Rod Coronado caught in Arizona
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1994:
TUCSON, Arizona–– Rod Coronado,
28, indicted by a federal grand jury in connection
with an alleged Animal Liberation Front arson at
Michigan State University in 1992, was arrested
September 28 by the FBI on the Pasqua Yaqui
Reservation, south of Tucson, Arizona. Living
under the name Martin Rubio, he was lured out-
doors by an informer who asked him to help with
an injured bird.
Of mixed Yaqui and Mexican ancestry,
Coronado served the reservation as a social worker,
and was highly praised by tribal vice president
Anselmo Valencia, whose home he shared, for his
work with children. Valencia unsuccessfully
offered to pledge his own salary as bond for
Coronado’s release.
Coronado is being held without bail at
the Tucson Federal Correctional Institute. A fugi-
tive for 18 months, he is also suspected in connec-
tion with a similar arson, also in 1992, at
Washington State University. Both fires razed
mink research projects of value to the fur trade. If
convicted on all five of the charges he already
faces, he could draw 50 years in prison and be
fined $1.25 million.
Coronado is best known for sinking two
Icelandic whaling vessels at dockside in 1986, in
company with British activist David Howitt, on
behalf of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society;
and for obtaining undercover video of conditions
and killing methods on mink farms after leaving the
Sea Shepherds over tactical disagreements. He is
legally represented by noted animal rights attorney
Larry Weiss, of Santa Rosa, California.
