La Reforma, Thursday
March 18, 1999
By Hugo Martinez McNaught

According to the Attorney General of the Military Police, Brigadier General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, the leader of the Patriotic Command for the Concientization of the People, Lieutenant Colonel Hildegardo Bacilio Gomez, was arrested yesterday afternoon by military judicial police in Pachuca, Hidalgo.

Accused of sedition, insubordination, slander and defamation against the army, among other crimes, Bacilio was captured three months after marching at the head of 50 uniformed rebels along Avenida Paseo de la Reforma, announcing the creation of the Command and denouncing presumed violations of human rights within the armed forces.

The crime of inciting sedition, the most serious of those levied against the soldier, carries a 40 year prison sentence, Macedo warned.

"The investigation remains open. We will carry it through to its ultimate conclusions", the military Attorney General said by telephone.

Bacilio, who continued to denounce presumed acts of abuse of power in the press during the three months that he was a fugitive, was transported yesterday to the military prison in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, where he will brought before the military judge of the Third Military Region. The judge has 72 hours in which to decide whether or not to formally imprison him.

The military Attorney General indicated that only military judicial police participated in the arrest, and that these were members of the special team that had been created to track down and arrest Bacilio since the 18th of December last year.

• December 18 1998: Patriotic Command appears

  Around 50 soldiers of varying ranks carry out a march along Avenida Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Hildegardo Bacilio Gomez, announcing the creation of the Patriotic Command for the Concientization of the People (CPCP). They demand the suppression of the fuero de guerra [military judicial system dedicated to enforcing internal discipline], denounce human rights violations within the armed forces and criticize the economic policies of the government.

• December 19, 1998: Military Attorney General launches warning

  The Attorney General of the Military Police, General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, considers the CPCP's demands "inadmisable" and warns that the armed forces will proceed against the rebels with all of its energy.

• December 22, 1998: Sedena (Mexican Defense Department) begins interrogations

  The Defense Department begins interrogating members of the CPCP under the enquiry SC/379/98/x in order to identify its leaders and define their responsibilities.

• January 5, 1999: Command tries to deliver letter to Zedillo

  Command members try to deliver a comunique directed to the President of the Republic at Los Pinos [Presidencial residence] and the National Palace [offices of the Presidency], in which they denounce the supposed abuse of power by the Head of the Defense Department, Enrique Cervantes Aguirre. The rebels were unable to carry out their objective.

• January 7, 1999: Five members of the Command are arrested

  The rebel group denounces the arrest of five of its members who attempted to deliver the letter to the President. The Military Attorney General denies the arrest of the five lieutenants.

• February 19, 1999: Zedillo refers to rebels as buffoons

  During the celebrations on army day (día del ejercito), the President calls for the law to be rigourously applied against those who "dishonor" the armed forces. "We share the shame that these very few people cause; they offend the institution that generously offered them an education and a career", he said.

• February 20, 1999: Bacilio refutes the President

  The leader of the Patriotic Command rejects that members of the rebel group "dishonor" the armed forces. "Our studies, careers and benefits were paid for by the people of Mexico through their taxes. We owe everything to them, not the President", he commented.