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The
Colosio case
is again in the public conversation a few weeks before the 30th anniversary of the murder of Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, which occurred on March 23, 1994 in Lomas Taurinas (Tijuana).
The main suspect in the assassination, Mario Aburto Martínez, remains imprisoned since that year while the Attorney General's Office (FGR) relies on the theory of the “second shooter” and seeks an arrest warrant against the former agent of the defunct Center for Investigation and National Security (Cisen) Jorge Antonio Sánchez Ortega, which a judge has denied.
The judicial history of the case can be told between special prosecutors, information that flows in a fragmented manner and investigations without continuity.
These are the key moments of the
Colosio case.
Investigation 'SE/003/95'
Titled
Integrated preliminary investigation into the homicide of Mr. Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta,
this investigation, dated 1995, contemplated the hypothesis of a second shooter.
“Deep down, the [current] theory of a second shooter is not so surprising, why?
Because since 1995 this research folder already handled that theory.
However, the performance of prosecutor Pablo Chapa Bezanilla in 1995 was super controversial, as he was removed from office and a final prosecutor came in, who is Luis Raúl González Pérez, who was president of the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico," he says in interview with EL PAÍS Laura Sánchez Ley, journalist and author of the book
Aburto.
Testimonies from Almoloya, the ice hell
(Grijalbo, 2017).
A test carried out on agent Jorge Antonio Sánchez Ortega on the day of Colosio's murder, to determine if there was gunpowder residue on his hands from the use of a firearm, was positive on the palm and back of his right hand, and on the back. of his left hand.
He only tested negative in the left palm.
In addition, the jacket that he wore on March 23 had blood stains that he himself recognized were Luis Donaldo Colosio's, although he assured that it was due to the fact that he carried the candidate's body.
For Sánchez Ley, the 1995 investigation focuses on two particular moments: the fall of Luis Donaldo Colosio —“that part of whether [Aburto] shot him in the head and he had brain death in 0.05 milliseconds is very controversial,” How could he make a 180 degree axis and place himself in the same place as Mario Aburto?”—and the transfer of the murderer, already arrested, to Mexico City the day after the crime.
“He is transferred to the facilities of the Attorney General's Office [now FGR] in its Tijuana delegation, more or less at 5:30 in the afternoon, and they take him [to the Mexican capital] at 6:45 in the morning of the day next”, explains the journalist.
A tribute in honor of Luis Donaldo Colosio, in Tijuana, on March 23, 2004. DAVID MAUNG (AP)
File declassification
In 2019, when 25 years passed since Colosio's assassination, the complete file of the criminal conviction against Mario Aburto Martínez was declassified.
An investigation team from the organization Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity managed to open the files that contain around 9,000 sheets.
The documents show inconsistent testimonies, torture of the accused, pressure from the authorities and unpublished documents that reveal contradictions between some of the main witnesses.
The file covers seven years of investigation by the Special Prosecutor's Office for the
Colosio case
, which includes confrontations, testimonies, photographs and extracts from the preliminary investigation that were not included in the public version of the then PGR.
In 2000, these documents had been classified for 35 years, with the argument that data related to the investigation could still appear that could serve to solve the assassination.
The protection of Mario Aburto
Aburto's lawyer, Jesús González Schmal, processed an amparo so that the judicial process of the accused - who in 1994 was sentenced to 45 years in prison - be applied according to the sentence for homicide of the Penal Code of Baja California, the entity where the crime was committed. crime, effective in 1994, which was up to 30 years in prison.
On October 5, 2023, a collegiate court in Toluca (State of Mexico) granted this appeal and at that time there was speculation about Aburto's possible release when he completed three decades of his sentence in March of this year.
However, at the end of last year, the Attorney General's Office of the Republic challenged the protection in favor of Mario Aburto and the Supreme Court accepted this challenge for processing, which is why the matter is in the hands of the highest court, which would have to expedite the review so that the sentenced person would be free next March.
For now, admission to the Court for processing prevents a court from executing the protection.
“I do not believe in the issue of him being released [free] on March 23.
That would imply that the Supreme Court of Justice would be in 15 days, basically, determining what is going to happen to Mario Aburto Martínez.
We are in a very impressive situation in which, after 30 years, obviously, in a context of elections, there is a reopening of a case, there is media information and in the middle, there is the theory of a second shooter, without being made official.
We don't have a report, we don't have anything, we know absolutely nothing.
What's left?
Wait for the Supreme Court of Justice to resolve one of the protections,” says Laura Sánchez Ley.
Mario Aburto in the Almoloya Prison, in the State of Mexico, on March 25, 1994.Jose Luis Magana (AP)
The researcher reveals that she recently received some documents about Mario Aburto's complaints for having been a victim of torture.
“The FGR notified him that he was not going to take criminal action against anyone, that is, he did not really consider that he had to hold anyone responsible for the torture,” she says.
Reopening of the investigation
In April 2022, the
Colosio case
was reopened by the current Administration.
After years without a body dedicated to continuing investigating, the fifth prosecutor's office was formed since 1994, headed by Abel Galván Gallardo.
“There are 18 people, no more, working on this reopening of the investigation, according to the report that the FGR gave us.
It's very little, and operating with a very small budget as well," says Sánchez Ley. "Forty-five experts have been questioned, another 24 witnesses, which is what they call them, and 19 police officers.
Those are the people who have been called to testify.
In total 99 people,” he details.
The researcher questions that the current prosecutor's office in the case offers incomplete information and without presenting evidence.
“The other four prosecutor's offices, with all their deficiencies and which were left with a lot of debt to the people, gave reports, whether weekly, monthly or quarterly, and from the beginning they revealed the line of investigation they were going to follow.
It was never a secret.
Mario Montes, the first prosecutor, spoke of a concerted action;
Olga Islas spoke and supported the version of the solitary murderer;
The third prosecutor, Pablo Chapa Bezanilla, from the beginning stood up and said 'it's a plot', and the last one, Luis Raúl González, said 'I'm going to reaffirm the theory of the solitary murderer.'
“They don't really tell us what elements or new evidence they have against Jorge Antonio Sánchez Ortega to make him a second shooter,” he emphasizes.
—What comes to mind when you think of Mario Aburto? the journalist is asked.
—Mario is definitely a character with many contradictions, that is a bit difficult for me to understand… mystical.
I think he's handled several versions of this story, which is why it's very difficult when people ask: Did he kill him or didn't he kill him?
I always respond that regardless of that, I believe that we receive a leaked story from the governments in power.
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