Mex. Army General: "The only way an event (Iguala) of this magnitude could happen is collusion and participation of the Army. …. may cause a civil war”

Posted by DD Translated and Republished from Proceso

Retired General  José Francisco Gallardo Rodríguez.

COLIMA, Col.   From his personal experience in the militia, where he tried without success to create the office  of  military ombudsman within the army (to protect the public from human rights abuses), the general in retirement José Francisco Gallardo Rodríguez affirms that,  his attitude after looking at the facts of Tlatlaya and Ayotzinapa, is that president Enrique Peña Nieto  is betting on repression.

What we see" - he says -" is a sign, an escape valve for the people through active participation in dissent and social mobilization, which these two serious developments show. Paradoxically the only support that Enrique Peña Nieto has as the President of the Republic are the armed forces'

In an interview, the retired General indicates that according to the Geopolitical Observatory of Armed  Groups in Latin America there exists 42 such groups in Mexico.   

“The Government must be very careful because it may cause a civil war in the country: we are seeing it in Michoacán, Tamaulipas, Guerrero; there are 16 states with the presence of self-defense groups”.

These groups, he adds, were not created to ask for the resignation of Peña Nieto or with the purpose of dismissing and supplanting the government, but because "there is no government, there are no institutions and there is a power vacuum that has been created because we have authorities of illegitimate origin, who have come through fraudulent elections”.

Gallardo Rodriguez, who, for nearly nine years, was detained in a military prison for having proposed the creation of an ombudsman within the army, says that in Mexico there is currently a Pact of impunity that tends to break political, legal and social structures. 

'This Government - no longer can I bear it; - we need, (hesitation)… I don't know..(hesitation)... that Enrique Peña Nieto resign,  then convene  free elections, not letting anyone  buy votes and that people vote freely to bring authentic authorities, authorities that are representatives of society,” he says. 

In the opinion of Gallardo, "the government is very clever, it calculates the collateral damage, but here what is happening is that the situation is out of it’s  hands". In light of the current state of things in Mexico, he adds, the authorities are considering as a "laboratory" what is happening in Guerrero, where repression led to a mobilization of a very important part of society that it had abandoned - the young people.

And he reveals a decision that some of the parents of the missing teacher training students told him.

“I had reservations, but I am going to tell you this because it is a fact and I want you and the government to know: I was told by the parents 'if our children do not appear, we are going to rise up with arms', i was told by them. 'We are going to lift arms, general, because this is not worth it, we are not criminals, we want our children to appear'. 

I approached the group and I said 'how can I help'.  And they told me ' appear our children, general. We do not want handouts from the government, do not want it to give us nothing, we want our children'.  Do you see?  How then to throw the government? ".

General Gallardo believes that the federal government is preparing to repress the population.   It labeled the burning of the doors of the National Palace and the destruction of a unit of the Metrobus in University City as actions of "provocateurs” (that the same government encourages and/or incites), this latter fact led police to enter the University and violate it’s autonomy.

At the same time, the budget for defense spending "has increased scandalously: in an era of Felipe Calderon grew by 600% for police, army and navy, and now has just been increased again, that is, when all of these resources should be used in health, education, roads, etc".

The foregoing, showing the strength in the military, shows that Mexico is experiencing a situation of de-facto state, in which there is a breakdown of social structures, although there are entities of the Republic that maintain a certain balance.

Gallardo Rodriguez is convinced that the one ultimately responsible for the bloody events of Tlatlaya and Iguala is President Enrique Peña Nieto because according to the Constitution he is head of State, head of Government, head of the federal public administration, head of the public security and the supreme commander of the armed forces.

'Furthermore, in a state like Mexico, with a vertical structure, where a leaf does not move unless otherwise ordered by the President, who is responsible?

The president of the republic, nothing more. '

Remember that legally there is a thesis which has been researched pertaining to the States or criminal Governments, called 'domain of the fact'.

'What did Enrique Peña Nieto say when he became President: 'The army will continue in the streets'.?' 

That is a policy domain of the fact, because he is allowing soldiers to act against the civilian population through a public security policy', he asks.

However, Jose Francisco Gallardo feels that it is impossible that in the current circumstances to have a political trial (impeachment) of Enrique Peña Nieto, because there are many interests that the political class conceals.  He contends that the only way to solve the problem of violence  is that it reaches up to the political party leaders and "already that is coming".

 It also requires that the International Criminal Court, the Organization of the United Nations and other institutions of that level to do a review of the security policy that is being implemented in Mexico, as has been requested from the government of Calderon and now in the current administration n Mexico.

It is very necessary to intervene if you are not going to continue to having massacres such as those we have just witnessed in Guerrero and Tlatlaya", concludes Gallardo.

PARTICIPATION OF THE ARMY AND FEDERAL POLICE IN IGUALA 

The disclosure provided by Proceso magazine on the participation of the Army and the Federal Police (PF) in the attack on normalistas from Ayotzinapa strengthens the hypothesis that it was a crime of State, which "will be very difficult for the government to explain away," said General Jose Francisco Gallardo Rodríguez.

However, he felt that international pressure can contribute to the resolution of this case because the role of "the government of the Republic, the army and all institutions that matter However, he felt that international pressure can contribute to the resolution of this case because the role of 'the government of the Republic, the army and all institutions that matter should be clarified and that those responsible are brought to justice; that's the only solution, no other.

Gallardo, who was nearly nine years in a military prison for having proposed an ombudsman for members of the armed forces, said that even before the appearance of the report of Anabel Hernandez and Steve Fisher he had said many times that "the only way can make an event of this magnitude (the operating against students) is to collusion and participation of the Army, as Guerrero is the most militarized state of the Republic, and there is a high presence of the Federal Police. "

     DD note;  .  Many human rights organizations considered him a political prisoner.

 In an interview with Apro, retired General explains: "It was impossible that the Army did not what was happening; the intelligence services of the Secretariat of National Defense have monitored any movement that dissents make, in this case students from the Ayotzinapa School; the Army knows in real time where they go,  if they took a bus or not, and at one  point it is a possibility Army could have prevented this disappearance. "

He also said it is illogical that although the young people were arrested in front of their local headquarters, the head of the Department of Defense said that the institution had no knowledge of that action.

" Now it comes out, yes, they had knowledge and that there was a close communication, as is in the whole Republic, the National System of Public Security with the military commanders or with the barracks; so it is true the C4 was in direct communication with the commander of 27 Battalion of Infantry ”.

According to general Gallardo, what must be done is to break the 'cloak of impunity', because 'here it is clear that there is a collusion by military and civilian authorities that allowed these events to happen, either by omission or action'.

TLA reforms that were made to the jurisdiction of the military last April must lead to the high command of the Sedena putting at the disposal of civil authority all the military involved in this matter, because in reforms to article 13 of the Constitution it was established that any military element that violates human rights, as is this case, it must be judged by the civil authority, because otherwise they could be hidden by the military authority.

In addition, he said, military commanders cannot absolve themselves of responsibility for what their subordinates do or stop doing, since the internal laws of the Army show that the commander  is responsible for the organization and operation of his troops.

According to Gallardo Rodríguez, following the events of Iguala we should review the policies for the public security system in Guerrero and on the other hand, systematic review of operating procedures that the army has about this issue, since it is serving outside the barracks in a function that is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the civil authority.

'It is also what are the orders that the staff has given the military based in Guerrero, and at the national level I think that it is the same, and how they should operate in a situation in which we are currently living in Mexico, especially Guerrero, since these policies are drawn up in Mexico City and become information, design and operation of public safety at the national level', he explained.

So that there is no repeat of the situation as the Iguala, Jose Francisco Gallardo proposed a legal reform to take from the Army the function of internal order, since the Mexican "is one of the few armies or the only one in Latin America that has functions of internal order, i.e. police