MATAMOROS BUSINESS GROUP DEMANDS PENA-NIETO ORDER MARINE'S RELEASE

By Juan Montoya
Representatives of the Matamoros Camara Nacional de Comercio, Servicios y Turismo (CANACO) have joined calls for the release of jailed former U.S. Marine Jon Hammar, 27, who has been held in a state prison for more than four months for  for carrying a six-decade-old shotgun into Mexico.
The group's VP for International Liaisons, Gerardo Acevedo Danache, said his organizations has raised a petition signed by more than 14,000 of its members to bring the matter in an urgent call for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to order the release of the former soldier.
"We're calling on the president to order Mr. Hammar's release because his detention and the resultant publicity that has resulted from this case have created a serious negative image to potential tourists who might want to visit Matamoros, Tamaulipas and Mexico."
The group's petition and demands for the marine's release has been forwarded to CANACO's headquarters in Mexico City and will be brought to the attention of the president's office, he siad. Hammar, from Florida, is a combat veteran in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was travelling to Mexico and then to Nicaragua to surf after undergoing self-sought treatment for Post Stress Syndrome, his parents have told the media.
Even after he showed the proper paperwork to border inspectors in Matamoros, officials determined that the shotgun he was carrying did not comply with the rules of that country for tourists to bring firearms into Mexico.
According to news accounts, his parents, who live in Palmetto Bay, Fla., tried to resolve the matter quietly, hiring attorneys in Mexico and dealing with the U.S. consulate there. But the effort went nowhere.
The Miami Herald reported that the 27-year-old who returned from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with post-traumatic stress disorder had hoped to find peace surfing in Central America, and instead  wound up chained to a bed in Mexican prison.
In August, Hammar and another ex-Marine who had suffered from PTSD crossed into Mexico in a 1972 Winnebago motor home, planning to drive to Costa Rica. They were detained because Hammar had brought a .410-bore Sears&Roebuck shotgun that once belonged to his great-grandfather.
Hammar had been instructed by U.S. authorities to fill out registration papers for the shotgun, suitable to shoot birds, his family said. But Mexican authorities dismissed the paperwork and charged Hammar with possession of a weapon restricted for use by Mexico’s armed forces — a serious crime. A conviction could carry a sentence of three to 12 years.
Days after Hammar arrived in prison, his parents received phone calls from other inmates involved with a drug cartel demanding extortion money, the Hammars said.
They didn’t pay. U.S. diplomats got Hammar pulled out of the general inmate population and into solitary confinement. There, Mexican officials have said that Hammar is periodically chained to a bed or a wall to prevent him from attempting to flee.
"We call on President Peña-Nieto to order the release of the innocent marine," said Acevedo Danache. "It is obvious that he is innocent and this incident is giving our city, state and country a negative image we don;t need."