General wants Mexican troops out of Chiapas
SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) -- A general who spent
eight years behind bars as Mexico's "last prisoner of conscience" called
on
President Vicente Fox to remove remaining government troops from Chiapas
and let the Zapatista rebels live in peace.
Visiting Chiapas for a human rights forum, Brig. Gen. Jose Francisco Gallardo
asked what was stopping Fox's government from letting Indian communities
in
Mexico's southernmost state "live free, independent and peaceful lives."
Gallardo was arrested in 1993 after writing an article calling for a human
rights
ombudsman in the military. A military tribunal later sentenced him to 23
years in
prison on dubious charges of corruption, illegally amassing a fortune and
destroying
files.
After years of protests from human rights groups, Fox, who ended seven
decades
of Institutional Revolutionary Party rule by winning the presidency in
2000, ordered
Gallardo's release in February.
Fox made bringing a peace settlement to troubled Chiapas a top priority.
Zapatista
guerrillas staged a bloody 12-day rebellion in the name of Indian rights
and
socialism in 1994, but since then their conflict with the government has
been
mostly a war of words.
Fox has removed hundreds of troops from Chiapas, closed seven army bases
built
to surround Zapatista strongholds, freed dozens of rebel prisoners and
sent a
Zapatista-backed Indian Rights bill to Congress. But the rebels refused
to resume
formal peace talks with the government after legislators watered down the
bill.
Army officials say several hundred troops are still stationed around Chiapas,
mostly
to prevent violence between Zapatista supporters and right-wing paramilitary
forces
and to help implement social programs. The exact number of soldiers in
the area
has never been made public.
A Fox spokesman declined to comment on Gallardo's comments Friday.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.