Plot elements in the Colosio Murder Mystery

‘God Helps the Bad when they outnumber the Good‘ (Mexican proverb)

Business brought me to Mexico City on the day Luis Donaldo Colosio, Presidential candidate for the PRI (Partido Revoluncionario Internacional), was assassinated in Tijuana. The TV coverage of the event was every bit as obscure and unhelpful as the TV reporting after the JFK murder and worse than the coverage of the attempt on Ronald Regan’s life. The news video of the assassination didn’t play once; instead heads talked and voxes popped…

What follows is a chronology of events relating to, or concurrent with, the assassination of Colosio on March 23, 1993. It is culled from printed sources, including the Mexico City News, Mexico City Times, La Jornada, Proceso, Anderson Valley Advertiser, Los Angeles Times, AP reports, and the book Ya Vamos Llegando a Mexico by Citro Gomez Leyva and the staff of Reforma (editorial Diana, Mexico, 1995, ISBN 968-13-2837-X).

It is perhaps interesting to assassination researchers since it seems to follow a certain pattern attributed to the JFK assassination: the murder of a presumptive head of state on the campaign trail, competing theories of a lone assassin and multiple gunmen; photographic evidence suggesting that the accused was elsewhere, and was impersonated by a ‘double’; the failure of a government-run ‘recreation’ of the crime, more than a dozen attendant murders, corruption or gross ineptitude on the part of the magnicida‘s bodyguard; and, last but by no means least, the presence of a ‘former’ agent of the CIA…..

Whether these similarities are evidence of anything, or merely coincidental, is unknown to me. But Mexico, a fabulous, hospitable, cultured nation, is going through desperate times. In the last 28 years her population has doubled to 90 million. In the last five years 10 million Mexicans were born. Since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), two million Mexican jobs have been lost. While 48% of all Mexicans now live in poverty, Mexico has more billionaires than Britain. At least two significant armed revolutionary movements currently operate; and the country appears to have replaced Central America as the principal transhipment point for South American cocaine.

The drug trade is often cited in connection with the spate of recent Mexican assassinations: from the cop gunned down on his doorstep to the Cardinal riddled with bullets in his limousine at Guadalajara Airport. Raul Salinas, the former President’s brother, is accused of stashing millions of dollars in drug money in a Texas bank. Certainly Carlos and Raul Salinas grew extremely rich during Carlos’s Presidency. This is somewhat traditional in Mexico, as in many other countries. Even more than their predecessors, the Salinas brothers, have acquired vast holdings in banks, telephone companies, television stations and an airline during the privatization of state industries. Today Carlos Salinas, the President who nominated Luis Donaldo Colosio as his successor, is presumed by many Mexicans to be the actual author of the murder mystery.

Colosio, the popular version goes, ‘salio del huacal’: i.e. flew the coop. In some way, after receiving the dedazo (nomination), he threatened the out-going President, or his dubiously-connected businessman brother, or perhaps their eminence grise at the Presidential Palace, Jose Maria Cordoba Mon-toya ……the tangled web which follows will not be unfamiliar to researchers.

Other explanations are possible. Perhaps Colosio was killed by other elements within the PRI, who feared he would make a deal with the left-of-centre PRD (Partido Democratico Revolucionario)? Or by rival politicians from Baja California? Was his murder a warning from the drug cartels? A coup covertly sponsored by the military? Could the Americans be involved? Their economic stake in Mexico is enormous, and the United States has not been shy about assassinating Latin American leaders in the past. And there is always the possibility of a confluence of interest and activity among any, or all, of the above factions.

Or maybe these events are unconnected, and there is no conspiracy at all.

Since leaving office, Carlos Salinas de Gortari has been treated by the American and European press as a homeless, tragi-comic figure, sending mad faxes and popping up in Canada and Cuba. He is, in fact, one of the richest men in the world. His brother Raul sits in jail in Mexico, as yet untried. His second choice, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, occupies the Presidency. Some sources within Mexico City report that Carlos Salinas is in fact still a visitor there, protected by a large bodyguard of military and federal police, with intelligence provided by the USA…

1993

24 May

Cardinal JUAN JESUS POSADOS OCAMPO and six others are assassinated at Guadalajara International Airport, by members of the ARELLANO FELIX drug clan. AeroMexico flight 112 is delayed 12 minutes on the runway so that eight men carrying large canvas bags stuffed with weapons can board the aircraft via an airport bus. At Tijuana they are escorted off the plane, through the departure lounge where their weapons set off metal detectors, to three vehicles with outlawed tinted windows parked illegally outside. Allegedly they also carry a black leather briefcase stolen from the Cardinal’s white Grand Marquis car

The Attorney General, JORGE CARPIZO, says it is all a case of mistaken identity: in fact the bandits had mistaken Cardinal Posadas for their rival, ‘El Chapo’ GUZMAN. The Cardinal was in full regalia, sporting a prominent crucifix, in a limousine. He was shot 45 times. A right wing, anti-Liberation Theologian, Posadas was reputed to have received drug money prior to his elevation to Cardinal in 1990. (Anderson Valley Advertiser, 22 December 1993)

May

Kidnapping of ALFREDO HARP HELU, head of one of Mexico’s main banks. He is ransomed for $30 million. HARP is only one of many Mexican and foreign businessmen so targeted in Mexico.

November

CARLOS Salinas DE GORTARI, President of Mexico, nominates LUIS DONALDO COLOSIO MURRIETA as the next Presidential candidate of the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional). This nomination, known as the dedazo or fingering, means that Colosio will almost certainly be Mexico’s next President: the PRI have not lost an election for President in 65 years.

6 December

FRANCISCO, the eldest ARELLANO brother, not sought in connection with the Cardinal’s murder, is captured in downtown Tijuana.

1994

1 January

The NAFTA treaty becomes operative. The Chiapas rebellion breaks out. NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, is bitterly opposed by the EZLN (Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional), who believe it will benefit only benefit 24 billionaires and further impoverish the poor. During the ensuing months the Mexican Army will occupy Chiapas and engage in low intensity killing of alleged sympathizers but will fail to disloge the EZLN as a military force.

10 January

President Salinas makes former Mexico City mayor MANUEL CAMACHO SOLIS head of his peace commission in Chiapas, a move seen by the media as sidelining Colosio.

27 February

Murder of MANUEL SALVADOR GONZALEZ, 37, and ANTONIO TREJO, 35, on 1-5 near Gorman, Calif. The two men are believed to have been working security for the Colosio campaign, probably as bodyguards. Salvador is said by police to be a PRI and Mexican Government official, carrying documents indicating he was ‘in charge of special investigations for the Government of Mexico’. Also found on the bodies is a letter of introduction from Jose Maria Cordoba Montoya, President Salinas’s Chief of Staff.

Trejo was driving their Cadillac at 75 mph south on the Golden State Freeway when another vehicle pulled up alongside and fired five shots from a 9-mm weapon. Because all five shots were to the neck and head, authorities suspect professional assassins. (Los Angeles Times, 13 May 1994)

3 March

Six Anti-Narcotics police, including ALEJANDRO CASTANEDA ANDRADE, arrest JAVIER ARELLANO (alias ‘EL TIGRILLO’). Corrupt Judicial Police officers, working as bodyguards for the ARELLANO FELIX brothers, intervene and kill them. ‘El Tigrillo’ is freed.

22 March

Chiapas peace negotiator Manuel Camacho Solis – after 18 days spent promoting himself as a PRI-ista alternative to Colosio – withdraws his rival candidacy for the Presidency.

23 March

Colosio is assassinated in Lomas Taurinas, a poor community near the Tijuana Airport. Tijuana is the capital of the state of Baja California Norte, and a stronghold of the rival PAN party. On national TV a PRI militant accuses Baja Governor ERNESTO RUFFO APPEL; the broadcast is cut.

Arrested for the crime is MARIO ABURTO MARTINEZ, 23, previously a factory worker in San Pedro, California, now working at the Cameros Magneticos factory in nearby Otay Mesa. Press photos show a bloodstained young man being dragged along by several bystanders. According to news reports, he claims to be a pacifist and cries out, ‘I saved Mexico!’ Also detained are JORGE ANTONIO SANCHEZ ORTEGA and VICENTE MAYORAL VALENZUELA, former head of the homicide division of Baja California State Judicial Police in Tijuana. Police say they are being detained as witnesses. (Mexico City News, 24 March 1994)

Sanchez Ortega tests positive for powder burns and has blood-stained clothing; he is released after being held for 24 hours. Sanchez is an active member of CISEN (Center for Investigations and National Security), the successor organization to the DI – Direccion de Inteligencia – and to the notoriously corrupt internal security police, the DFS. DFS members trafficked in drugs and stolen cars and assassinated journalists, including Manuel Buendia, author of The CIA in Mexico. The DFS was disbanded in 1985. (Andrew Reding, The Nation, 27 July 1995)

MARCO ANTONIO JACOME, an agent of the Baja California Judicial Police, had been instructed by his chief, RAUL LOZA PARRA, to videotape the Lomas Taurinas meeting at which Colosio was assassinated. The tape appears to show the involvement of OTHON CORTEZ. (Ya Vamos Llegando a Mexico p. 224) General DOMIRO GARCIA REYES, deputy chief of the Presidential military staff and head of Colosio’s military security team, found his path blocked by TRANQUILINO SANCHEZ, 58, a policeman from Sinaloa. Sanchez, no relation to Sanchez Ortega, is arrested five days later on suspicion of complicity in the crime. (Ibid. pp. 192, 235) After the shooting, Mario Aburto, is knocked to the ground by the head of Colosio’s civil security, FERNANDO DE LA SOTA and ALEJANDRO GARCIA HINOJOSO. De La Sota is the head of a secret organization, ‘Grupo Omega’, supposedly set up to provide additional security for Colosio. Garcia Hinojoso is also a member of the security detail and of the Omega group. Others seize VINCENTE MAYORAL VALENZUELA. Allegedly Aburto has pointed out Mayoral to them saying, ‘Fue el ruco, fue el ruco’. [It was the guy.] (Ibid pp. 193, 221)

Tranquilino Sanchez, Vicente Mayoral and his son RODOLFO, 24, (who allegedly obstructed the path of Colonel ANTIONIO REYNALDOS DEL POZO during the shooting) were all hired as security guards by PRI-ista JOSE RODOLFO RIVAPALACIO TINAJERO, a member of a secret society of Tijuana cops called ‘Grupo Tucan’. (Ibid p. 223)

Meanwhile an Army lieutenant, REYNALDO MERIN SANDOVALl, who, like Garcia Reyes, has become separated from Colosio prior to the shooting, disarms a man with a gun standing over Colosio’s body. The man is not identified. However, another Grupo Omega member, RAPHAEL LOPEZ MERLINO, ‘loses’ his .38 simultaneously. (Ibid. pp. 181-3, 225, 227-8)

General Garcia Reyes is photographed leaving the scene with an alleged second gunman (unnamed in the article). Garcia Reyes answers directly to President Salinas and his Chief of Staff Jose Cordoba Montoya. (LA Times 19 June 1995)

Hours after the assassination, Montoya resigns from the Office of the Presidency (‘en que cogobierno con Salinas’ [i.e. in which he co-governed with Salinas]). He moves to Washington DC, where he heads the Mexican delegation at the Interamerican Development Bank and later works as an adviser to the World Bank. ‘Tenia gran ascendencia sobre ERNESTO ZEDILLO’ [He had great influence over Ernesto Zedillo]. (Ya Vamos Llegando… p. 217, ‘JC vs JC’, Reforma, 16 June 1996)

Following the announcement of Colosio’s death, President Salinas calls twice to commiserate with his widow, DIANA LAURA RIOJAS. She refuses to take his call. (Ya Vamos Llegando… pp. 196-7)

24 March

Mario Aburto is transferred from Tijuana to Mexico City’s Almoloya de Juarez high security prison. According to the PGR (Procuraduria General de la Republica – the Attorney

General’s office), Aburto has confessed, and has no visible signs of being beaten. Various commentators note a physical dissimilarity between the Aburto photographed under arrest in Tijuana and the Aburto now on display to the press in Mexico City.

‘One of the theories surrounding Aburto was that a double fired the fatal shots. Aburto’s mother [MARIA LUISA MARTINEZ] has lent evidence to that claim. She reportedly said that in a Judicial Police jail cell in Tijuana she had been about to embrace a man she thought was her son – but who was not.’ (Mexico City Times, 21 August 1996)

The US ATF states that the murder weapon, a Brazilian-made .38 Taurus revolver, was purchased in 1977 at a store in Northern California. Aburto allegedly acquired it only a few weeks before. (Mexico City News, 25 March 1994)

GRACIELA GONZALEZ DIAS, 27, declares herself to be Mario Aburto’s girlfriend. She claims that he was a member of a secret political group in which he was known as Caballero Aguila. Three days later she withdraws the accusation and denies they were romantically involved.

4 April

Special prosecutor MIGUEL MONTES GARCIA announces that at least seven people appear to have been involved in the assassination, based on analysis of videotapes that showed the men blocking Colosio’s path and clearing a way for Aburto. At least five people had been arrested and jailed in connection with the hit, he said. (AP, 4 June 1994)

One of the accused is HECTOR JAVIER HERNANDEZ THOMASSINY, 20 years old at the time of the assassination: he too is a member of Grupo Omega. Others are Vicente and Rodolfo Mayoral. (Ya Vamos Llegando… p. 94)

24 April

An attempt by 60 agents of the PGR (Attorney General’s Office] to reconstruct the assassination in Lomas Taurinas fails. The agent playing the part of Colosio is unable to recreate the 180 degree spin which Colosio is supposed to have made in between the first and second shots. Colosio was shot in the right temple and the left side of his body.

‘They didn’t ask us to participate, nor ask us anything; I saw General Domiro [Garcia Reyes] pulling Colosio along by his belt loop,’ said the PRI lideresa of Lomas Taurinas, YOLANDA LAZARO. (La Jornada, 24 April 1994)

The same day Baja Governor ERNESTO RUFFO APPEL calls for more investigation into the background of Aburto and of the ex-policemen involved in Colosio’s bodyguard, particularly those arrested after the assassination.

28 April

FEDERICO BENITEZ LOPEZ, Chief of Public Security in Tijuana, who has been investigating the Colosio murder, is assassinated by narcotraffickers. The alleged hit-men are ISMAEL HIGUERA, a principal in the Arellano Felix gang, and Judicial Police agents RODOLFO GARCIA GAXIOLA and MARCO ANTONIO JACOME (who videotaped the Colosio Assassination). (Ya Vamos Llegando… pp. 159-161, 221)

April

One of the Attorney General’s top advisers, EDUARDO VALLE ESPINOZA, quits, asking in his letter of resignation, ‘When are we going to have the courage and political maturity to tell the Mexican people that we suffer from a sort of narco-democracy?’ His boss, DIEGO VALADES, Salinas’ fourth Attorney General, quits a few days later.

18 May

At his first news conference since replacing the murdered Posadas Ocampo of Guadalajara (though not as a cardinal) JUAN SANDOVAL INIGUEZ says that the ‘accidental assassination’ theory is not believable, and calls for credible answers as to why the Cardinal was slain and how his killers were able to escape. (LA Times, 24 May 1994)

22 May

Mario Aburto’s mother and six relatives illegally enter the United States.

24 May

Six relatives of alleged Colosio assassin Mario Aburto, including his mother, brother, 19-year old wife, 1-year old son, and two sisters – apply for political asylum in San Diego. Their lawyer, PETER SCHEY, says, ‘The facts surrounding the case are extremely murky… I think their fear is of violence by armed individuals and groups seemingly outside of the control of the government. They have no confidence that the Mexican government is in a position to protect them.’ Aburto’s father and brothers, who live in San Pedro, say they have been harassed and shot at since the Colosio hit. (LA Times, 24 May 1994)

26 May

Schey announces that RUBEN ABURTO, father of the accused, is willing to give testimony to Special Prosecutor Miguel Montes Garica if his safety is guaranteed. MIGUEL ANGEL SANCHEZ DE ARMAS, the special prosecutor’s spokesman, says that investigators are ‘even willing to go to Los Angeles’ to interview Ruben Aburto, who has said publicly that in the weeks before the shooting, his son met as many as four members of Colosio’s security entourage. (LA Times, 27 May 1994)

2 June

Reversing himself, special prosecutor Miguel Montes Garica announces that there is little evidence of a conspiracy in the Colosio murder. ‘It strengthens the hypothesis that the murder was committed by a single man: Mario Aburto Martinez.’ The suspicious behavior of six men, on further analysis, ‘could be interpreted as normal.’ Prosecutors still have some evidence to support the theory three guards were involved, and they will remain in prison. But the cases against at least three others have fallen apart. (AP, 4 June 1994)

9 June

Passed over once again as Presidential candidate by Carlos Salinas, Manuel Camacho resigns as the Government’s Chiapas peace commissioner.

21 August

Mexican Presidential Election, ERNESTO ZEDILLO PONCE DE LEON, President Salinas’s hand-picked successor, wins.

28 September

JOSE FRANCISCO RUIZ MASSIEU, Secretary-General of the PRI, former Governor of Guerrero, and former brother-in-law of Carlos and Raul Salinas, is shot dead with a single bullet in the neck outside a Mexico City hotel.

31 October

Mario Aburto Martinez is sentenced to 45 years in jail for the murder of Colosio. Primary witnesses against him were two security officers: Vicente Mayoral, who claims to have tackled Aburto seconds after the shooting, and Fernando De La Sota, former leader of the secret Governmental Grupo Omega, now disbanded. When their depositions were taken hours after the murder, both men testified under oath that they had not seen who shot Colosio. At the trial, Mayoral and De La Sorta swear they saw Aburto shoot Colosio twice.

18 November

Diana Laura Riojas, the widow of Colosio, dies in Mexico City, of cancer. A few days previously, President Salinas – accompanied by the press – attempts to visit her at the hospital. She refuses to see him. (Ya Vamos Llegando… pp. 142-3)

24 November

MARIO RUIZ MASSIEU – brother of the assassinated Francisco Ruiz Massieu – resigns as deputy attorney-general, alleging a government cover-up in the Colosio case, which he blames on anti-reform elements within the PRI.

November

SERGIO MORENO PEREZ, Federal Prosecutor for Baja California, tells reporters that the Arellano Felix gang ‘is an invention of Mexico City; here, I haven’t known anything about the Arellano brothers and it is not my responsibility to go around investigating them.’

The same month, PGR delegate LUIS ANTONIO IBANEZ CORNEJO leads a raid on suspected houses and properties owned by the Arellano Felix clan. (Mexico City News, 20 May 1996)

1 December

Ernesto Zedillo takes office as President.

December

Two brokerage houses, one run by ROBERTO GONZALEZ BARRERA, a Monterrey billionaire and close friend of the Salinas family, trigger massive capital flight when they suddenly begin buying up huge amounts of short-term, dollar-based tesobonos. Proceso magazine alleges that certain high-echelon PRI insiders were given privileged information about the impending peso devaluation. (Anderson Valley Advertiser, 5 April 1995)

21 December

The peso is devalued by almost 50%. Cashing in their tesobonos, the brokerage houses make a killing and bankrupt the Mexican economy. (The economic damage and sums of money involved are vastly greater than in the British government’s Sterling/EMF disaster)

1995

30 January

President Clinton guarantees a 50-billion dollar loan to Mexico to bail out the collapsing stock market. The Mexican market gambles of American companies like Goldman Sachs, a huge New York investment banking firm and one of Clinton’s principal financial donors, are thereby secured.

January

Sergio Moreno Perez is replaced by LUIS ANTONIO IBANEZ CORNEJO as Federal Prosecutor for Baja California.

24 February

The PGR announces that a second gunman in the Colosio assassination, OTHON CORTES VASQUEZ, has been arrested. Cortes has several links to PRI circles in Baja California.

28 February

Raul Salinas, brother of the ex-President, is arrested in Mexico City, charged with ordering and financing the murder of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu. A PRI congressman, MANUEL MUNOZ ROCHA, has been accused of organizing the plot, but he has vanished and investigators say he may have been killed.(San Francisco Chronicle, 1 March 1995)

The arrest comes at the instigation of PABLO CHAPA BEZANILLA, whom President Zedillo has appointed as special investigator in the Colosio, Ruiz Massieu and Posadas murder cases. (Ya Vamos Llegando… p. 218)

2 March

Mario Ruiz Massieu leaves Mexico for the US after testifying to federal police officials who believe him to be responsible for a series of irregularities in the inquiry into his elder brother’s death. Also interviewed was his aide, JORGE STERGIOS, an inspector general in the PGR.

3 March

In Monterrey, Carlos Salinas vows to go on a hunger strike until his reputation is cleared. He calls off the strike a few hours later.

The same night, Mario Ruiz Massieu is detained by customs agents at Newark International Airport as he attempts to board a plane for Madrid. He is carrying almost $50,000 in cash, despite claiming to have only $18,000. Mexican officials say they will charge him with obstructing his own investigation and with covering up the involvement of Raul Salinas. (NY Times, 5 March 1995)

7 March

Mexican officials say that nearly $7 million has been found in two accounts in the name of Mario Ruiz Massieu at the Texas Commerce Bank in Houston. The deposits were made by Jorge Stergios. (NY Times, 8 March 1995)

11 March

Two weeks after he alleged that Othon Cortez was an associate of General Domiro Garcia Reyes and a driver for the President’s office, AARON JUAREZ JIMENEZ, dies in a car accident on the dangerous road between Tijuana and Mexicali, La Rumorosa.

The same day Carlos Salinas flees Mexico, supposedly to exile in Massachusetts, Canada, or Cuba, in a Falcon executive jet supplied by industrialist and PRI-ista Roberto Gonzalez Barrera.

14 April

Tranquilino Sanchez is released from high security prison; his sentence for participation in the Colosio homicide having been reversed. (Ya Vamos Llegando… p. 235)

May

CARLOS HANK RHON, owner of the Tijuana Hipodromo, is detained at Mexico City Airport, accused of smuggling. His father, CARLOS HANK GONZALEZ, is a powerful PRI-ista who has profited greatly from the power vacuum following Colosio’s death. Hank Rhon is released next day. (Ya Vamos Llegando… p. 223)

18 June

Seventeen campesinos from Atoyaquillo in Guerrero are massacred by police. The farmers are on their way to a demonstration of the peasant coalition Organization of Campesinos of the Southern Sierra – OCSS. ‘They wanted war, and they got war,’ Guerrero Governor RUBEN FIGUERO says of the murdered men. (Sam Dillon, NY Times [Mexico City News], 18 July 1996)

3 August

The New York Times reports that Fernando De La Sota, the head of Grupo Omega and director of Colosio’s private security force, was a paid informer of the CIA from 1990 to 1992.

‘Mexican officials say they were unaware of De La Sota’s CIA connection, and that they do not believe it was relevant to their investigation.’ He was fined $7,000 for making false statements to investigators. De La Sota, 45, is a former DFS agent with a criminal record (he apparently accepted a payoff from the leading drug trafficker – and DFS Zone Commander – in Ciudad Juarez, RAFAEL AGUILAR GUAJARDO). (El Financiero, 7-13 Aug 1995)

December

The Pentagon releases a partially-censored report by US Military Intelligence regarding the terrorist threat in Mexico. Three paragraphs are devoted to the ‘probable scenario’ for the deployment of US troops in Mexico. Two paragraphs indicate that ‘due to the history of Mexico-US relations it is highly improbable that the Mexicans could look with favor on the presence of US forces in their territory.’ But ‘it is conceivable that an eventual deployment of US troops in Mexico might be received favorably if Mexico’s government confronted the threat of being overthrown as a result of widespread economic and social chaos.’ (FOIA request by Jeremy Bigwood; La Jornada, 31 Sept 1996)

1996

7 February

Vicente and Rodolfo Mayoral, 61 and 24, apply for political asylum at the San Ysidro port of entry to California. Having spent more than a year in prison before a federal judge cleared them of aiding Mario Aburto, they say they fear they are once again suspects as a result of new witnesses implicating them in court hearings in Mexico City the previous day.

23 February

Gunmen in Mexico City shoot to death SERGIO ARMANDO SILVA MORENO, who had been operations chief for the Federal Judicial Police in Baja California until January. He had worked under Sergio Moreno Perez, a delegate for the PGR (Attorney General), charged with prosecuting drug crimes in Baja California from January 1995 to January 1996.

28 February

A prosecutor, REBECA ACUNA SOSA, is shot to death in Tijuana, Baja California.

February

DR JORGE MANCILLAS, a professor at UCLA and supporter of the Aburto family, claims that new photographic evidence (taken by American photographer Robert Gauthier of the LA Times, and analyzed by Dora Elena Cortes and Manuel Cordero, investigative reporters for El Universal) shows Mario Aburto about 12 to 18 feet away from Colosio, standing right beside Vicente Mayoral.

‘We took the photographs of the assassin and compared them to a man who was killed four hours after Colosio and there is a direct resemblance. His name is ERNESTO RUBIO and he was also 23 years old.’ According to El Universal, Rubio worked for the Policia Judicial Federal and for Grupo Omega head/CIA informant Fernado De La Sota.

The Rubio murder was being investigated by FEDERICO BENITEZ, head of the municipal police in Tijuana, who was assassinated on 28 April 1994 (AVA, 14 Feb 1996)

El Universal also employed a French criminologist and expert in facial reconstruction, Dr Josianne Pujol, to compare photographs of the man arrested at Lomas Taurinas and the man in custody at Almoloya jail. Her conclusion is that the two ‘Aburtos’ are completely different persons. ‘El estudio de la criminologa refuerza la version popular de que el detenido en Lomas Taurinas, fue asesinado la misma noche del 23 de Marso, dentro de un taller mecanico de Tijuana.’ [The criminologist’s report reinforces the popular version that the man arrested in Lomas Taurinas was killed the same night of 23 March, in a mechanic’s shop in Tijuana.] (Reporter, San Pedro, March 1996)

March

Despite requests by the Mexican Government and special investigator Chapa Bezanilla, the United States refuses to extradite Mario Ruiz Massieu to Mexico. Instead he is released on $9 million bail and remains under police guard in New Jersey.

President Zedillo is forced to remove Guerrero governor RUBEN FIGUEROA after a videotape broadcast on national television shows police firing on the OCSS campesinos and planting weapons on their corpses after the June 1995 massacre.

21 March

Colosio’s father, Luis Colosio Fernandez, announces in an interview with a Hermosillo newspaper, that former Presidential Chief of Staff and World Bank official, Jose Cordoba Montoya, ‘tuvo mucho que ver’ [had a lot to do with] with the murder of his son. ‘Ojala que cuando las investigaciones lleguen a Cordoba Montoya, el Presidente no se eche para atras [Hopefully the President won’t hide when the investigation focuses on Cordoba Montoya].’ (El Imparcial, 21 March 1996)

17 April

ARTURO OCHOA PALACIOS, Baja California’s former federal prosecutor, is shot four times at close range in the neck and back at a Tijuana jogging track. Police Commander ANTONIO TORRES MIRANDA said the killing in broad daylight before dozens of witnesses by two men in jogging suits appeared to be a ‘professional’ hit. ‘We have no hypothesis about the murder, but the characteristics do not conform with narcotics-trafficking murders. They usually don’t take place in public…’

Ochoa had been appointed Baja California’s top law enforcement authority in June 1993. He was removed from the job in May 1994, just weeks after he began investigating the Colosio murder. Most recently he headed the federal postal service in Tijuana, where he resigned his post a month ago for unclear reasons. ‘EDUARDO VALLE, a former Mexican federal investigator who fled the country after alleging that Colosio’s slaying was linked to the powerful Tijuana drug cartel headed by the Arellano Felix brothers, said he believes Ochoa’s slaying was directly linked to the assassination…’

Ochoa was also under investigation for corruption within the PGR. ‘Specifically, investigators and documents reviewed by the Times have linked Ochoa to millions of dollars in suspected payoffs to Mexico’s former second-ranking law enforcement official, Mario Ruiz Massieu. Ochoa and Ruiz Massieu….. were friends and colleagues, Mexican investigators said.’ (LA Times, 18 April 1996)

‘Ochoa had been involved in the early stages of the Colosio investigation, in which investigators believe a cover-up took place to hide a conspiracy to kill the politician.’ (Mexico City News, 20 May 1996)

24 April

An El Centro immigration judge turns down the Mayorals’ request for asylum. (Mexico City News, 20 May 1996)

The PGR reports that it has captured the presumed killers of Cardinal Posados. MANUEL ALBERTO RODRIGUEZ RIVA and JOSE GUADALUPE ARMENTA VALDEZ were arrested by Federal police.

MANUEL CAMACHO SOLIS calls for an opposition coalition against the PRI. ‘The former PRI leader also denounced former Chief of Staff Jose Cordoba Montoya for listening in on telephone conversations between him and… Luis Donaldo Colosio. Claiming that Cordoba could offer information on Colosio’s thoughts at the moment of his death, he repeated the call for Cordoba to testify before the Federal Attorney General’s Office…’ (Mexico City News, 25 April 1996)

3 May

DANIEL AGUIRRE LUNA, representative of special investigator Pablo Chapa Bezanilla, asks the judge to condemn alleged second gunman Othon Cortez Vasquez to 50 years imprisonment.

6 May

Carlos Salinas meets ‘prominent political analyst’ JORGE G. CASTANEDA in Dublin, Ireland, where Salinas currently claims to reside. Rumours immediately circulate that Salinas has discussed the possibility of Zedillo’s resignation: this is later denied by Castandeda. Castaneda is a diplomat’s son, brother of the Mexican ambassador to Britain, ANDRES ROSENTAL,and an associate of Manuel Camacho Solis. ‘Castaneda believes Jose Maria Cordoba Montoya has returned to Mexico with a view to once again reassume his role, as it was during the Salinas administration, as the power behind the presidential throne…’ (‘Lunch With An Ex-President Causes Brouhaha’ by Karl Penhaul, Mexico City News, 22 June 1996)

15 May

SERGIO MORENO PEREZ, former Federal Prosecutor for Baja California, and his son OSMANI are kidnapped in Mexico City by heavily armed men.

18 May

The bodies of Moreno Perez and his son are found in a car in Naucalpan, a western suburb of Mexico City. They have been tortured. His former operations chief was shot dead on 23 February; Moreno Perez is the fourth top PGR official to be killed this year.

‘Moreno Perez… worked for the special prosecutor probing the July 1988 murders of FRANCISCO JAVIER OVANDO and ROMAN GIL HERALDEZ, top aides to CUAUHTEMOC CARDENAS’ 1988 presidential campaign, which nearly toppled Mexico’s ruling party.’ (Mexico City News, 20 May 1996)

22 May

The PGR announces the arrest of ‘El Nahual’ aka Alvaro Osorio Osuna, another of Cardinal Posadas’ presumed killers, in Sinaloa. ‘Osorio Osuna is a member of the “Frog Gun Gang” that protects the Arellano Felix brothers,’ the PGR said. ‘El Nahual’ confirms the PGR’s theory of ‘mistaken identity’ in the Posadas assassination to the news service Notimex, two days before the third anniversary of the murder. ‘There was a lot of confusion and his car was mistaken for Guzman’s…We were told that El Chapo would be inside a white Marquis car… then we realised it was the Cardinal.’

The same day Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu’s personal security head, MIGUEL VILLERREAL AYALA, testifies to Raul Salinas’ defense team that there was bad blood between the two men. ‘Ruiz Massieu always said he was better than Raul Salinas, politically speaking…’ Villereal said tensions ran especially high on the day of Raul Salinas’ marriage to Paulina Castanon. Ruiz Massieu, who was married to Salinas’ sister Adriana (whom he later divorced), spent just two and a half hours at the event. (Mexico City News, 23 May 1996)

24 May

Guadalajara Cardinal JUAN SANDOVAL INIGUEZ says that former President Carlos Salinas should be investigated for links to Posadas’ murder. Sandoval says Posadas had a heated argument with Salinas just a week before he was gunned down. In a statement released on ‘Format 21’, nightly news program, Sandoval says that then Social Development Secretary Colosio and Mexico City Mayor Camacho Solis were also at the meeting. Sandoval alleges that baggage handlers at Guadalajara Airport were threatened by police officers to keep quiet about the murder, and says of the PGR accidental death theory (recently supported by ‘El Nahual’), ‘I am sure that Cardinal Posadas was not killed in the midst of confusion or a shootout. These theories are infantile and do not convince anyone.’ Sandoval insists that there is only one believable hypothesis: that Posada was intentionally killed. ‘I know there was a motive. I just don’t know what it is. But I am not an investigator. My obligation is to pressure authorities to solve this crime.’ (Mexico City News, 25 May 1996)

23 June

CBS’ Sixty Minutes reports that Raul Salinas has been linked to 70 bank accounts in 70 countries that could contain more than $300 million. His personal banker at Citibank, Amy G.Elliot, told US, Swiss and Mexican investigators that Salinas said $100 million came from a recent sale of a construction company.(Mexico City Times/Reuters, 22 June 1996)

23 June

The PRl’s Federal District branch lodges its monthly protest with Attorney General (and PAN-ista) Antonio Lozano Grazia, 27 months after the Colosio hit. ‘Yet another month has passed with the same official silence that marked those that have come before,’ said the PRl’s letter. ‘This (inefficiency) has indicated your primary intention to close the case before it has been solved and, thus, your inability to fulfil your duty… Do you believe that the nation deserves to remain submerged in an uncertainty that is further provoked by the confused manner in which this case is being conducted?’ The PRI also questioned the reassignment of the Colosio case special prosecutor, Pablo Chapa Bezanilla. ‘Why has the special case prosecutor been assigned to duties that are specifically distinct from the (Colosio) investigation?’ (Mexico City News, 24 June 1996)

28 June

A new masked, armed group appears – the Popular Revolutionary Army, or EPR – at a memorial for the OCSS peasants murdered by police in Guerrero. Unlike the ELZN their weapons and uniforms are new, and it is immediately suggested that they are a counterfeit group, ‘financed by hard-liners in the security forces and the ruling party to justify a military crackdown…’ (Sam Dillon, NY Times [Mexico City News], 18 July 1996)

According to Autonomous University of Guerrero official IGNACIO HERNANCEZ MENECES, the EPR’s appearance was co-ordinated by members of the OCSS at closed meetings on the 25th, 26th and 27th June. ‘Certain students, sympathetic teachers and local residents were invited to meetings called by the OCSS and Front for the Construction of a National Liberation Movement (FACMLN). Only those who were certain to have no government ties… were invited to attend… According to university officials, students and directors at the Preparatoria 16 are under investigation by the government for possible links to the rebel group.’ (Kelly Librera,

Mexico City News, 11 September 1996)

2 July

Seven of Mario Aburto’s family members are granted political asylum in the US by immigration judge Nathan Gordon, who said, ‘It appears to me that this family fled… because the sins of a son, if true, have been inflicted on them.’ Aburto’s mother, Maria Luiz Martinez, 45, and her four other children, and Jose Luis’ wife Adela Alvarado, 20, and their 3-year old son, will be allowed to apply for permanent resident status. (This is a different group from that which allegedly crossed the border on 22 May 1994. It does not include Aburto’s wife and son.) (Mexico City News, 3 July 1996)

5 July

Anthony de Palma in the New York Times reports that ‘a commission investigating government corruption in Mexico has implicated President Ernesto Zedillo in a questionable government payment to a company controlled by a leading supporter of his political party.’ In 1989, when he was Salinas’ senior budget official, Zedillo allegedly organized an illegal payment of $7 million from Conasupo (the National Basic Commodities Supply Agency) to MASECA, the company owned by ROBERTO GONZALES BARRERA – after Conasupo officials had refused to make the payment, saying it was unjustified and illegal. (Mexico City News, 5 July 1996)

1 August

General Domirio Garcia Reyes, is given command of military zone number 32, based in Valladolid, Yucatan, according to TV Azteca. Out of active service, since the assassination, he takes over the Yucatan post from Colonel ELIHU VIDAL NAVARRO. (David Abel, Mexico City Times, 22 Aug 1996)

7 August

Othon Cortez Vasquez, 20, chauffeur and street operative for the PRI, accused of being the second gunman in the Colosio hit, is acquitted and freed by Second District Court Judge MARIO PARDO ROBELLEDO. The half-page verdict follows a trial of 18 months with more than 112 witnesses and 130 documents. It is described in both the SF Chronicle and the LA Times as a huge blow to the credibility of PAN-ista Attorney General Antonio Lozano Gracia. The LA Times adds, rather fantastically, that ‘Pardo’s ruling showed a new found independence in the Mexican judiciary.’

The judge also acquits ClA-linked Fernando De La Sota and Alejandro Garcia Hinojosa of perjury: both had been charged with lying to investigators by claiming they saw Mario Aburto fire two shots at Colosio.

HECTOR SERGIO PEREZ, Othon Cortez’s lawyer, said that the evidence showed his client, ‘who is right-handed, had his right hand on the shoulder of Colosio’s chief of security, an army general who has also been investigated in the slaying’ (LA Times). The Times does not name Garcia Reyes or mention De La Sota’s CIA connection. The Chronicle piece concludes, ‘doubts have also been raised about whether the Aburto arrested at the scene of the killing is really the same person now in prison for the crime.’ (Both articles 8 August 1996)

Later in the week, President Zedillo dismisses special prosecutor Pablo Chapa Bezanilla for lack of progress in the case.

August

The EPR gives a news conference describing itself as ‘a coalition of 14 left-wing groups that operate in different parts of Mexico’. One member tells the news weekly Proceso that the group’s money came from bank robberies and ‘kidnappings of members of the country’s financial oligarchy.’

16 August

Attorney General Antonio Lozando Gracia fires 737 commanders and beat cops of the Federal Judicial Police (PJF), out of a total 4,400 members, on grounds such as unlawful possession of arms and illicit enrichment. He indicates more firings will follow.

Anti-narcotics cop ERNESTO IBARRA SANTES is made Baja California Federal Police Commander. In an interview he talks openly about the Arellano Felix gang: ‘Ibarra said the Arellanos were protected by a network of up to 500 people who depend on them for their livelihood. Their reputed operations chief, ISMAEL HIGUERA, “executes those who don’t want to pay the cuota or act without their consent… He’s the one who maintained the network of corrupt police the Attorney General dismissed”.’ (Anne-Marie O’Connor,LA Times, 16 September 1996)

17 August

Gunmen in Tijuana murder JESUS MARIA MAGANO, 48, one of the first federal prosecutors to question Mario Aburto after the Colosio hit. ‘Police suspect Magano knew his killer because there were no signs of a struggle. There were no reported arrests and police did not give a motive. Magano was the fifth senior official from the PGR’s office in Baja California to be killed this year.’ (Mexico City News, 20 August 1996)

20 August

A taped telephone conversation between Mario Aburto Martinez and his father is broadcast on Radio Red: ‘I was forced to write the confession in Tijuana… They took me to an office and dictated it to me. The director of the Federal Judicial Police (PJF), ADRIAN CARRERA FUENTES, was there and he..is witness to the fact that I was forced to write it.’ He said it was not ‘mere coincidence’ that Colosio and Ruiz Massieu were killed within six months of each other. ‘There are people in the upper echelons of government who want the public to believe I’m the only assassin… The government doesn’t want this case to escalate, because its

party (the PRI) would be the one most damaged and they could lose the elections.’ The government, said Aburto, has three goals: ‘First, to convince everyone that I’m the only shooter; second, to claim that I’m crazy; and third, to assassinate me… and say I killed myself. That way everyone can forget about the Colosio case.’ (Michelle Chi Chase, Mexico City News, 21 August 1996)

The same day an editorial in Mexico City’s Roman Catholic Archdiocise newspaper Nuevo Criteria claims that the Colosio hit was the result of a conspiracy within the PRI. ‘The resources used to carry out the crime, but especially the way it was handled afterwards, make it clear that… the mastermind was in the highest circles of power…’ Without directly accusing Carlos Salinas, it says, ‘There is much evidence of the violent and vengeful way in which Salinas De Gortari resolved his difficulties with other people.’ The newspaper praises Attorney General Antonio Lozano Gracia of the PAN (sectors of which have ties to the church) for his efforts to solve the crime. (Mexico City Times, 21 August 1996, says both that Nueva Critena is, and is not, an official church publication; Mexico City News says it is controlled by Archbishop NORBERTO RIVERA, the senior Catholic official in Mexico.)

21 August

Attorney General Lozano Gracia insists that Othon Cortes is the second gunman in the Colosio murder. His office is reported (by news agency Notimex) to have delivered 18 photographs to a court in the State of Mexico that show Cortes next to Colosio at the time of the murder. ‘The only thing we can do is reinforce the investigation,’ Lozano says. ‘There are still many leads to follow.’

‘Last night independent political analyst Alfredo Jalife agreed that many lines of investigation remain open but added, “Those on top are pulling the strings. Othon Cortes is a pawn – he’s nothing.” One of Colosio’s campaign advisers and senior PRI deputy, SAMUEL PALMA, agreed. “The conspiracy theory has never hinged on Cortes,” he said. “The theory is backed up by an investigation of impartial scientific analysis which has proved there was a second shot and a second weapon”.’

‘Lozano also said prosecutors had firm evidence linking Raul Salinas to the murder of Ruiz Massieu, though he did not expect a verdict on murder charges against Raul until early next year.’ (David Abel, Mexico City Times, 22 August 1996)

22 August

HUMBERTO LOPEZ MEJIA, former independent investigator and employee of the PGR, says on public radio that he deciphered a coded message sent to the offices of the President just after the Colosio hit. ‘Mission accomplished in the campaign,’ said the alleged message, sent from one operative code-named ‘El Pino’ to another called ‘El Roble’. Lopez Mejia claims that the message was from Colosio’s security chief General Domiro Garcia Reyes to former president Salinas.

‘General Reyes is no stranger to such allegations. Earlier this month he published an autobiography aptly titled Domiro in which he set out to defend his integrity… Written for him by three prominent national journalists, the general’s book adds to prevailing public speculation that Colosio’s death was planned by then-government officials. In one particularly emotional excerpt Reyes tells of an alleged conversation between himself and Federal Attorney General Antonio Lozano Gracia in which Lozano Gracia intimated knowledge that Colosio had been “eliminated” because he wasn’t toeing the party line in his campaign. Reyes claims the attorney general told him following the assassination, “I understand that President Salinas De Gortari insinuated to you that Colosio must be eliminated.” Lozano Gracia responded to the book… calling General Reyes a liar and a man without honor.’ (Pav Jordan, Mexico City News, 23 August 1996)

28/29 August

In a broad, co-ordinated assault, the EPR attack police, military and government targets in six states – Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, Tabasco, Puebla, and Mexico. At least 16 people are killed and 23 injured. In Tlaxiaco, 60 miles west of Oaxaca city, about 50 guerrillas armed with AK-47s attack the town hall, killing two policemen. They leave behind leaflets calling for the overthrow of the government, and for a new, leftist constitution. (San Francisco Chronicle, 20 August 1996)

31 August

LUIS RAUL GONZALEZ PEREZ is appointed new special prosecutor in the Colosio case.

8 September

The Dallas Morning News’ correspondent, Alfredo Corchado, reports that the EPR is recruiting people from poor neighborhoods in Mexico City – ‘offering economic benefits to impoverished residents of the Colonia Santo Domingo in exchange for their participation in the guerrilla group’s terrorist activities. The article quotes several residents who say they have heard pleas from “polite young men” who promise to bring justice to the “poor and the damned” of Mexico.’ (Mexico City News, 8 Sept 1996)

10 September

Foreign Secretary JOSE ANGEL GURRIA tells the Mexican Congress that he has declined American Ambassador JAMES JONES’ offer of intelligence and military assistance against the EPR.

11 September

Reuters reports that US bank accounts belonging to Raul Salinas may have been used to launder drug money. According to PGR documents, one of the accounts is at the Laredo National Bank in Texas, owned in part by CARLOS HANK RHON, son of CARLOS HANK GONZALES.

PRI member and President of the Chamber of Deputies’ Colosio Case Commission ALFONSO MOLINA RUIBAL calls for the return and testimony of Carlos Salinas, Jose Cordoba Montoya, and former PGR prosecutor EDUARDO VALLE ‘EL BUHO’). This is the first official, all-party concensus calling for ex-President Salinas’ testimony. ‘El Buho’ fled the country following death threats, having openly suggested that both drug lords and government oficials were behind the murder. (Michelle Chi Chase, Mexico City News, 12 September 1996)

12 September

Police raid the Mexico City offices of El Universal, formerly a pro-PRI newspaper which has recently criticized Zedillo and Salinas, and arrest the owner JUAN FRANCISCO EALY ORTIZ for tax evasion.

Political analyst Alfredo Jalife calls this selective prosecution: ‘If the government went against El Universal why did it not go against all the others? It is a common fact that certain other papers are evading taxes, some are even involved in drug trafficking.’

Jalife also doubts that Salinas, Cordoba or Zedillo will give evidence in the Colosio case: ‘It’s a smokescreen. Attorney General Antonio Lozano Gracia belongs to the system, and the system doesn’t want to know anything about the real perpetrators of the crime.’ Jalife says there is no longer any evidence to convict the culprits of the crime: ‘Within the structure of the Attorney General’s office, all the evidence has been extinguished. I have counted around 20 people belonging to the case who have been murdered. Jalife said that control of the country rests in the hands of five men and that politicians outside of that circle are mere “apparatchiks”. The vertebral column of Mexican politics is composed of the President, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Interior, and the nations top two law officers (Lozano Gracia and the Attorney General of the Federal District,” he said.’ (Robert Randolph, Mexico City Times, 14 September 1996)

14 September

28 days after becoming Baja California Federal Police Commander, ERNESTO IBARRA SANTES is machine-gunned to death in a taxi in Mexico City. He was in the process of updating ‘most wanted’ posters with recent photographs of JAVIER, BENJAMIN and RAMON ARELLANO. It is assumed the Arellano Felix brothers ordered the hit. (Anne-Marie O’Connor, LA Times, 16 September 1996)

18 October

Forensic specialists announce that a dismembered and decomposed body found on the ranch of Raul Salinas cannot be positively identified. Head of the forensic service, Juan Roman Fernandex Caceres, tells TV Azteca that the remains are of a person 40 to 50 years old. Authorities suspect this is the corpse of vanished PRI legislator MANUEL MUNOZ ROCHA, 44 when he disappeared. Munoz was allegedly Raul Salinas’ partner in the Jose Francisco Riuz Massieu murder plot. (AP [Las Vegas Sun] 19 October 1996)

The same day the Orange County Register reports that the US plans to give the Mexican Army 73 UH-1H ‘Huey’ helicopters and various C-26 aircraft ‘to help fight the drug war’. Tulane Professor Roderick Camp and Peter Smith, chairman of Latin American Studies at the University of California, San Diego, both comment that if the Mexican Army becomes further involved in the anti-drug effort, it will likely be corrupted by bribes. Camp notes that, though the helicopters are supposed to be deployed along the US-Mexican border, their ultimate destinations may be Guerro and Chiapas. (AP [Las Vegas Sun] 19 October 1996]