February 22, 1999

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A Mexican army general who was jailed after publicly calling for military reforms sent a letter to President Ernesto Zedillo on Monday asking that he be released from prison.

Brig. Gen. Jose Francisco Gallardo Rodriguez urged Zedillo to implement the 1996 recommendation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission that he be freed.

"In your political discourse it has been said that in Mexico we live in a state of law, that no one should be above the law," Gallardo said in his letter to Zedillo. "For this reason I appeal to this high office for the fulfillment of the (commission's) recommendation."

A press statement from Gallardo's son, Alejandro Gallardo Enriquez, said the letter was delivered to the National Palace on Monday.

A spokesman for the president's office, speaking on condition of customary anonymity, said there was no comment on the letter and could not confirm that it had been received by Zedillo.

In the letter, Gallardo said he has been the target of a military campaign of "defamation, persecution and harassment" for denouncing corruption and nepotism. He was jailed in November 1993 after he wrote an article calling for a human rights ombudsman within the military.

Last April, a military court sentenced Gallardo to 14 years in prison on charges of illegally amassing a fortune while in uniform. That followed a separate 14-year sentence on charges of corruption and destroying files.

Copyright 1999 The Associated Press