Mexican General Gets 15 Years for Theft

A general who called for human rights reforms in the Mexican army was sentenced Wednesday to nearly 15 years in prison for stealing government property, in a trial rights groups denounced as a sham.

Brig. Gen. Jose Francisco Gallardo, 51, has become one of Mexico’s best-known prisoners since he was jailed in 1993, days after a magazine published excerpts from his master’s thesis complaining of abuses in the military and calling for a human rights ombudsman to oversee the armed services.

Military authorities have said the charges against Gallardo have nothing to do with his opinions. But rights groups charge that he has been prosecuted repeatedly to punish him for questioning a powerful and secretive Mexican institution.

“We will insist on his immediate and unconditional release because he remains a prisoner of conscience,” said Diego Zavala, a representative for Amnesty International.

Gallardo’s court-martial was widely followed in Mexico and marked one of the rare times the military has opened a legal proceeding to the public and the media.

A five-man panel of senior military officers gave Gallardo the maximum sentence of 14 years, eight months after a trial lasting several weeks at a Mexico City military base. On hearing the sentence, Gallardo walked over to his three sons and embraced them.

“Thank you. Let us go forward, we cannot yield,” the officer told his sons, according to one of them, also named Jose Francisco. “There are other bodies we can appeal to,” he added. “I will prove that I am innocent.”

In the past five years, the army has opened 16 investigations of Gallardo--including one for defamation, based on the general’s published article. But Wednesday marked the first time that he has been convicted and sentenced. In nearly all the other cases, he was either absolved or the charges were dropped. One other trial is pending.

Gallardo’s case has prompted the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, part of the Organization of American States, to issue a rare rebuke to Mexico. The commission ruled in 1996 that Gallardo had been jailed “with no reasonable, logical or justifiable purpose.” In a binding recommendation, the commission called for him to be released.

In the latest trial, Gallardo was convicted of stealing animal feed and army uniforms when he was in charge of the army’s cavalry stables. He was also found guilty of burning files to cover up the alleged crime.

The prosecution provided a series of military officers who testified against Gallardo. “We are satisfied with the work we have done,” said the military prosecutor, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, declining to answer further questions.

But Gallardo’s attorney, Felix Garza, complained that the military officers who served as judges had no legal training.

“The sentence was reached without observing, without recognizing, without examining the evidence,” he said. He immediately appealed the conviction.

The trial occurred as Mexico’s military is under the most intense scrutiny in decades. Unlike those in other parts of Latin America, Mexico’s military has largely stayed out of politics and has enjoyed a certain autonomy from public scrutiny.

Brinley Bruton in The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.