Two Republican congressmen called Thursday for a national travel boycott of Mexico until the country releases imprisoned former Marine Jon Hammar, urging “all Americans” to campaign for the war veteran’s freedom by turning off the tap on America’s tourism dollars.
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Tag Archives: Marine Jon Hammar
White House says doesn't know 'facts' on jailed ex-Marine, State later confirms intervention
The case of former Marine Jon Hammar, who is locked up in a notorious Mexican prison on what his family says is a trumped-up weapons charge, has been all over the airwaves as his parents appeal for help.
Source: Fox News – Politics
Conditions in notorious Mexican prison worsens Jon Hammar's PTSD, family fears
Every day that former Marine Jon Hammar spends in a notorious Mexican prison can only worsen the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder he suffers from after serving his country in multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to his family and mental health professionals.
Hammar has been in the notorious CEDES prison in Matamoros, Mexico since being arrested Aug. 13, on what his family says is a trumped up weapon charge. During the four-month ordeal, Hammar has faced death threats from the cartel gangsters that control the prison, been put in isolation and been chained to his metal bunk.
Hammar was honorably discharged from the marines in 2007 and, according to his father, Jon Hammar Sr., was diagnosed with PTSD in 2008. Hammar Sr. said his son had never been able to relax since coming home from the wars.
“He was at an alertness he never came down from,” Hammar Sr. said. “Jon had gone to appointments with the VA in Miami but had a bad reaction to the medication they gave him. The treatment they were offering him was not effective.”
Olivia Hammar, the imprisoned Marine’s mother, researched treatment facilities for PTSD and came across the Pathway Home in Yountville, Calif., which offered a residential recovery program.
Hammar completed the nine-month program where his parents saw immediate results.
“He went through exposure therapy,” Olivia told Bill O’Reilly. “It’s really an exhausting program because you are working through tough stuff.”
But Fred Gusman, Pathway Home‘s executive director, said strain of being behind bars in a foreign land could unravel whatever progress Hammar had seen.
“When he came to us he was very withdrawn and that his world view was that nobody cares,” Gusman said. “By the time he graduated, he had turned around.”
But, Gusman said, “You never get cured of post traumatic stress. When someone runs into a dilemma like this it rekindles old issues.”
Gusman said Hammar’s issue would be a violation of the trust he put in U.S. border officials who Hammar and pal Ian McDonough say gave him a sense of security that he was following the rules for bringing the rifle into Mexico.
“That can break his faith, having him ask if anything has changed,” Gusman said.
McDonough who was also arrested but later released, said his friend has been struggling with PTSD. They had planned the trip through Mexico and to Costa Rica to go surfing and hunting and forget the trauma of war.
“He was losing his mind in the city and had to get away,” McDonough said.
Now there is increasing fear of his condition in confined and deplorable prison conditions. Hammar Sr. said the conditions his son are in are likely to set him back.
While Hammar Jr., is separated from the general population for his own safety, he is being housed in a converted storage closet in a busy administrative area of the prison. where he has been chained to his bed, where he is essentially on display, separated only by a chain link fence.
“It’s like he is in a zoo,” Hammar Sr. said. “His emotions go with the day to day activity of the prison, but I expect he is relapsing.”
On a recent visit, Hammar Sr. sensed his son’s decline.
“He told me, ‘Dad, when I get out of here I’m going to have to be alone,'” Hammar Sr. said.
Despite his attempts to declare the .410 gauge antique Sears Roebuck shotgun at the border with Brownsville, Texas, Hammar was charged with possessing a gun used by the Mexican military, an aggravated felony punishable up to 15 years in prison.
Gusman is concerned if Hammar Jr. is not released.
“Jon is very resilient and if they can get him out quickly he can get his faith back in mankind,” Gusman said. “If he is convicted, it can be terrible, I don’t know if he can make it.”
Source: Fox World News
Pal of jailed Marine Jon Hammar recounts pal's last day of freedom in Mexico
The fellow Marine who was with Jon Hammar when Mexican customs officials arrested him for carrying an illegal shotgun said his friend made every effort to follow the law, but got bad information from officials on both sides of the border.
Ian McDonough, 27, told FoxNews.com that four U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents told Hammar before he crossed into Mexico that as long as the required permit, which he completed, was submitted and he declared the gun to Mexican authorities, there would be no problem in bringing the vintage shotgun across the border.
“Jon was told to fill out a form with his name and the specs of the rifle and show it to the customs agent on the Mexican side,” said McDonough, who was traveling with Hammar in an RV to Costa Rica, where they planned to hunt and surf. “I don’t know what they expected Jon to do after they gave him the registration form and sent him on his way.”
Hammar, who was arrested Aug. 13, was charged with a federal level weapon felony and faces up to 15 years in a Mexican prison for what his travel companion said was a breakdown in communication at the U.S.-Mexico border. He has been held in the notorious CEDES prison ever since.
McDonough said Hammar was willing to leave the rifle at the Brownsville, Texas, border station and pick it up when he returned. If the CBP agents had adequately explained the potential consequences of being arrested in Mexico, Hammar would never have taken the shotgun across the border, McDonough said.
“If they looked at Jon and told him not to take it, he wouldn’t have,” McDonough said. “He tried to do everything legit.”
Michael Friel, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said it would be unlikely an agent would have led Hammar to believe he could have brought the shotgun, which had once belonged to his grandfather, into Mexico.
“CBP does not provide advice regarding the laws of foreign governments,” Friel said.
Friel also said that given the information available, it is unlikely an investigation will be undertaken into the U.S. agent’s alleged action.
But McDonough insisted that Hammar was so concerned about regulations that he even wanted to know what the tax would be for crossing with the numerous surfboards the avid surfer also carried.
Hammar’s attorney, Eddie Varon-Levy, said even if Hammar lacked necessary permits for the gun, he should have had the gun confiscated and received a fine, not a federal charge of aggravated felony of possessing a weapon used by the military.
“High-ranking Mexican military officials told me neither the rifle nor the ammunition is used by the military,” said Varon-Levy.
In an exclusive interview with FoxNews.com, McDonough described the harrowing last day of freedom for his friend.
As they made their way into Mexico in a vintage Winnebago after stopping at U.S. Customs in Brownsville, Texas, Hammar and McDonough were met by a Mexican official who told them to proceed over the bridge and into Mexico where they would meet a customs agent.
McDonough said Hammar readily told the Mexican customs officials he had the shotgun to declare and showed them the form he was given on the U.S. side.
“They told us to go into a building to fill out some forms,” McDonough said, thinking they were probably going to have to pay a small fine.
But things quickly turned sour.
“I told Jon, ‘I think we are going to get arrested,'” McDonough said.
The two Americans were told to get in a truck with police, who took them on a 30-minute drive through Matamoros to the city jail.
“We still didn’t think it was going to be a big deal because the police were joking with us, kind of like treating us as ‘dopey’ tourists,” McDonough said.
While in the jail, McDonough said he struck up a conversation with Mexican inmates who said they were surprised to see the Americans in the jail for such a minor infraction that should have been settled with a fine. McDonough said the police station and jail he and Hammar were initially brought to was nothing like a U.S. lockup.
“It was just terrible, the toilet, sink, and water supply were in the same place,” McDonough said. “There was no real evidence room so when we got inside there was cocaine and weed in the open.”
Hammar and McDonough spent most of the day being ignored in the jail, were told they were going to have to spend the night because it was too late to see the judge, McDonough recalled.
It would be two days before the men were able to see a public defender who did not speak English.
“I was lucky enough that I spoke some Spanish,” McDonough said. “They let me go because Jon took full responsibility.”
McDonough said he paid a $20 fine and was required to have his two thumb prints taken.
While standing outside the jail, McDonough was horrified to see his friend in handcuffs being led to a truck that would take him to the notorious CEDES prison.
“He told me to get out of Mexico as fast as I can because with both of us in jail nothing good can happen,” McDonough said.
McDonough said he and Hammar planned the surfing trip, which was to last a few months, to deal with the trauma of war. McDonough, who like Hammar is a combat veteran, is concerned about his friend and the absurdity of a weapons charge.
“We saw enough killing, we just wanted to get away,” he said.
Hammar is scheduled to have a court date Jan. 17.
Source: Fox World News
Supporters of Marine Jon Hammar wage social media campaign to win his freedom
The plight of Marine veteran Jon Hammar, who has been in a Mexican prison for four months on what is being called a trumped-up federal weapon charge, has gained social media momentum, with a growing campaign calling for his release.
Anchoring the effort is www.facebook.com/FreeJonHammar, which has not only maintained news updates on his case but has also served as a venue for concerned citizens to express their frustration and anger at how the 27-year-old veteran of multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan is being treated in the notorious CEDES prison in Matamoros, Mexico.
“We never leave a brother behind. We never leave a Marine behind. We have to do something,” screams the title of the page.
Hammar was arrested Aug. 13 in Matamoros after he declared to Mexican customs agents a shotgun he planned to use for hunting in Costa Rica with fellow Marine veteran Ian McDonough. McDonough was also arrested, but later released because he did not own the weapon.
Prosecutors contend the rifle, an antique .410 gauge shotgun, is used by the Mexican military, a fact which has been refuted by high-ranking military officials, according to Hammar’s attorney Eddie Varon-Levy. The Sears Roebuck model shotgun also falls within the parameters of Mexican regulations for bringing a hunting rifle into the country. Hammar’s only perceived failure was to have the appropriate documentation.
Hammar’s arrest and confirmed incidents of death threats, extortion, and being chained to his bed in a prison controlled by members of the Los Zetas and Gulf Cartels have fueled national anger, which has been vented on the Facebook page.
With nearly 4,000 likes, the sentiments are vividly clear.
“Look i am a combat vet i am so tired of our government doing nothing……i have my own weapon and ammo and i know of other vets who would willing go and do what our government want do andthat is to go down and get him…..NO ONE LEFT BEHIND,” said Mike Walters in a post.
While many contributors advocated direct military SEAL-like rescue missions, others expressedfrustration in failed diplomatic efforts.
“This is an absolute outrage, where is our government? This man served this country and is anAmerican citizen,” said a poster identified as Anthony Greene.
U.S. Consulate officials in Mexico told Hammar’s family there is little that can be donediplomatically because of Mexican sovereignty.
Some of the Facebook comments provided political and economic suggestions.
“Boycott travel to Mexico. When the Mexican government admits that they are powerless over the drug cartels — why would we support them?” said Debbie Blair.
Seeing a lack in tangible diplomatic support, Hammar’s supporters are petitioning the White House for action.
Jon Hammar Sr., said his daughter, Jon Jr.’s younger sister and classmates at Wingate University in North Carolina, launched the petition campaign to bring her brother home. Hammar Sr., said, for his daughter’s safety, he requests keeping her from the press.
There are currently two active petitions. One at www.Change.org and the other directly petitioning President Barack Obama and the White House for action,https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/help-bring-jon-hammar-home
As of Saturday there were more than 15,500 signatures on the presidential petition, which requires 25,000 for review. Cited in the reasons for the petition are civil rights and liberties, human rights, and the rights of veterans and families.
Hammar supporters can also go to the Twitterhashtags #freejonhammer and #bringjonhammarhome.
Joseph J. Kolb is a regular contributor to FoxNews.com
Source: Fox World News
Gun that landed Marine Jon Hammar in Mexican prison was legal, says veteran guide
The gun that landed former Marine Jon Hammar in a notorious Mexican prison was legal under that country’s federal laws, according to a well-known hunting guide who leads ventures south of the border.
Robert Beall,of Tall Tine Outfitters of Mexico and formerly host of the Pursuit Channel television show “World of Hunting,” said the vintage Sears Roebuck shotgun that Hammar declared to Mexican customs officialsin Matamoros, Mexico, Aug. 13 while on his way to Costa Rica should not have landed the 27-year-old Hammar in prison. He’s been held at the infamous CEDES prison for more than four months awaiting trial for carrying an illegal weapon.
“Based on what I have read, he was totally within the parameters of the law in terms of the weapon,” Beall said.
Even if Hammar did not have the proper permits, carrying the weapon did not merit prison time, according to Beall.
“People are usually fined and released if they don’t have the appropriate permit,” Beall said.
The charge Hammar faces, according to his attorney Eddie Varon-Levy, was aggravated felony of having a weapon used by the Mexican armed forces, which is punishable up to 15 years in prison.
The Mexican federal prosecutor is arguing that Hammar Jr.’s 24-inch length barrel falls one inch below the federal requirement of 25 inches.
Varon-Levy said not only is the prosecution team unable to come to a consensus about how to actually measure the rifle, he was told by high-ranking Mexican military officials that they don’t even use the .410 gauge shells fired by the gun, which once belonged to Hammar’s grandfather and is considered an heirloom by his family.
“The federal weapons law and hunting laws are in direct conflict with each other,” Varon-Levy said.
Mexico typically reserves strict enforcement of the gun laws governing shotguns to those with barrels less than 20 inches long, and firing shells no larger than 12-gauge. Hammar’s was .410, the lowest gauge shotgun shells commercially manufactured.
Hammar admitted to Mexican officials he was planning on doing small game hunting, which the gun was appropriate for. His mistake, according to Beall, was not having the appropriate permits. The consulate certificate he should have provided may be obtained from any Mexican embassy or consulate upon presentation of a letter from the hunter’s local police or sheriff’s office verifying that the hunter has no criminal record. This certificate is also necessary for obtaining the military gun permits, which is issued by the army garrison in the state where the individual is going to hunt.
Varon-Levy said his argument is steeped not in the lack of appropriate permits, but the classification of the rifle and ammunition.
“He only faces one charge and that deals with bringing a weapon used by the military into Mexico,” Varon-Levy said. “It wasn’t concealed and Jon demonstrated he was in the mental state and had the intent to follow the law on both sides of the border.”
Hammar completed the required paperwork in the U.S. for the weapon according to Varon-Levy. He has yet to obtain these documents.
“In a worst-case scenario, Jon should only have been fined for this,” Varon-Levy said.
Hammar claims a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent told him the gun was okay to take into Mexico, but the agency said it is not policy to provide information to as to what another country’s laws are.
“Due to privacy, CBP does not comment on the specifics of an individual’s processing,” said Mike Friel, spokesman, U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “CBP does not provide advice regarding the laws of foreign governments.
This has been refuted by Hammar’s parents and Ian McDonough, who accompanied Hammar Jr. on the trip and was also arrested but later released. They claim U.S. agents told Hammar the gun was legal to carry in Mexico.
Hammar remains in the notorious CEDES prison in Matamoros, Mexico, a facility experts say is controlled by Los Zetas and Gulf Cartel members.
Since his incarceration in August, Hammar, who fought for the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, has endured threats against his life, isolation for his own protection in a transformed storage closet where he was also reportedly chained to a bed. Varon-Levy said a court date is scheduled for Jan.17.
Hammar’s plight has sparked outrage among politicians and supporters. A Facebook page,http://www.facebook.com/FreeJonHammarhas been established to raise awareness and garner support.
Source: Fox World News