Mexico Frees Ex-Union Boss From Prison

After nine years in prison, the former boss of a notoriously corrupt union who became one of Mexico’s most famous prisoners was freed Tuesday night after an intense campaign by human rights organizations.

Authorities gave no reason for their surprise decision to release Joaquin Hernandez Galicia, former leader of the powerful oil workers union. But the government has come under mounting pressure this year from critics who accuse it of a deteriorating human rights record.

The 75-year-old Hernandez Galicia, known by his diminutive “La Quina,” was jailed in 1989 after he openly defied then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. The union leader was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the shooting death of a federal agent sent to arrest him. But human rights groups maintained that the case was so full of irregularities that it appeared the charges were trumped up.

“This was obviously political revenge by Carlos Salinas,” said Sergio Aguayo, a prominent Mexican human rights activist.

Hernandez Galicia left a prison in eastern Mexico City after the Interior Ministry said he was being released early for good behavior.

Outside, his vehicle was mobbed by journalists, as well as supporters chanting, “Free him! Free him!” The frail, sickly union boss, dressed in a blue suit and yellow tie, murmured, “Gracias. Gracias.”

Earlier, his son Joaquin Hernandez Correa, a left-wing federal congressman, told reporters: “The only thing he wants is to live in peace.”

Hernandez Galicia had been listed as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, and his release had been sought by the government’s Human Rights Commission, as well as by 17 members of the U.S. Congress.

He was, however, an unlikely cause celebre. Hernandez Galicia headed a 200,000-member union famed for corruption and nepotism. It represents workers at the state oil monopoly, Pemex.

When Salinas ordered a raid on his house in 1989, described as part of an anti-corruption campaign, dozens of top Mexican intellectuals and artists, including Nobel Prize-winning writer Octavio Paz, signed open letters praising the crackdown.

Hernandez Galicia maintains he is innocent, and this year sought his freedom under a Mexican law allowing time off for good behavior. Last week, a court granted his request. But the Interior Ministry blocked the release, saying in a statement that the elderly prisoner “has not been rehabilitated.”

Five days later, the ministry changed its position. Its communique on the release gave no reason for the change, and a ministry spokesman, Francisco Gomez, said he had no further information. Aguayo, the human rights activist, said pressure from human rights groups and the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party appeared to be behind the decision.

Hernandez Galicia is believed to have retained little of the following he enjoyed for years as head of the nation’s most powerful union. And he has vowed to stay out of politics. However, his release undoubtedly made the government uneasy.

President Ernesto Zedillo already has faced stiff opposition to his plans to sell off part of the country’s petrochemical industry. Hernandez Galicia, who broke with the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party during the 1988 presidential race, fiercely attacked Salinas’ privatizations of government companies.

Robert Randolph of The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.