Four years ago, Pavel Kulisek decided to do something many of us only dream of doing. He decided that he and his wife Jirina would pick up stakes and go on an extended adventure with their two girls, four-year-old Anna and six-year-old Isabella.
The year was 2007, and their destination was Mexico. The plan was to spend a few months travelling. For Kulisek, it was going to be a golden opportunity to spend more time with his beloved kids.
Since arriving in Canada 20 years ago from the Czech Republic, Kulisek had built up a successful building contracting company in B.C. But he felt there was something missing in his life.
"Number one thing was to spend time with the family, especially the girls because he was always working really, really hard and long hours…he just felt like he's missing all this time with these girls," explained Kulisek's wife, Jirina.
So the family bought an RV and headed down the west coast to Baja. Eventually they ended up in a little town near the tip of the Baja Peninsula called Los Barriles. It's a quiet place with nice beaches, a friendly ex-pat community, even a school for the girls. Kulisek and his wife liked it so much they decided to buy a house and put down roots for a few years. At the time, it felt like a dream come true.
It wasn't long before Kulisek was introduced to Carlos Herrera – a fellow dirt bike enthusiast. At first blush, Herrera seemed innocent enough. He had four kids and like Kulisek, seemed to be a family man. So the two families got to know one another.But mostly, Herrera was a dirt biking buddy.
It was a casual friendship that would forever change Kulisek's life. Within weeks of meeting one another, Kulisek's wife Jirina said he "received a phone call from Carlos that he's sitting in a hot dog stand just two blocks from our house, and at the time there was Eduardo with him…"
Eduardo was someone that Kulisek owed money to for construction supplies. So he decided to head off immediately and take the opportunity to pay Eduardo. And that's when Jirina lost contact with her husband.
The following day, in a panic, Jirina started looking for her husband. She went to the local police. They knew nothing. She scoured the town, still, no luck. Then she contacted the Canadian consulate.
Later that afternoon, the Consulate informed Jirina that her husband had been taken into custody by federal police along with Carlos Herrera and Eduardo on drug charges. "I was shocked," Jirina said. "I just had no idea – the first thing. I had no idea what I will do or how could that happen or what to do."
Turns out that Kulisek's dirt biking buddy Carlos Herrera wasn't Carlos at all. Police identified him as Gustavo Rivera Herrera, allegedly one of the top men in the Tijuana drug cartel.
And Eduardo, the guy that Kulisek owed money to for construction supplies? Well, he wasn't Eduardo. Police said he was Marcos Assemat Hernandez, a corrupt cop with multiple convictions for drug trafficking and also a member of the cartel.
As for Pavel Kulisek – the Canadian who thought he was embarking on the adventure of a lifetime – well police weren't even sure who or what he was. But just as they were about to move in and arrest Gustavo Rivera Herrera, Kulisek happened to show up at the restaurant that was under surveillance. Now the Mexican police were accusing Kulisek of being part of Gustavo's gang.
More than three years have passed since Kulisek was arrested and imprisoned. Until recently, Kulisek – a man who has never been in trouble with the law before - languished in the Puenta Grande maximum security prison near Guadalajara, Mexico. Charged with being part of a Mexican drug cartel, the case has yet to go to trial. He's never been convicted of a crime. Evidence against him is flimsy at best, fabricated at worst.
The only contact he has had with his family has been limited to seven minutes per week by phone.
W5 has now learned that Kulisek's three year nightmare has taken a turn for the worse. On March 14, 2011, Jirina got a call from Foreign Affairs. "They told me that last night Pavel wanted to kill himself," Jirina said.
It turns out her husband tried to hang himself in jail. He'd been depressed for weeks after learning there were complications with his court case. His trial would be delayed for at least eight months. Prison officials had a warning he was depressed.
"Like six, seven weeks ago he asked for a psychiatrist because he was just feeling, you know, that he needs to talk to somebody who will have a different – different outlook about everything," Jirina said.
But that request was seemingly ignored. Kulisek had had enough. He made a rope from his clothing and tried to end his life. "One of the messages he passed on to me is – that I should forget about him. Find a new husband and start all over again," Jirina related.
Kulisek was treated in the prison infirmary and then transferred to a prison for the criminally insane. This was ostensibly for his own protection.
"What is going on in his mind is that he wants, you know, he wants to end this, end this suffering for himself and for us as well," Jirina said.
Guillermo Cruz was Kulisek's lawyer for many years. For a while, the only evidence provided to him by the prosecutor was a statement by Marcos Assemat Hernandez, the man Kulisek knew as Eduardo. The statement claimed that Hernandez was introduced to Kulisek by Gustavo Rivera Herrera and that Kulisek was collaborating with Gustavo to obtain properties to be used as safe houses.
"This protected witness is a former police officer who served time in Mexico and the States for drug dealing," Cruz said.
In other words, a corrupt cop looking to make a deal. In fact, Marcos Assemat Hernandez would later go on to admit he didn't see Kulisek commit any crimes. He just heard that from from Gustavo Rivera Herrera. Hernandez also admitted that Kulisek didn't even know his or Herrera's real names.
Faced with scant evidence, two years ago Guillermo Cruz moved to have the case dismissed. That's when new evidence suddenly surfaced. A text message had been found on drug lord Gustavo Rivera Herrera's cell phone. A text message sent the day of the arrest that showed seven thousand dollars had been transferred into Kulisek's Vancouver account.
Kulisek's wife, however, provided copies of those bank accounts to W5 and no such sum was ever transferred. And Guillermo Cruz said that when Gustavo Rivera Herrera was arrested, he didn't have a cell phone. It conveniently turned up a month later.
Despite these irregularities, Kulisek's case continues to drag on. A case led initially by a Mexican prosecutor by the name of Noe Ramirez Mandujano, a man the Economist Magazine has reported was arrested for allegedly taking bribes from a drug cartel.
A prosecutor accused of taking bribes initially leading the case. A corrupt cop the only witness. And yet Canadian officials have continued to insist that Mexico's justice system be allowed to run its course.
These are empty words to Jirina. "I don't have faith in that system at all. But, unfortunately, the Canadian government still does. I don't know why they – it seems to me that they chose a long time ago that we're not going to touch this case at all, no matter what, no matter what's going to happen."
After wasting away for more than three years in Mexican jails, trying to deal with what human rights groups have identified as one of the most corrupt systems of justice on earth, the Kuliseks keep being told by Canadian officials to have faith. And all Jirina can do is pray that her husband doesn't try to commit suicide -- and set himself, and his family free again.
