Company saysallegations are false

This letter is regarding the article “Mexican activist shares stories of torture,” which appeared in The Oracle on April 15. The article unfortunately repeats allegations by an activist group about Boise Corporate Communications that are inaccurate, misleading and false.

Boise has been the target of false allegations that attempt to link our former sawmill operations in Guerrero, Mexico, to the activities and ultimate arrests of Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia. Throughout the time of our operations in Mexico — which permanently ended in April 1998 — we had no information or awareness of activities of Mr. Montiel and Mr. Cabrera, no personal acquaintance with them and no contact. In fact, we were unaware of these gentlemen at all until seeing references to their arrests posted on the Internet and mentioned in news media articles.

The facts are that Boise neither conducted nor supervised logging in Mexico, but rather bought logs from local families who conducted logging, as they had traditionally, under the supervision of the Mexican forest service. No clear-cut logging was involved in supplying the small mill we leased.

Further, Mr. Montiel’s and Mr. Cabrera’s activities had no bearing on our decision to end our lumber operations in Mexico. We were never contacted by Montiel and Cabrera during the time we operated in Mexico, our log supply was never interrupted by protest, and we only learned of their supposed activities by reading newspaper accounts of their arrest in May 1999, more than a year after we had closed our operations.

Boise shares in the values of protection of individual liberties and the free expression of opinions in the United States, in Mexico and everywhere. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond.

Ralph Poore is the Media Relations Manager for Boise Corporate Communications.