False Tweets Result in Possible 30-Year Prison Sentence in Mexico
- Posted on September 4, 2011 at 7:21pm by
Christopher Santarelli
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Think before you tweet.
A former teacher turned radio commentator and a math tutor who lives with his mother sit in a prison in southern Mexico, facing possible 30-year sentences for terrorism and sabotage in what may be the most serious charges ever brought against anyone using a Twitter social network account.
Prosecutors say the defendants helped cause a chaos of car crashes and panic as parents in the Gulf Coast city of Veracruz rushed to save their children because of false reports that gunmen were attacking schools.
Gerardo Buganza, interior secretary for Veracruz state, compared the panic to that caused by Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds.“ But he said the fear roused by that account of a Martian invasion of New Jersey ”was small compared to what happened here.”
“Here, there were 26 car accidents, or people left their cars in the middle of the streets to run and pick up their children, because they thought these things were occurring at their kids’ schools,” Buganza told local reporters.
The charges say the messages caused such panic that emergency numbers “totally collapsed because people were terrified,” damaging service for real emergencies.
Veracruz, the state’s largest city, and the neighboring suburb of Boca del Rio were already on edge after weeks of gunbattles involving drug traffickers. One attack occurred on a major boulevard. In another, gunmen tossed a grenade outside the city aquarium, killing an tourist and seriously wounding his wife and their two young children.
On Aug. 25, nerves were further frayed when residents saw armed convoys of marines circulating on the streets, making some think a confrontation with gangs was imminent.
That is when Gilberto Martinez Vera, who works as a low-paid tutor at several private schools, allegedly opened the floodgates of fear with repeated messages that gunmen were taking children from schools.
“My sister-in-law just called me all upset, they just kidnapped five children from the school,” Martinez tweeted.
In fact, no such kidnappings occurred that day. Defense lawyer Claribel Guevara said the rumors already had started and that Martinez Vera was just relaying what others told him. She said he never claimed to have firsthand knowledge of the incident.
But in a subsequent tweet about the kidnap rumor, he said, “I don’t know what time it happened, but it’s true.” He also tweeted that three days earlier, “they mowed down six kids between 13 and 15 in the Hidalgo neighborhood.” While a similar attack occurred, it didn’t involve children.
Twitter 'Terrorists' Gilberto Martínez Vera and María de Jesús Bravo Pagola (Photo Cred: www.veracruzenred.com)
Prosecutors say the rumors were also sent by Maria de Jesus Bravo Pagola, who has worked as a teacher, a state arts official and a radio commentator. She says she was just relaying such messages to her own Twitter followers.
“How can they possibly do this to me, for re-tweeting a message? I mean, it’s 140 characters. It’s not logical,’” said Guevara, quoting her client.
Better known on the radio and social networks as “Maruchi,” her Facebook site now features the Twitter logo, a little bluebird, blindfolded and standing in front of the scales of justice, with the slogan “I too am a TwitTerrorist.”
Online petitions are circulating to demand her release, and the pair’s cause has been taken up by human rights groups that call the charges exaggerated. Amnesty International says officials are violating freedom of expression and it blames the panic on the uncertainty many Mexicans feel amid a drug war in which more than 35,000 people have died over the past five years.
“The lack of safety creates an atmosphere of mistrust in which rumors that circulate on social networks are part of people’s efforts to protect themselves, since there is very little trustworthy information,” Amnesty wrote in a statement on the case.
In violence-wracked cities in the northern state of Tamaulipas, citizens and even authorities have used Twitter and Facebook to warn one another about shootouts.
Anita Vera, Martinez Vera’s 71-year-old mother, said her 48-year-old son still lives at her house with his girlfriend. She said he told her that had posted his messages after the panic had already started.
“He told me ”Mom, I didn’t start any of this, I just transmitted what I was told,’” Vera Martellis said after visiting her son in prison.
“He used the computer, but I swear that my son never wanted to do anybody harm, or start a revolution, like they say he did,” said Vera, who ekes out a living selling flowers.
Raul Trejo, an expert on media and violence at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the terrorism charge is unwarranted, but described the case as “a very incautious use of Twitter.”
He noted that in Mexico, “Twitter has been used by drug traffickers to create panic with false warnings.” In one case, a wave of messages about impending violence shut down schools, bars and restaurants in the central city of Cuernavaca last year.
Trejo said Twitter users must learn “not to believe everything, and simply take the Twitter messages as an indication that some (report) is making the rounds.”
But the real problem appears to be that governments cannot prevent drug cartel violence or even accurately inform citizens about it. Local news media are often so battered by kidnappings and killings of reporters that, in many states, they are loath to report about it.
“These Twitter users had accounts with a few hundred followers,” Trejo noted. “If these lies grew, it is not so much because they propagated them, but because in Veracruz as in most of the rest of the country, there is such a lack of public safety that the public is inclined to believe unconfirmed acts of violence … The government doesn’t make clear what is happening.”
Defense attorneys also say their clients were held incommunicado for almost three days, unable to see a lawyer.
It appears one of the most serious sets of charges ever brought for sending or resending Twitter messages.
Tweeter Paul Chambers was fined 385 pounds and ordered to pay 2,000 pounds ($3,225) in prosecution costs last year for tweeting that if northern England‘s Robin Hood Airport didn’t reopen in time for his flight, “I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”
Venezuelan authorities last year charged two people with spreading false information about the country’s banking system using Twitter and urging people to pull money out of banks. They could serve nine to 11 years in prison if convicted.
Last month in the UK two men in their early 20s were both sentenced to four years in prison for inciting people to riot in the Manchester area using Facebook. Flash mobs orchestrated through social networking sites have caused chaos, vandalism ,and violence in several US cities this summer.
In 2009, a Chinese woman was sentenced to a year in a labor camp for posting a satirical Twitter message about the Japan pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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Carl1 Supports Israel
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 11:16amLets lock up Al Gore for doing the same thing!
Report Post »Tracyduane
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 11:03amFirst point, I have to agree with the previously posted comment that there is no defense for blindly passing bad information. They had a responsibility to verify the information before passing it on.
Report Post »Second point, Amnesty International conveniently forgets that most of the world backs the United Nations notion that people DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT to protect themselves. I personally believe that’s nonsense, but hey, that’s collectivism for you.
Xyskalla
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 10:46amIt’s not much different than yelling “FIRE!” in a crowded theater. People should be held accountable, but I think 30 years is excessive.
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 2:10pmHow about just locking him up for being 48 years old and still living with Mommy? I mean, really. 48? And he drags his girlfriend along to live with mamacita, too?? That should be punishable somehow. ;)
Report Post »Kangana
Posted on September 6, 2011 at 12:09amIt‘s really interesting because it’s almost like yelling “Fire.” I think it’s actually closer to someone repeating the exclamation that there is a “Fire” purely because they heard another person yell it first. My understanding was that the “Fire” argument hinges on the disruptive intent of the person yelling. In other words, if they honestly believed there is a fire then they wouldn’t be in violation of anything.
This would be a fascinating first amendment case if it happened here. I‘m not a lawyer but I’ve never heard of a case like this in the United States. I suspect we wouldn’t hold a person responsible for trying to inform others of a possible threat regardless of the consequences of an incorrect warning. After all, I understand the desire to get to your children as soon as possible but you‘re not going to save them if you’re laying in a ditch after crashing your car.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 2:54amThis story was accompanied by an Obumbler-Biden 2012 ad. I clicked on it because I know that will cost them money. Every little bit helps, doesn’t it?
Report Post »Sheepdog911
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 8:24amOoops. At least someplace holds you repsonsible for your actions. Even if he were re-Tweeting second or third hand information, there is no excuse. People, especially in crowds are like cattle – they feed off others’ stupidity and panic. Panic is like adding fuel and oxygen to a fire – it burns out of control. Once panic starts, others who don’t even know why those around them are panicked will feed into it and panic themselves. Also, since they are Mexicans in Mexico, I would imagine that they can’t use their being a recognized minority and therefore not responsible for their actions.
Report Post »Gypsy123
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 1:52amI don’t go to Mexico. That would make a great song.
Report Post »db321
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 12:18amRun for your Lives Obama is indoctrinating our kids in school.
Report Post »otmonger
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 6:01amThis has been going on long before Obummer!
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 11:38pmit’s the exact same as yelling “fire!” in a public place, such as a theatre.
Report Post »Don’t Bare False Witness…
savagemonger
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 12:16amI don’t understand what is going on here.
http://politicalbowl.com – Political Videos
Report Post »Quagmir
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 5:37amWouldnt everyone in that building have to be subscribed to your twitter when you yelled fire. If i yelled fire on my twitter account, no one would move because mine doesnt exsist.
Your comparison is unreal. On one hand you have everyone in earshot and will hear you if they choose to or not, on the other you have to choose to hear what the person says.
Owl Gore or Chris Matthews could say the world is going to blow up in 5 minutes and id be none the wiser, they are yelling fire too, just no one is listening.
Report Post »mobynowak
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 10:58pmThat’s horrible. Almost as horrible as forcing American gun store owners to sell weapons to the drug cartels mentioned in this story. I wonder what kind of prison term supplying cartels weapons would yield?
Report Post »db321
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 12:15amYou changed the subject pretty “Fast and Furious” – nice transition.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 8:39amDoh!…good one.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 10:51pmEss no true. Ess gringo racist treek. No leesen to no false proopeghandas. No problema. OLE!!!!
btwin89
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 3:15pmwell I hope that was just a joke cuz its obvious that you are a “gringo”, after seeing you slaughter the spanish language in that sentence lol
Report Post »CultureWarriors
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 10:50pmYou know it seems like they should devote 100% of their law enforcement and military resources to the absolutely unacceptable situation with the drug lords. This is pathetic. They should also be demanding that we turn over Obama for his criminal order to illegally sell guns to know criminals, that’s ended in countless murders and terror in both countries.
Report Post »kindling
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 12:13amThey like the money way to much to stop the drugs. It is the same here in America. Until it is made legal some how it will be like this. This is how the Kennedys made all their money, by illegally running booze.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 10:45pmAnd the DOJ knows all about Steve Lehner and Sept 17th by now. Do you think they will do anything to stop it or arrest anyone? I don’t.
Report Post »chexfive
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 9:24pmMexico has Marines?
Report Post »ComeAndTakeThis
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 11:09pmOf course how do you think they get everyone across the Rio Grande.
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 9:02pmI almost never tweet..senor…but when I do…I am drunk on my @ss from drinking tres-ecces.
Report Post »UlyssesP
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 8:53pmSo we’ve reached the point where we believe that information that comes to millions instantly, digitally, through social networking tweets from dubious sources via hi-tech personal android, iPhone, iPad and other modern electronics devices must be true and acted upon immediately.
Report Post »Critical mass, when we reach it, is going to be ugly.
sizzler2220
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 8:50pmBe careful in Mexico. Mexico treats its citizens badly, but they treat American illegals much worse. We need to adopt Mexico’s illegal alien laws tomorrow! WAKE UP AMERICA!
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 9:43pmAMEM Well Said!!!
Report Post »sizzler2220
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 8:43pmMexico does not give an inch with its citizens or with illegal Americans going over the border. It is time we adopt the Mexican illegal alien laws! What do you think El Paso?????? No, El Paso loves the illegals? I guess so …………..
Report Post »Cat
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 8:30pmMisspelling a word could get you 10 to 20.
Report Post »Improper grammar could get you life.
Believing messages on Twitter could get you killed.
Lot’s of possibilities here …
DeeInHouston
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 5:40pmThen I guess you get life for “Lot’s”.
Report Post »preppymom
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 8:21pmIt seems like Twitter has become a collage of spam when I look at my account. I’m amazed that he even had people pay attention to what he wrote.
http://www.crackingthemalecode.com/
Report Post »Uechi
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 8:19pmMexico the land of enchantment, oh no that’s New Mexico. Mexico the land of arco terrorists, drug cartels and morons who tweet.
Report Post »brado9505
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 7:59pmAnyone pulling this kind of crap needs maximum sentence.
Report Post »Dustyluv
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 8:11pmSure let’s put them to death Adolph…Good grief.
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 7:56pmThey’ll smack him around a bit as an example and then let him go. I hope.
Report Post »welovetheUSA
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 7:51pmPeople who tweet are not adults, the crime here is silly and a fine might be in order.
Report Post »Weiners Wiener
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 8:14pmThe people who run this site are on Twitter, so how stupid does thta make you? BTW – so is Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, etc. Twitter isn’t dumb — half the people who use it are. And so are you.
Report Post »LibertyWon
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 7:49pmThe guy flat out lied. In this country I would think such an act would warrant the same response asyelling “Fire” In a movie theater.
Report Post »TH30PH1LUS
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 7:47pmWords have meaning.
When I was in England, I visited a museum connected to a castle that had on display the old medieval elemnts/instruments of torture.
One was strips of steel, bent in such a fashion as to go around the face, which included a steel tongue depressor. This face-cage was tightened around the face of those convicted of GOSSIP. The tongue depressor kept that person from being able to speak until removed by a legal official.
Ingenius, if somewhat crude.
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 7:53pmYes words have meaning, prior to the King James Version of the Holy Bible, the Roman Catholic Church forbid reading the bible. Today, all though the reading of the bible is permitted, only the Roman Catholic translation is enforced.
Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 8:05pmIndeed words do convey power in their usage; just imagine this scenario for the areas of the US, and take into account the fact of the recent flash mobs using social networks to co-ordinate their efforts.
A. Someone starts the tweeting of a message such as “What is going on here, some kind of loud bang or rumbling…”
B. Then in moments, they declare “People running, choking and falling down…not moving…”
C. Then the next one is “Ambulance outside, paramedics choking and falling down…what is going on out there…”
D. Next is the big one “Funny smell in house not doing well someone shouting GAS! GAS!…”
What do you think if they suddenly stopped tweeting, and picked up on a couple of existing accounts to make it appear a terrorist attack with chemical weapons has occured?
Think on two things:
A. The twitter reporting in Pakistan during the UBL wipe out mission.
Report Post »B. What would have happened in Japan during the ricen attack on the subway if Twitter was used by victims to say they were attacked or even goodbye.
poverty.sucks
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 7:38pmWestern Union is Closing! Now Mexicans must walk money over the border back to Mexico!
How about a Tweet like that!
Report Post »Da Kingfish
Posted on September 4, 2011 at 8:27pmTwitter’s are social misfits that repeat the same old crap, and they prey the communications don’t go down, or they will be running in circles, peeing on each others feet.
Report Post »DeeInHouston
Posted on September 5, 2011 at 5:38pmKingfish, your ignorance of social media is no excuse for name calling. “Twitter’s”?? Really?? I use my Twitter account to send out notices of job openings at my company with a pretty good rate of success in generating candidates. Why don’t you educate yourself in something outside of your comfort zone vs. ignorant name calling for something you don’t understand?
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