 Política
y Derechos Humanos
Politique
et droits de la personne
Politics
and Human Rights
Tlahui-Politic No. 2, II/1996
Mario Rojas Alba
Files in the box of the impunity Quebec Committee for Human Rights in Mexico (QCHRM)
Background on Special Investigator: A "Judicial Hygienist" It was another disorderly day at the July 1988 Electoral College. In desperation over their failure to prevent validation of the electoral sham, the representatives of the Frente Democrático Nacional once again decided to take the floor. Pale from the pressure and exhaustion of the prolonged sessions, the Frentistas occupied every inch of the vast podium area. Meanwhile, from his high position in the Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, Miguel Montes intermittently watched the discontented parliamentarians with feigned calm and shot insistent glances at his own PRI representatives and the security guards posted at the far end and sides of the Chamber. His eyes provided the signals for a response prepared well in advance. Dozens of police officers in civilian clothes quickly mixed in with the PRI deputies. While a throng of security agents sprang to protect Montes, more than one hundred PRI representatives, supported by a similar number of police officers, forcefully removed the opposition deputies. Finally, the PRI representatives alone passed the resolution by which Carlos Salinas de Gortari became the new President of Mexico. Only days earlier, Miguel Montes García had been elected to the federal Parliament to represent Guanajuato (District I) in a contest widely criticized as a fraud. In the Electoral College, deputies had displayed hundreds of ballots marked by voters in favor of opposition candidates but later stolen from their boxes by PRI officials. Shortly after the controversial Electoral College proclaimed Salinas as the new Mexican President, Montes was appointed to chair the Justice Committee for the Chamber of Deputies. Three years later, he was to become the Attorney General of Mexico's Federal District, a position in which he gave a lackluster performance. However, Montes remained a good friend of Antonio Rivapalacio López, who only recently parted with the governorship of the state of Morelos. Rivapalacio was well known as one of the most violent and repressive officials in the Mexican government. This same Miguel Montes, a key player in the 1988 electoral hoax, was named by its beneficiary, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, as the Special Investigator responsible for "elucidating" the assassination of Colosio. All indications are that Montes will continue to be a key figure in the new facelift so badly needed by Mexico's system of political power. Appointment of Special Investigator Violates Federal System By appointing Montes as a special investigator, President Salinas overstepped the Constitution and Mexican federalism. Mexico's judicial structure is based on a federation of free and sovereign states. Homicide, the crime in question, is defined only in the penal codes of the states and the Federal District. Therefore, this crime only comes under the jurisdiction of the state courts and remains outside the scope of the Federation. It follows that the courts of the state of Baja California Norte are the ones responsible for bringing Mario Aburto Martínez and the other defendants to trial. During the 54th Legislature, Miguel Montes succeeded in sanctioning the electoral sham that made Salinas de Gortari the President of the Republic. His recent appointment is a reflection of the President's will to control the investigation of the Colosio assassination. Thus it can be expected that the entire process will yield the results desired by the federal executive branch, not the truth and justice that society demands. Signs of a Plot One can assume that, at the outset, Salinas directed Montes to carry out an efficient and far-reaching investigation. As a result, an impressive number of officials from the federal judicial branch were mobilized to work on the case. Their ranks included over 500 experts and agents. In his first public report, Montes presented ample proof of the existence of a plot. Several of Colosio's own security guards and other individuals with ties to the PRI in Tijuana were among those involved. Statements were also made to the effect that two people had fired on the victim from two different angles. The path of the bullet that entered his head was from right to left, whereas the shot that struck his abdomen had moved from left to right. In addition to Mario Aburto Martínez, those arrested were Tranquilino Sánchez, Rodolfo Rivapalacio, Vicente Mayoral Valenzuela and Rodolfo Mayoral. According to authorities, they all had collaborated in the killing. Attorney General Valadés "had a better understanding of Salinas' true intentions." The statements by Montes contradicted opinions expressed by the Attorney General of the Republic, Diego Valadés, according to whom Aburto had fired the two shots. Valadés asserted that Aburto had walked approximately ten meters into the crowd, where he managed to stand just to the right of the candidate. Then he "placed the revolver on his right temple and pulled the trigger, causing the fatal wound." According to the Attorney General, there had been no sign of a plot. Instead, the murder had been the act of a single assassin whose objective was fame. Except for Mario Aburto, all those presumed to be involved in the homicide were released from custody. The pro-government media echoed the Attorney General's official version. It is important to mention that in Mexico the Secretary of the Interior and the Information Bureau of the Federal Executive Branch control most of the media. Only several hours after the crime, news media, including the Televisa monopoly, via its ECO television program, directed by Jacobo Zabludowsky, were attempting to link the assassin with centre-left opposition forces. It was continually emphasized that Mario Aburto had been born in Michoacán, a strongly pro-Cárdenas state with a large number of Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) supporters. In the days that followed, the same pro-government media made some relatively important changes in their information, insisting that the lone assassin was a "pacifist and a human-rights advocate". Montes: Silence and Finally a New Position The Special Investigator had remained isolated with his hypothesis regarding a conspiracy. Nevertheless, after a few days of silence, during which he may have consulted with Salinas, Montes fell into line with the premise of a single assassin. By dropping the supposition of a plot, Montes was trying to exonerate the government and the PRI's new presidential candidate, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce, from all possible blame. Zedillo had been the national coordinator of Colosio's campaign, but, for no explicable reason, he failed to attend the rally at which Colosio was to be murdered. New acts of violence in Zedillo's native state of Baja California Norte have further tarnished the reputation of the PRI government, while affecting the candidate's campaign. For example, on April 28 a group of unidentified persons gunned down Tijuana's Municipal Police Department director, who, at the time, was investigating the assassination of Colosio. Also casting doubt on the impartiality of Mexico's judicial power is the arrest of the Assistant Attorney General of Baja California Norte, Sergio Ortiz Lara, by members of the Federal Attorney General's Office. Another event seems to link the government with drug trafficking and the death of Colosio: the violence that occurred in the Christine discotheque in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, where six people lost their lives in November 1992. Four of the victims were identified: César Rusel, Jesús Rocha, Armando Portillo and Ignacio Gómez. Tranquilino Sánchez, one of those originally accused of participating in the assassination of Colosio, and Sergio Ortiz Lara, the assistant Attorney General currently under arrest, are suspected of having taken part in the Christine killings. Many other worthy pieces of evidence have not yet been thoroughly investigated. Why, for example, did the PRI's Municipal Committee in Tijuana make an advance request for a team of Hospital General doctors to be present at the rally? What role was played by the conservative group of PRI politicians, known as the "dinosaurs"? Following the death of Colosio, Salinas entrusted one of the leaders of this group, Agriculture Secretary Carlos Hank González, with the task of presenting Zedillo as the PRI's new candidate. This illustrates the close ties between Salinas de Gortari's technocratic tendency and that of the dinosaurs. Furthermore, Carlos Hank had no qualms about violating the law by using his ministry's letterhead and fax to announce that Zedillo had been chosen as the PRI's candidate. Carlos Hank is the head of one of Mexico's richest families. On February 23, 1993, one of his sons, Carlos Hank Rohn, was among 28 magnates from the dinosaur group who attended a PRI meeting where Salinas asked each of those present to donate $25 million to the party. Another son, Jorge Hank, is suspected of involvement in the killing of journalist Héctor Félix Miranda, who worked for the Tijuana weekly, Zeta. That crime took place in the city of Tijuana on April 20, 1988. Popular Opinion: A Conspiracy Against Colosio Because of the governing party's almost total control over the media, the people of Mexico have developed a sixth sense in response to major events such as the recent assassination of Colosio. In streets, homes and workplaces, people have formed a nearly unanimous opinion: Colosio was murdered by the government and his own party. Some observers assume that Colosio was eliminated because of his low rating in electoral polls and the risk that the dominant political class might lose its stronghold on power. Therefore, it is speculated that the objective of the crime was to replace Colosio with another candidate and improve the party's position in the polls. If this was the intention of those who planned the assassination, they must certainly regret their decision: on the one hand, Ernesto Zedillo's scores in the latest polls are lower than Colosio's; on the other, ratings for Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and the PRD have continued to rise steadily. Like hundreds of other political killings in the context of Mexican elections, Colosio's assassination may well go unpunished. The August elections will undoubtedly be the hardest fought in the history of Mexico. However, shrouded in an atmosphere of general uncertainty, they are also likely to prevent the truth about Colosio's murder from seeing the light of day.
Index. Tlahui-Politic No. 2 |
The Assassination of