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I've been involved in diving, archeological law and law enforcement
for a long time. My advice to Chuck is:
If you're really innocent, stop whining, get an attorney who
understands the law and the issues, and let justice prevail. Whining
on the internet doesn't help your defense, and surely will piss off
any judge who reviews the case.
Andy Cohen
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
*********************************************************
To All Of My Friends in the Teaching, Scientific and Cave Diving Communities:
This is a general advisory message as to what has happened and is
happening here at this moment.
Just in case some of you do not know, I was arrested along with
five (5) others on Sunday afternoon of the 16th of June and charged with
the "SACKING"of a historical monument. The local government is charging
that myself along with others have robbed valuable artifacts from the
country of Mexico solely for monetary gain. They arrested all 6 of the
members of the recovery team,including the Mex. official from INHA who
is also the archeologist in charge of the San Gervasio ruin here on the
island. They held us all in jail for 3 days and seized our automobiles
and all equipment for diving,and that of the photographers and
videographers who were there to document this great multi cultural
rescue of Mayan history. Local press had been invited to cover the
event.
The truth is this:
The recovery of artifacts from the Cenote Chuu Ha was under the
supervision of an archaeologist of the federal agency INAH ( The
National Institute of Anthropology and History). The project was
arranged with all local and federal agencies notified. All of the
problems that now exist are due primarily to squabbling between
government agencies.
There were six people involved in the recovery. There were two
Americans,myself being one of them, one Canadian, and three Mexicans.
Myself and one other cave diver were chosen because of the location
of the artifacts. We were chosen because we had the knowledge, and
experience to do what was necessary to aid in the recovery of these
artifacts. And for all to know: THERE WERE NO COINS OF GOLD!!! THERE
WERE NO PILES OF GOLD BARS OR ANCIENT AZTEC CALENDARS OF GOLD!!!!! We
are talking about the rescue of water jugs........WATER JUGS.!!!!!!!!!
The stories we hear are so far fetched that we are laughing at them. And
to top all this off, the officials who confiscated the artifacts have
mishandled the items so that they are now of no value to the research
agencies. We were asked by the INAH representative to assist in the
recovery with no compensation for time or equipment. Our only reason for
doing this was to aid in the recovery of a piece of history which would
benefit the country as a whole. We had no idea that this would become
such a big issue.
As of the writing of this message, we are waiting to see if the
case is going to continue to the federal level. We will not know more
until Monday. We want to let all of you know that this could have
happened to any one of you. We were assisting an official of a major
federal agency with all arrangements made, and now we face federal
charges and a possible sentencing in a FEDERAL PENITENTUARY. There is
nothing for sure in Mexico.
W Y A ( Watch Your A.....S )
Please notify all cave divers to this incident. If this is not
resolved by Monday, We are going to go international with this issue.
I am hoping that I will be around after Monday to advise further.
If it is possible to do so, I will be going online on the CAVER FORUM on
Monday night to talk direct with all who are interested.
This is like a nightmare. I would have never in my wildest dreams
think that this could happen. It just goes to show that even when you
have the best of intentions and try to follow the rules, you can still
find yourself in a real fix.
I will hopefully be in touch with all of you later. You may, of
course, contact me thru this address.
Chuck Jones
Cozumel
IC-66
PADI 40695
103531.3141@co*.co*
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