The News Mexico
November 16, 2001
By Lisa Smith

WASHINGTON - The youngest son of Mexican political prisoner Gen. Jose Francisco Gallardo said Thursday that President Vicente Fox has the power to free his father, but lacks the resolve to challenge the powerful Mexican military.

Alejandro Gallardo, the general's 27-year-old son, said that Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, Fox's national security adviser, and Mariclaire Acosta, Mexico's undersecretary of foreign relations for human rights, have told his family that the Fox administration does not want to keep the general in prison, but has justified the situation by claiming that there is no legal foundation to release him.

"This is false. The only thing that is necessary is political will on the part of Vicente Fox to stand up to the military," Gallardo said in an interview. "The Mexican army is very powerful and doesn't care about the opinion of all the groups (calling for his father's release), including the opinion of the federal government of Mexico. What's necessary is to break the power of the high-ranking group in the military that is manipulating the Mexican army."

The 55-year-old general was imprisoned eight years ago for criticizing human rights abuses committed by the Mexican army after being sentenced to 28 years on embezzlement and defamation charges. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization of American States, on Wednesday issued an ultimatum to Fox: release the elder Gallardo by Friday or the case will be taken up by the Inter-American Court.

Alejandro Gallardo said the commission's demand exerts strong pressure on the Mexican government and if the high-profile case did wind up in international court, Mexico could be embarrassed.

"Mexico would be underscored as a country that violates human rights," the young Gallardo said. He said he believed that the government would release his father only if it did not have to admit wrongdoing, which is what occurred last week in the release of imprisoned campesino activists Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera.

Gallardo said their release does not raise hope that his father will be released. He called their release "a farce" because Montiel and Cabrera were freed for humanitarian reasons without being cleared of the charges against them and because their oppressors were not held accountable for committing human rights abuses. He added that his father would not accept freedom under those terms.

"We will only accept release with the understanding that he does not accept any guilt and that the basis of his release is in compliance with the (mandates of) the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights," he said. The commission recommended five years ago that the elder Gallardo be released, but the Mexican government has yet to respond. Alejandro Gallardo said that Claudio Grossman, president of the commission, has said that he considers the Mexican government to have kidnapped Gallardo's father because the detention has no legal foundation. According to Gallardo, Grossman called it "shameful for Latin America that the government of Mexico challenges the Inter-American system of the Organization of American States."

Gallardo and members of Amnesty International USA met Thursday with U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R-Fla.), who said she would circulate a letter among members of Congress to inform them of the case. Gallardo and the amnesty activists were scheduled to speak to representatives from the state department Friday