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Narco News salutes our Internet Service Provider,
Voxel.net, for standing tall in the face of threats
against it, and for recognizing Narco News as "a
public service."
Here is the local angle by reporter Larry Goodwin
of Metroland...
And what???? After Tuesday's VOICE article, Akin Gump's
McLish is suddenly "not authorized" to speak to the
press? A self-inflicted gag order? More to come...
---
>From Metroland, Albany, New York
Story by Larry Goodwin
http://www.metroland.net/sct_news.html#fyi
Lawyers, Drugs and Money
The managers of Voxel Dot Net Inc., a small Internet-service provider in
Troy, hardly imagined that they would ever become embroiled in an
international dispute over drug trafficking. But this month, that�s exactly
what happened.
Last Thursday (Dec. 14), Voxel was contacted by representatives of Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, a Washington, D.C. law firm representing the
Mexican bank Banamex. Through a lawsuit filed in federal District Court in
New York City, Banamex is waging a legal battle to discredit media reports
indicating that its president, Roberto Hern�ndez Ram�rez, is a drug
trafficker whose activities are allegedly protected by powerful politicians
in both Mexico and the United States.
Since last April, Voxel has provided Internet access to the Narco News
Bulletin, a news service that seeks to expose the alleged hypocrisies of the
U.S.-led war against drugs�which enters its next phase in January with the
start of a military operation in southern Colombia targeting coca growers.
Akin Gump reportedly asked Voxel to dismantle the Narco News Web site
(www.narconews.com), but the company refused, citing free speech concerns.
�This has the makings of a huge, huge case,� said Raj Dutt, the corporate
spokesman for Voxel in Troy. Dutt said he could not comment specifically on
any legal action that might be taken against his company. �We�re not being
held responsible. We are the host� of Narco News, he said.
Dutt added that the news bulletin was �providing a public service� and that
Voxel would continue providing Internet access �until we get a court order
basically telling us to take the site down.�
�I�m not authorized to speak to the press on behalf of our client,� said
Akin Gump spokesman Tom McLish, who has been attempting to serve the legal
papers related to a lawsuit brought against the Narco News publisher, former
Boston Phoenix political writer Al Giordano.
In July, Narco News translated a series of articles published in Por Esto!,
Mexico�s third-largest daily newspaper, which documented how the Hern�ndez
property in the state of Quintana Roo has become a prime shipping point for
Colombian cocaine. The paper went so far as to call the Hern�ndez ranch,
located on Mexico�s Caribbean coast, �the cocaine peninsula.� Hern�ndez
filed lawsuits against the editor and publisher of Por Esto!, along with
several of the paper�s reporters, to force a retraction of its investigative
stories. But top Mexican judges ruled against him, saying the stories were
�based on the facts,� according to Narco News.
Other Mexican papers have reported how Hern�ndez hosted a private reception
at his ranch this year that was attended by newly elected Mexican President
Vincente Fox, U.S. ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow and President Bill
Clinton.
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