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CANCUN, Mexico––Dolphin defender Araceli Dominguez, chair of
Grupo Ecologista del Mayab (GEMA), was released from jail without charges
on April 28, 2005, five days after she was detained on a libel writ filed
by Bernardo Zambrano, owner of the Atlantida dolphinarium and Parc Nizuc
Wet N’ Wild swim-with-dolphins attraction.
Zambrano, son of CEMEX cement company chair Lorenzo Zambrano, claimed
Dominguez defamed him by reporting that a dolphin recently died at one
of his facilities.
Dominguez “was released in the early morning hours, just after a
representative of the Governor of the State of Quintana Roo went around
midnight personally to the prison,” e-mailed Ntailan Lolkoki of Ecoterra
International.
“Zambrano was forced to drop all criminal charges against Dominguez
[and co-defendants] Sara Rincon, head of the Association to Protect Animals
of Cancun, Cecilia Navarro from Greenpeace Mexico, Ben White of the Animal
Welfare Institute, five local reporters, and Yolanda Alaniz from Comarino,”
the Ecoterra announcement continued.
Comarino is pursuing parallel civil and criminal cases against Parc Nizuc
in connection with the allegedly illegal July 2003 import of 28 dolphins
who were captured in the Solomon Islands and flown to Mexico during a
time of civil unrest. Six dolphins who were part of the transaction are
believed to have died.
Dominguez and GEMA “filed a complaint in the first week of April
with the Federal Environmental Protection Prosecutor’s branch in
the state of Quintana Roo that suspended the building of a proposed dolphin
tank adjacent to the Casa Maya resort in Cancun’s hotel zone,”
reported Talli Nauman, cofounder and co-director of Journalism to Raise
Environmental Awareness. JREA is a Mexican-based project funded by the
MacArthur Foundation.
Also active on behalf of other animals, Dominguez was among the half dozen
correspondents in four nations whose research informed the April 2005
ANIMAL PEOPLE front page article “Demolition, eviction, & good
deeds that save animal shelters.” At request of ANIMAL PEOPLE, Dominguez
investigated the February 5 pre-dawn partial demolition of the Asociaciòn
Provida Animal, A.C. shelter in Cancun by the construction firm Opresa
S.A. de C.V., which intends to build a shopping plaza on the site.
ANIMAL PEOPLE was among numerous organizations that objected to Dominguez’
arrest in e-mails to Vicente Fox, President of Mexico.
44
dolphins still held
The
Zambrano action against Dominguez revived attention not only to the plight
of the dolphins in Cancun, but also to the reportedly deteriorating circumstances
of 44 dolphins, captured at the same time, who remain in a sea pen in
the Solomons. The captures were organized by Waves Consulting, formed
by Christopher Porter, 35, a Canadian whose wife is reportedly a Solomon
Islander. Porter previously handled marine mammals at Sealand of the Pacific
in Victoria, British Columbia, now defunct; the Vancouver Aquarium; and
the Aquario di Genova in Italy. He is believed to be seeking funding to
build a swim-with-dolphins facility in the Solomons.
The government of the Solomons in late 2004 forbade further dolphin exports,
reportedly blocking transactions that Porter had arranged with buyers
in Fiji and Panama. The World Society for the Protection of Animals and
Earth Island Institute each claimed credit for winning the export ban.
Ric O’Barry, who originally investigated the Solomons captures for
WSPA and now represents One Voice, of France, told ANIMAL PEOPLE that
the key was that “Earth Island Institute put word out to the international
canned tuna market, asking everyone to not import Solomon Islands product
until they banned dolphin captures and transports. The canning companies
were about to lose 1000 jobs. Two thousand fishers were about to be laid
off. This got their undivided attention. During a recent meeting, Tione
Bugotla, permanent secretary of Fisheries for the Solomon Islands, told
me and Mark Berman of Earth Island Institute that, ‘The ban will
not be lifted, and it can not be reversed.’”
O’Barry also credited Berman with possibly saving his life by discovering
him unconscious and running a dangerously high temperature on the floor
of a Brisbane hotel room en route to the Solomons. O’Barry, who had
been incapacitated with a fever for several days, was diagnosed as having
pneumonia, and was hospitalized overnight, but fled the hospital against
medical advice to complete the mission.
