Women accused in Ianiero slayings start protest website

Two Ontario women accused by Mexican authorities of slaying a Canadian couple at a resort near Cancun have set up a website to clear their names and urgeOttawa to declare a travel ban.

Mexican officials named Cheryl Everall and Kimberly Kim ofThunder Bay asprime suspects after Domenic and Nancy Ianiero, of Woodbridge, Ont., were found in their hotel room with their throats slashed on Feb. 20,2006. The Thunder Bay women had been staying in the same luxury resort as the Ianieros, who werein Mexico to attend their daughter's wedding.

After the women were accused, Mexican authorities in turn weathered accusations that they hadconducted an ineptinvestigation and were trying to scapegoat foreigners to avoid damaging the lucrative tourism industry during its prime season.

On their website, Everall and Kim ask people to sign apetition that urges the federal government to issue either a travel ban or at the very least a travel advisory on some parts of Mexican Cancun and the Mayan Riviera, a tourism district on the eastern coast.

"As is exemplified by our case, Mexico is not safe, and we, the Canadian citizens, need to push for political change to ensure Canadian citizens are protected abroad," Everall and Kim say on the website.

"Canadian people need to be reassured that their status as citizens of this beautiful country protects their rights and freedoms," the petition reads. "Clearly, Canadians travelling to Mexico are not safe and it is the government's responsibility to ensure tourists make educated decisions when deciding to book travel destinations."

Everall and Kim say in the petition, which is a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that they remain under a "wrongful cloud of suspicion" that Mexican authorities created to protect their tourism industry.

Everall and Kim left Mexico the morning that the bodies of Domenic Ianiero, 59, and his wife, Nancy, 55, were found. Shortly thereafter,Mexicanauthorities named them as suspects. In July 2006, Mexicanofficials saidthey were seeking for questioning a former hotel security guard who disappeared the day after the slayings.

On their website, the Thunder Bay women sayone of the potential dangers of travelling in Mexico is being falsely accused by the justice system of committing crimes.

"For us, it was only a matter of 12 hours that allowed us to safely return to Canada. If it wasn't for these 12 hours, we would have been arrested and put in jail, awaiting a lengthy process to come back to Canada, if at all," the women warn on the website.

"We are no different from any other Canadian citizen. Therefore, until policies are in place to protect citizens wrongfully accused of crimes they did not commit, what happened to us can happen to you!"

The website gives visitors background information on the two women and allows visitors toshare stories about experiences in Mexico.

MP calls website an excellent tool

Ken Boshcoff, the MP for Thunder Bay-Rainy River, called the website an "excellent tool" to try to clear up the case.

"This website will be an excellent tool to collect information about the experiences of other Canadian tourists in Mexico and will provide further witnesses to the risks involved in travelling to that country," Boshcoff said in a statement released Wednesday.

Everall and Kim have been campaigning for months to clear their names and pressure on the federal government towarn about potential dangers of travelling inMexico. They have met with various government officials, but said in December that they were still frustrated by federal inaction on the case.

Women call for government action

Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo, the attorney general for the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, said in December that the investigation into the murders is at a standstill while Mexican authorities wait for more information from Canadian officials.

The website for Canada's Foreign Affairs Department has a "country travel report" for Mexico but currently has no travel warnings for Cancun and the Mayan Riviera.