Mexican Army Under Fire From 2 Sides : Military: Villagers accuse troops of abuses during drug sweeps. There is also criticism from within.

The Mexican army, unlike its counterparts in much of Latin America, has appeared to be firmly under civilian control for six decades. But Mexicans have had reason, of late, to wonder just how under control it is.

Accusations are mounting that soldiers bent on destroying marijuana and opium poppy fields have abused peasants in various states. A brigadier general who proposed that the military create an ombudsman to handle civilian complaints of military human rights violations has been jailed, accused of defamation.

These incidents are shining an unfavorable glare on an organization unaccustomed to having its role scrutinized so publicly. They also are beginning to fulfill some of the most dire predictions of observers who warned against using the army in Mexico’s war on drugs.

The Mexican army years ago withdrew from efforts to catch drug dealers because contact with the narcotics trade was threatening to corrupt the military, said Gen. Enrique Salgado, adjunct to the Mexican Army High Command. But at any one time now, 4,000 soldiers are deployed in the mountains and jungles for up to four months to destroy drug crops.

That has caused different problems, putting the army in contact with isolated villages, usually Indian settlements. Villagers often react strongly to attempts to destroy their admittedly illegal crops, setting off a spiral of violence.

It happened last year in the mountains of Chihuahua in northern Mexico, when an army lieutenant assigned to an anti-narcotics squad disappeared and soldiers set out to investigate his presumed murder.

According to information presented to the National Human Rights Commission, the troops questioned Tepehuan Indians in the village of Baborigame. They then burned eight houses, held villagers captive and hit them. The army paid villagers for their losses. But the Tepehuanos said they were inadequately compensated and took the case to the commission.

Similar problems have occurred in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca and the central state of Michoacan. As a result, the army’s prestige is being eroded.

The Mexican army ranks higher in public opinion than most national institutions, said Roderic Camp, a Tulane University professor who has studied the Mexican armed forces. “It certainly enjoys more prestige than politicians or the courts,” he said.

But among those who have the most contact with the army, such as peasants in areas where drug sweeps occur, the military is held in lower esteem, Camp said.

The army is also facing criticism internally. In a little-known magazine, Brig. Gen. Jose Francisco Gallardo recently published an article based on his master’s thesis. Gallardo concluded that the army should create an ombudsman’s office to handle complaints from civilians and soldiers about human rights abuses by the military.

Days after the article was published, Gallardo was arrested on charges of malfeasance and destruction of government property; army officials said the charges were unrelated to his writing. But shortly after his imprisonment without bail, defamation charges also were filed against him.

Gallardo’s friends and family contacted national and international human rights groups, creating a flood of publicity.

“The kinds of abuses that have been occurring are illogical,” Gallardo, a 30-year army veteran, said in an interview at the military prison here. “This should not happen in Mexico; 90% of our troops are people of humble origins, just like the peasants who are being mistreated.”

The army is accusing Gallardo of defamation based on one paragraph in his six-page article in which he asserts the military violates soldiers’ rights with impunity, enforces justice selectively and is arrogant. “That simply is not true,” said Lt. Col. Juan Manuel Angulo, legal adjunct to the Army High Command. “He is trying to give the army a bad image.”

Statements that could tarnish the army’s image violate the military code, he added, citing appropriate sections.

“It has been understood that the army does not interfere with the government and the government does not interfere with the army,” said Prof. Camp. That was part of the tacit agreement made in the 1930s, when Mexico’s last military president, Gen. Lazaro Cardenas, appointed a civilian successor.

But Gallardo believes it is time that hands-off policy changed, saying: “The army should be an institution that is more open to the society. The Mexican people, who provide the budget, have the right to know what kind of army they have.”

Such statements rankle military leaders, especially coming from Gallardo. “He has no room to talk,” said Angulo, producing a two-inch file on Gallardo that includes accusations of abuse of authority, the first dating from 1983. Gallardo was never found guilty of any of those accusations.

The general says he was absolved because he was innocent. Angulo counters that in several cases, the charges were dismissed “inexplicably.”

In an eight-page letter to human rights activist Rocio Culebro, military Advocate General Mario Guillermo Fromow said the charges were dismissed “out of generosity, because in an effort not to hurt him, his attitude has been forgiven . . . but instead of understanding the situation that way, he has become arrogant, publishing articles like the one under discussion.”

That 50 copies of that letter were distributed to human rights activists, journalists, government and army officials is indicative of a new sense of accountability within the army, analysts say. Angulo noted the army has promptly and carefully followed recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission.

Others see progress in the existence of internal disagreement in the army and the high command’s response to it.

That there is criticism of the army from within--and that top commanders have responded as they have--reflects a remarkable change in an organization that once simply closed ranks when controversy arose, said Camp. “The new generation of officers now at the colonel and one-star general level see the need to be more open to the rest of society,” he said.