Message from Nelson Maatman

[Fragment]

Nelson is currently detained in a prison in Mexico. He sent this message with a request to share, forward & publish.

A while back my boyfriend - whom was living 3 doors down at the time - ‘accidentally’ go transfer to a new dormitory by prison administration. They moved him to the group cell in the dormitory for recidivists. Those are people whom are in jail for at least the third time in their life. Not cold-hearted sicarios, but the worst kind of street thugs live there.

It's my boyfriend's first time in prison for a relatively small crime when he was 18. He's not some tough gangster. He has learned to stand up for himself, but he's still a timid gay guy that even the prison admits is vulnerable in prison, and for that he legally has the right to protection. Protection he doesn't get. Protection we need.

Things went to hell a few weeks ago. For some thoughts brought me my boyfriend - whom was already marked by several hits he took - the hit him several times in front of me and told me that if I didn't pay that they'd beat the shit out of him. I paid the extortionist and then I paid some more to get rid of them.

I bought my boyfriend a bunk in a relatively quiet part of the group cell so he'd be safer, more comfortable and we'd have a place to hang out. I waited to visit so he could settle, but soon things went wrong again. A guy in one of the bunks below him falsely accused my boyfriend of stealing a radio. My boyfriend has a large history of false accusation and and as a gay guy in a homophobic ‘Catholic’ country ALWAYS got screwed over.

I didn't want to risk his safety or for him to end up in punishment. From my own experience I know how bad it is down there. I've often called it “worse than Guantanamo”, that should give you an image.
I paid to replace the radio, I paid to have the accuser moved out, and I paid for protection. I decided it was time to let my presence be known since I have a lot of rep in other parts of the prison. I paid the mafia for my right to visit and to get their ‘blessing’.

Despite the roaches and smell of death rat, his bunk turned into a little slice of heaven for us to hang out, smoke, talk, kiss, but it didn't last long. Things got weird quick.
My boyfriend started talking about how I should break up with him because he was supposedly no good for me. They found the real thief, but didn't give us back our money. And I was getting sick of the amount of favors and gifts the mafioso kept demanding. That was just the first day.

The second day my boyfriend acted distant, but initially wouldn't tell me why. At the end of the day as it was getting close for me to leave he finally broke and told me they were forcing him to extort me, but that he didn't want to. They had a used condom and wanted to force him to file a rape complaint if I didn't pay.

No, yes, I know it sounds ridiculous, but do realize that I'm already being held for two and a half years for HUMAN TRAFFICKING and drug trade without trial, without evidence and without the possibility of a defense against a crime I obviously didn't commit.
With the Mexican Government against me a condom with my sperm and a forced or made up victim declaration. I could easily be looking at several extra years of pre trial detention. And what about my boyfriend his safety?

I didn't have a choice. I paid to get the condom and faked breaking up with my boyfriend, publicly accusing him of extortion to stop the actual extortion. Obviously I didn't formally accuse him of extortion and it's with his knowledge and consent. Secretly we're still seeing each other in other parts of the prison.

The prison and my embassy - his embassy sucks - are aware of the situation and have promised to take appropriate action. They haven't done anything at all. I communicate with them daily and they keep telling us ‘not to worry’.
We're in danger come on broke, underweight and starving. Nobody helps.

Nobody helps mainly because apparently two guys who love each other is something horrible. More horrible than the systematic torture that goes on in this prison, or the trafficking of transforming for sex.

Please somebody send help or at least some money so we can eat! Stop looking away.

Nelson Maatman

11th of October 2024

Reclusorio Varonil Preventivo Oriente
Ciudad de México, México

Do we really meant to do activism, or are we just talk?

[PorcelainLark]

I would donate if I had any cryptocurrency. I going to try to start wrapping my head around it. Maybe I'll try setting up a credit union for MAPs in the long run. For now, I'm sorry; there's nothing I can do that wouldn't jeopardize my anonymity.

[Anonymous_Lover]

>I would donate if I had any cryptocurrency.
He couldn't accept it as far as I'm aware. Last time we tried to coordinate aid for him he said he could only accept it in the form of Amazon gift cards or something. So any option that at least gave the donor some anonymity was out of the question, including fiat.

>Do we really meant to do activism, or are we just talk?
What can I say here without violating the rules about getting too personal or without looking like an asshole for those unfamiliar with the situation? Have I not spoken on it with you present? The less that's said about it the better...

[Fragment]

I just passed the message along. It seems like a serious enough situation, but I wasn't there when it was first all going down so I don't know the details fair beyond what I passed along.

I don't really like the idea of paying someone so they can continue paying extortion demands. My point was that it gives an opportunity to do more than talk. Whether that's appropriate or not in this situation is up for everyone to decide.

But a MAP activist is locked in a shitty prison. Whatever the specifics and whoever is to blame, that is something we should care about, surely?

[Anonymous_Lover]

"My point was that it gives an opportunity to do more than talk."
It gives us an excellent opportunity to waste time. Like the last "save Nelson" project. How honest am I allowed to be here? He will find a way to self-destruct like he did when he fired his lawyer bc he was convinced that that any lawyer would deliberately lose his case. Then when he got restrained bc he shouted "Tim Ballard is a rapist" over and over again in a manner that would have gotten him charged with contempt in even an American court. Last time I talked to him he was writing an unrelated fiction novel rather than trying to improve his legal defense or exhaust his options at the embassy or with the Netherlands foreign office.

If you guys really want to help him give some [redacted] to the judge whose presiding over his case, I don't think he's getting a fair trial in Mexico -- they don't even have jury trials and its corrupt as fuck. We have emails from OUR showing Ballard entrapped him, I'm not sure it makes a difference though, they were shared with his lawyer...which... see paragraph one.

Why this special attention all the time to Nelson? What about Martijn and his partner or Norbert? Well, you might say that Martijn and his partner have already been sentenced and Norbert is a free man who appears to not want anything to do with the MAP movement anymore after being arrested and having his livelihood impacted. Sure. Somewhat valid, I suppose. Only I was told by someone who was on the phone with Nelson the day he was arrested that Nelson said he'd accidentally blown their cover. Whoops! Might have something to do with why Nobert won't even take social calls anymore as Nelson once complained.

You can take this comment down if the last part is too incendiary but I personally don't want anything to do with another "help Nelson" project.

[Fragment]

Mu isn't for holding hands and singing Kumbaya. I believe in effective advocacy and activism. Your post seems to give an opinion regarding "effectiveness". I don't see anything wrong with it from my point of view.

Martijn and Lesley have not only been sentenced but lost their appeal. I'm not sure if there's much we can do now without either a strong local presence or strong international legal support. It would take a lot to overturn an appeal that's already gone that far up.

You seem to think that there's not much point to helping Nelson when he doesn't seem very willing to help himself. I agree that "give me money so my boyfriend and I can live more comfortably in a shit prison" isn't quite what I have in mind when I think of advocacy either. When we're as small as we are and have no support from groups like Amnesty I honestly don't know what we can do to help someone in prison in a country where the rule of law only loosely applies.

Results-wise it might be mostly useless, but still donating money to someone that has previously tried to do valuable work for MAPs is not entirely meaningless. Whatever mistakes he's made, he doesn't deserve what he's going through.

[Artaxerxes II]

Results-wise it might be mostly useless, but still donating money to someone that has previously tried to do valuable work for MAPs is not entirely meaningless. Whatever mistakes he's made, he doesn't deserve what he's going through.

Are you taking to a symbolic sense? As in "MAPs may not be a significant political bloc, but we are still willing too look out for our members and support them at their direst times"? In this sense, I would agree.

Btw, has anyone attempted to forward Nelson's case to Amnesty international, HRW, or any other global human rights organisation? I remember emailing about his case to some Italian and Spanish newspapers, but nothing came out of it, and that was back when his case was still hot due to the release of Tim Ballard's box office hit Sound of Freedom.

I don't know much of the key details, but can't Nelson take his case up to the international court of justice in The Hague?

[Fragment]

Are you taking to a symbolic sense? As in "MAPs may not be a significant political bloc, but we are still willing too look out for our members and support them at their direst times"? In this sense, I would agree.

Yeah basically. Where we safely can. Some people offered to financially help me in my situation. I don't need it, but I do appreciate the solidarity. That's what I mean by "more than talk".

That doesn't mean I specifically endorse supporting Nelson or not, though. I only have the information that's publicly available.

Btw, has anyone attempted to forward Nelson's case to Amnesty international, HRW, or any other global human rights organisation? I remember emailing about his case to some Italian and Spanish newspapers, but nothing came out of it, and that was back when his case was still hot due to the release of Tim Ballard's box office hit Sound of Freedom.

I don't know much of the key details, but can't Nelson take his case up to the international court of justice in The Hague?

Would anyone be willing to attempt this? It sounds like right now it's the day-to-day of prison that is a bigger concern to him, though.

[Fragment]

More context from Pedi:

All the focus needs to be on moving him out of that prison first or pay money to get him a better cell, forget about him being released anytime soon, if he does deserve to be free at all it's gonna take years and best case scenario he's extradited back to the Netherlands to face his charges pending there.

I read around that people were doubting his prison stories but they are 100% real, that place he's in is hell on earth and I would rather kill myself than ever go to that prison, it doesn't matter what crime you're there for you're going to be subjected to extreme brutality and it's all about extortion and paying money for everything.

Yeah, I knew someone who was in that prison so I know what that specific one is like, Nelson is at the absolute bottom of the ladder since he's resorting to prostitution to survive, he's even below the ones called "monsters" within the prison, people who have been completely abandoned by their families and friends and have no help or contact with the outside world so their hygiene is precarious since nobody brings them any products, their clothes are almost rags and their only source of income is to rent themselves as bodyguards or other acts of violence.

That prison is just one giant extortion operation at every level and from everyone, extortion from individual guards, extortion from inmates, extortion from authorities and it's systematic so it's not going to stop with a complaint to the right person or department or bringing attention to it, you have no option besides complying with the extortions, that's just what the system there is, I've seen him say he needs money in almost all his letters but it seems to me like nobody gets the message and don't truly understand how serious his situation is, he probably needs around $350-500 USD every month to be in a bearable situation, that's the most critical help he needs, money, not cries for his release, not good wishes, he needs money.

Also disclaimer, I don't like Nelson as a person one bit, I think he's a major scumbag and I do think he deserved maybe a good hit in the face for the things he has said but what he's going through is something I would maybe only wish to someone who killed my loved ones not someone who just said a lot of stupid things, so I'm sympathetic to his situation.

[Anonymous_Lover]

" don't truly understand how serious his situation is" partially his own fault, he indicated to me once that it didn't really bother him if he was sentenced and had to serve there, he also said he hadn't contacted the Dutch embassy even though he claimed there had almost been an uprising on his behalf within the government over the banned organization charges that caused him to flee. Maybe its all just putting on a brave face but he seemed to act at times as if he was thriving enjoying meth and fun with the boys, mogging passive Latinxes physically and thereby asserting his dominance in the prison hierarchy. As I was saying it might be best to simply pay off the judge overseeing his case or some corrupt official [in minecraft because this is a law-abiding Christian forum!] at least that way if the right person got paid you'd be able to bring him home rather than continually paying for his upkeep -- which I doubt we can do even if all pedi chipped in.

You would need someone who can be a point man that's fine with their real identity being revealed bc again he's said there's no way to get more anonymous means of payment such as crypto or even cash to him. Maybe that's changed or he's potentially found an in and there is a way to get fiat to him now. He was the one who went silent with us so if he feels abandoned its really his own fault. He seems at times to take the angle that he's *owed* support when he was the one who made the decision to flee to Mexico against the advice of other MAPs. William also acted as if it was owed to him. Not sure what that was about. Europeans seem to have a much more idyllic view of Latin America than Americans, as Martijn also learned about Latin America the hard way, sadly. I doubt any human rights related to inquiries will do much good.Not to lecture but for anyone that gets caught up in a similar situation unless you know your fucked for possibly decades of your life in jail-time there's no reason to flee a first world country with rule of law to a third world country that may not have it or that you don't know to navigate.

Personally, I won't push members of PCMA to donate when there's plenty of things we could use the money for ourselves. At the same time, I won't oppose people being made aware of a donation link for Nelson as long as it doesn't become too spammy/guilt-trippy. I won't pretend I don't think its likely just pissing down the drain as he seems to have a remarkable talent for self-destruction, poor communication, low IQ/low inhibition behavior and alienating people. I want to believe that helping to get him out of a shit situation might incline him towards better judgement.

But liminal made a sly remark about whether he deserves to be there and I've had questions about whether he's been fully honest with us while seeking our support. Initially, the case was comically bad in that the cops claimed he had a binder with CP in it that fell out when he was arrested; one of the last updates I received he mentioned that the authorities had produced a phone and he was pretty silent on that compared to the rest of his case.

To me, it doesn't matter if he's guilty or not guilty, but if he is guilty and they have him, I'd return to the question of why not aid for the others? Do you really think that Martijn is not in a situation that's just as bad or worse? Has anyone bothered to make contact with him? Does he even have a potential line of communication open?