(PEN Canada/IFEX) – The following is a 7 February 2002 PEN Canada press release: Mexican General released from prison Writer members of PEN centres throughout North America hailed the release of a Mexican general jailed for more than eight years for his essays advocating human rights reforms for the armed forces in Mexico. PEN centres […]
(PEN Canada/IFEX) – The following is a 7 February 2002 PEN Canada press release:
Mexican General released from prison
Writer members of PEN centres throughout North America hailed the release of a Mexican general jailed for more than eight years for his essays advocating human rights reforms for the armed forces in Mexico. PEN centres in Toronto, Montreal, New York, and Los Angeles called the abrupt release of General José Francísco Gallardo Rodríguez two weeks before his case was to go before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights “the culmination of a tireless campaign by Gallardo’s family and human rights defenders around the world, and a heartening sign that President Vicente Fox intends to honour his often-quoted pledges to lead Mexico into a new era of respect for human rights and international law.”
“We congratulate General Gallardo and his family and commend them for their courage through eight years and two months of unjust imprisonment,” said representatives of PEN Canada and PEN American Center in a joint statement. Both centres had taken part in two missions to Mexico to try to secure the General’s release and had visited the General in prison in May 2000. “General Gallardo’s refusal to be silenced despite his Kafkaesque legal ordeal has been an inspiration to human rights activists in Mexico and around the world, and his release gives rise to the hope that the reforms he has advocated may indeed come to pass.”
Gallardo was arrested in October 1993, one week after his Master’s thesis entitled “The Need for a Military Ombudsman in Mexico” was excerpted in the Mexican magazine Forum. In 1996, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reviewed his case and concluded that he was imprisoned “without reason and legal justification,” and later the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that he was being arbitrarily detained. Frustrated by the Mexican government’s refusal to comply with its 1996 recommendations and increasingly concerned for Gallardo’s safety in prison, the IACHR petitioned the Inter-American Court in December to grant Gallardo emergency measures to guarantee his safety and physical integrity. The Court accepted Gallardo’s case and had ordered the Mexican government to appear at a hearing in San Jose, Costa Rica on February 18, 2002.
Upon his release tonight from prison the General commended the more than 50 NGO’ that had supported him, including International PEN, which from the beginning had called his arrest and imprisonment a clear violation of his right to freedom of expression.
