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Friday, June 7, 2019

Who killed Luis Donaldo Colosio?

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat republished from Mexico Daily

[ Back in the news on the 25th anniversary] Who killed Luis Donaldo Colosio? 25 years later, Mexicans still wonder, A man confessed to the murder but many doubt the true story has come out


On March 19th twenty-five years ago, Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, presidential candidate for the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was assassinated at a campaign rally in Tijuana, Baja California.

Only one man, Mario Aburto Martínez, was convicted of Colosio’s murder. He was sentenced to 42 years in prison.

But millions of Mexicans doubted or outright rejected that he was the mastermind of, or even committed, the crime.
Twenty-five years later, people continue to deny that Aburto is the true culprit. Most fingers instead point at the PRI – an inside job against a candidate who was trying to shake things up a little too much and made some powerful enemies in the process.

On March 23, 1994, Colosio arrived in Tijuana on the campaign trail for that year’s presidential election, which he was almost certain to win.

According to journalists covering the campaign, the rally in the poor Tijuana neighborhood of Lomas Taurinas at which Colosio was shot was not originally on the candidate’s itinerary for that day.

At around 4:00pm, Colosio arrived – without an excessive security entourage – at the venue that would host the rally.

He appeared to be in a good mood, smiling and greeting the people who had gathered to hear him speak. Just over an hour later, he was shot twice, first in the head and seconds later in the abdomen.
The 44-year-old candidate was rushed to a Tijuana hospital but hours later he was pronounced dead.

A man – supposedly Aburto – was arrested at the scene of the crime but many people believe that a different man – the real Aburto – was convicted of the crime. In other words, the killer was replaced with an innocent man.

After a long and seemingly comprehensive investigation – and a confession by Aburto – the federal government declared that the 22-year-old was the sole culprit, although many people suspected that there were two gunmen.

Miguel Montes, the first of five special prosecutors who worked on the case, believed that Aburto had not acted alone based on the fact that Colosio was shot twice and that the bullets had apparently come from different directions.

Four other men, including former police officer Vicente Mayoral Valenzuela and Jorge Antonio Sánchez Ortega, an intelligence agent for the now-disbanded Center for Investigation and National Security (Cisen), were arrested in connection with the assassination.

But the hypothesis that more than one person was responsible for the murder was abandoned after Aburto admitted that he acted alone.

Building the case against him, authorities established that Aburto suffered from borderline personality disorder, a condition they contended contributed to his actions.
Olga Islas de González Mariscal took over responsibility for the investigation in July 1994 after Montes resigned and five months later she declared that Aburto had indeed acted alone.

Another theory regarding Colosio’s murder is that organized crime was responsible.

Guillermo González Calderoni, a former police commander, said in a 1998 television interview that the Arrellano-Félix Cartel was responsible for the murder.

A total of 29 different versions of events involving organized crime were considered by the federal attorney general’s office, including one that Colosio’s campaign was funded by Colombian drug money or by now-convicted drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

According to three versions of events, Aburto had links to drug trafficking organizations.

However, authorities said there was insufficient proof to substantiate any of the organized crime hypotheses.

Yet another theory contends that Colosio’s own party was involved.

On March 6, 1994, Colosio gave a speech in front of the Monument to the Mexican Revolution in Mexico City in which he spoke of social problems in Mexico and said that corruption and impunity existed within the PRI.

“I see a Mexico that is hungry and with a thirst for justice, a Mexico of mistreated people . . . women and men afflicted by abuses of the authorities or by the arrogance of government offices . . . I declare that I want to be the president of Mexico to lead a new stage of change in Mexico,” he said.

The speech is considered the moment in which Colosio broke ranks with then president Carlos Salinas de Gortari and signaled that he would take the party and the country in a different direction.

Following the speech, there was speculation that Colosio would be replaced as the PRI’s candidate by former cabinet secretary Manuel Camacho Solís. However, just 17 days after the controversial speech, Colosio was murdered.

Ernesto Zedillo, Colosio’s campaign manager, was chosen as the new PRI candidate and went on to win the election and serve as president until the year 2000.

The theory that the PRI was the mastermind of Colosio’s murder – and that president Salinas perhaps even ordered it – is the most widely believed by Mexicans.

The candidate’s father, former PRI senator Luis Colosio, maintained until his death in 2010 that people in power were responsible for his son’s death.

But authorities ultimately concluded that the political motive for the crime was not supported.

According to Laura Sánchez Ley, a journalist who has investigated the Colosio case for years and wrote a book about it, Aburto wasn’t the man authorities painted him to be.

Sánchez said that she concluded that Aburto most likely wasn’t “the crazy man” that authorities said he was.

She also said she received information showing that the government used shocking tactics to coerce Aburto’s family into confessing that they knew that he planned to kill Colosio.

“It turns out that during the days after the murder, Mario Aburto’s family started to be terrorized by the Mexican government so that they would confess that they knew that Mario would commit the murder . . . Authorities physically and sexually abused the younger girls in the family, they started to terrorize them at night by shooting at their house,” she said.

Sánchez, along with the anti-graft group Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI), with which she collaborates, won a legal battle late last month that enabled the 25-year-old investigation into Colosio’s murder to be declassified.

She said there are “a lot of contradictions” in the information contained in the 10,000-page file that calls the official version of events into question.

“There were contradictions in the declarations” made by witnesses, Sánchez said, explaining that seven of nine police officers who made statements weren’t at the scene of the crime.

“There were contradictions in the big truths” proffered by authorities that “make you reconsider how certain the truth that they told us [really] is,” she added.

At President López Obrador’s daily press conference yesterday, United States reporter Jovanny Rivera Huerta shared a letter written by Aburto’s parents, who fled to the U.S. after Colosio’s murder.

“They ask you to re-open the Colosio case. The have a lot of faith in your word and in the transparency you have given the government and the country,” he said.

The president accepted the letter and said that he would read it and pass it on to other officials to see “what comes of it from a legal point of view.”

López Obrador urged authorities to keep investigating the case before declaring “I’m really sorry and I always regret the murder . . .”

Colosio’s family were among about 100 people who marched in his memory today in his home town of Magdalena de Kino, Sonora. The parade was headed by his son, Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas and his family and two of the assassination victim’s sisters.

Source: Milenio , Infobae, EFE 

38 comments:

  1. It is said that the main responsible for this murder is none also that the US...

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    1. 11:22 Salinas made many on the US happy, but the US has never been accused of Colosio's murder;¡ certainly, many Mexican Ginirals and others have been trained in the murdering and other black arts and still Have their grades and condecorations to prove their case, and they may have helped, but not on behalf of the US.
      Get your theory back up there and bring it back in a few years.

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  2. “...a lot of contradictions”.
    I watched ‘1994’ a week ago and I’m still pissed off.

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    1. What are your thoughts? who was behind the murder?

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    2. pues no van a soltar la informacion. nunca nos a querido decir una persona por que aun estan con vida y en la politica.

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    3. Anyone's guess...mexico is such a crooked place. Been for entirely too long.

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    4. It’s Carlos Salinas Gotari. He controlled pretty much everything in Mexico at the time and still continues to control the PRI today. Doesn’t it seem weird that Salinas Gotari, who served as President over 25 years ago, is more involved in current PRI politics than any other PRI president? It’s because Salinas Gotari oversaw the privatization of Mexican industries and created a new class of billionaire overlords to control Mexico for him—good buddies of Salinas Gotari like Carlos Slim Helu.

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    5. AFO was behind it...Calderoni knew the truth, which is one of reasons why he is dead now

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    6. Camacho was the catalyst in my opinion. If he would have just set his personal pride aside and supported Colosio’s vision, things would have stayed the course and the PRI wouldn’t have assassinated Colosio. But because Camacho fervently worked to upstage Colosio at every chance, and had success in stealing the headlines, the top brass of the PRI saw him as a candidate that would support the old regime of the PRI. Colosio was new school - fostering changes that intended to level socio and economic demographics....or improve upon the huge disparity at least. Fat bastards in the capitol care nil about the native and rural population. But Camacho did work to make it appear the PRI did, those old fucks liked that about him, and so they sabotaged his security detail, created chaos with the PA system, and placed a man with a plan (wrote a book at least) and fun in hand amongst the people there to celebrate Colosio. It’s JFK all over again. It’s the same backroom slobs in government so desperate to protect their own interests that they’ll cheat in elections; they’ll assassinate their own if a hair falls out of place; they’ll unleash cartels upon their own people/towns while pilfering the tax proceeds intended to fund the security...state sponsored genocide. It’s none of their friends getting slaughtered...so why care. Salinas didn’t call the shot. His party did. They had a replacement in the waits. Camacho chickened out due to demands, so they went with Zedillo who was too awkward and introverted to incite the people to keep Colosios message moving forward. Sands of time.

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    7. It was Aburto on his own, nobody else. Was he influenced by somebody else? Yes. At that time in Mexico PRI was loosing ground and had lost big battles in Baja California. Aburto was probably listening and reading media that painted Colosio more of an enemy of the PRI than a member of the party. Dude was crazy and did what he thought would help. Was there errors and inconsistencies during the investigation? Yes, this is Mexico we are talking about. I'm not saying the government or PRI would not commit such crimes but come one people, in broad day light? With hundreds of witnesses? Cameras?

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    8. 8:19 what time was it when "they" killed JFK?
      MLK and Malcolm X Were also killed at different hours.
      The FBI also suppressed evidence to clear Policia Judicial Federal chief Rodolfo Leon Aragon "el Chino Leon" of the murder of cardinal Juan Jose Posadas Ocampo, But nobody ever cleared El Chapo, the intended victim of the CAFOS, the prostiturers still bring that, the arrest and the escape to help their "case" against el Mero Patron.

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  3. That drawing looks like a sophisticated tattoo,

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  4. U.S./ Mexican Government / Cartel ... a one of the same.

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  5. Carlos salinas de gortary, the guy is so powerful even carlos slim bows to him, the streets in mexico says that slim is just a puppet of him.

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    1. Carlos Slim became the billionaire he is today because Salinas Gotari literally handed him the Mexican telecom system. So yes, Carlos Slim is probably at the beck and call of Salinas Gotari. Salinas Gotari is easily the richest man in Mexico. Remember, with the richest people in the world, no one knows or could calculate their net worth. Think of Putin; probably the richest man on earth, yet no one can provide an accurate net worth for him.

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  6. Even if the PRI is responsible for the murder, their arrogance made them loose power. The murder ended up burying them along with Colosio. Or does anyone think there will ever be another PRI prez?

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  7. I will never forget that day.
    I had just rolled into Ensenada and couldn't figure out why everyone was in the streets and sobbing and looking positively spooked. Parked and went to the nearest TV screen at a corner taco stand and there it was.....it had happened , literally , minutes before. All the shops were deserted with the doors wide open and people in the streets everywhere, hugging each other and sobbing. The guys with the Bocinas on top of their cars started to roll.....spreading the message; it was chaos and this was not even TJ. Tragic, that day and the rumors started immediately.

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    1. Cálmate we. I don’t remember crying over him. After all it was el PRI. He wasn’t no Kennedy.

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    2. Yeah I remember this too. I was a little kid visiting Guanajuato. I woke up to watch cartoons and every Mexican channel was talking about this. I didn’t know who the guy was, all I know is he got killed. Fast forward to now and I finally know who he is.

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  8. Everyone knows Salinas del gortari ordered this.He has always been embedded with cartels from the arellanos to the zeta's.

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    1. People also said Salinas is responsible for the murder of Massieu.

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    2. Perdón , José Francisco Ruiz Massieu.

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  9. There is a very good series on Netflix called ‘The Candidate’ regarding this subject...

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    1. Just like the assassination of John F Kennedy. Nothing will reveal the truth of who was truly behind nor responsible for these offenses.
      Surprised that BB actually is indulging in this type of reporting.

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  10. Calderoni killed in McAllen Texas with bodyguard in the car during the day. Heard his bodyguard later got crushed by car but unsure. Still unsolved?

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    1. Charles Bowden did a great article on that question
      https://www.gq.com/story/lord-of-the-drug-ring
      Amazing story about the guy who brought down Pablo Acosta—Calderoni

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    2. More than amazing that gjkermo Gonzalez Calderoni used to be childhood friend of Juan Garcia Abrego, knew many Salinas de gortari secrets, was from the NL Tamaulipas area, and a Policia Judicial Federal who helped Hector Berrellez clear the Kiki Camarena case.

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  11. At this point does it matter. Doesn't Amlo have enough to do.

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    1. Yes going to conferences, quelling the homicide rate is not on his mind at all.

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    2. 9:36 it will always matter, like many other things should still MATTER, example the Betrayal of Benedict Arnold.
      President George Washington "the GENERAL HIMSELF" almost had and early, delivery of his twins as a consequence.

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  12. There was no conspiracy just like JFK. There are interviews of relatives and his girlfriend. The guy was a political killer, always wanted to be even before Colossio joined the PRI. Theres evidence like journals and drawings he kept for years about shooting a politician and starting a revolution. He was that kind of guy. Salinas is a crook but it was not him or anybody.

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  13. Like Michael Corleone said people don't politicians governments kill politicians. Now you know.

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  14. I was in first grade when this happened

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  15. Taking the historically context within that period of time 80's and 90's in Mexico you can see that It came straight from the top of government. The Mexican underworld was on the cusp of taking over from the Colombians the major drug trafficking routes into the US. Billions was at stake and people in power especially Salinas de Gortari who was an Economics savant and corrupt as hell envision the potential. Somewhere along the way of becoming president Colosio must of been briefed on all of this and he frowned on that arrangement. He probably confronted Gortari and threatened to expose him. Gortari called on his minions in the underworld to whack him. CAF was very powerful and ruthless back then and controlled TJ with an iron fist. An ant could not move their without their knowledge. After Colosio was whacked many people with broken relationships with the Gortaris were also whacked including his own brother in law. So their, the real godfather of Mexico is Gortari.

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    1. Enrique Salinas de gortari was whacked after Carlos was out of office and Raul was in prison in Switzerland, I guess for talking too much, he looked like fredo Corleone.
      Killing is easy for Carlos Salinas de Gortari, he killed a young maid at his house with a small Caliber rifle when he was a five year old and bragged of he had killed the witch.
      You may still Find the report somewhere, La Quina, union leader, of PEMEX workers is said to have released, that report and bad news to the press, and Salinas had him removed form the Union and imprisoned for a few years to get even. He created la Chaky too, after she gave her best years and her ass to the teachers union leader she replaced, DFS Fernando Gutierrez Barrios helped them Salinas and La Chaky get their way.

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  16. I’m sure I read or saw in a documentary that two different calibers were fired at the scene but the info was to never be released to the media.

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  17. I agree, it’s Carlos Salinas Gotari, a classic cartel boss ordered hit. However Zedillo ended the Pri dominance, and Fox took over after that. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, still Gortari. Colosio's father correct-a-mundo.

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  18. I seem to recall an article in High Times circa 1996 that theorized that Colosio was murdered because he very publicly ejected Juan Garcia Abrego's brother/rep from a campaign event.

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