998, and their success in halting Boise Cascade's exploitation of their forests. The video describes, through the members of the OCE, the Mexican government's campaign to destroy the OCE with the arrest and torture by the Mexican Military of OCE co-founders Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera. Both were recently sentenced to prison terms of 7 and 10 years on false charges of weapons and drug trafficking for their courageous activism in defense of the forests.