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 Editorials | Opinions | July 2006 
The Two Mexico City Mayors That Couldn't
 Mario Canseco - Angus Reid
| Luis Donaldo Colosio's assassination was on the San Diego Union-Tribune's front page March 24, 1994.
The Protagonists
The assassination of Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio in Tijuana placed several individuals in the headlines.
Mario Aburto Martinez: He was found guilty of the murder of Luis Donaldo Colosio. He is housed at the maximum-security La Palma Prison, formerly know as Almoloya de Juarez, outside of Mexico City, where he is serving a 45-year sentence. According to the official version of the assassination, he was the sole participant in the murder.
Domiro Garcia Reyes: He was Colosio's security chief. No complicity in the crime was ever proven against him. He has held various posts in the National Defense Ministry, was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in 1998 and named head of the 32nd Military Zone based in Valladolid, in the state of Yucatan.
Rodolfo Rivapalacio Tinajero: He was a one-time state police officer and coordinated the local security and crowd-control teams during the rally in Lomas Taurinas. He was held for more than a year at the Almoloya deJuarez Prison as his role in the assassination was investigated. He was found not responsible for any crime, was freed and still lives in Tijuana.
Vicente Mayoral Valenzuela: He was an ex-state police officer and a member of the local security team. He was held for 15 months at Almoloya as his role in the murder was investigated. He was found not responsible for any crime, was freed and still lives in Tijuana. After struggling for many years to find stable employment, he is working toward opening a used-car business.
Rodolfo Mayoral Esquer: Son of Vicente Mayoral, Rodolfo also was a member of the local security team. He was held for 15 months at Almoloya as he was investigated. He was found not responsible for any crime, was freed and still lives in Tijuana. Struggled for many years to get a job; he recently opened a car wash.
Tranquilino Sanchez Venegas: He was an ex-municipal police officer and a member of the local security team. He was held for 15 months at Almoloya as he was investigated. He was not found responsible for any crime, was freed and still lives in Tijuana.
Othon Cortez Vazquez: He was arrested 11 months after the slaying, accused of firing a second shot that struck Colosio in the abdomen. Cortés denied involvement and was released for lack of evidence after spending 1 ½ years in the Almoloya prison. He unsuccessfully sued the federal government seeking compensation for damages suffered. He still lives and works in Tijuana.
Dr. Patricia Aubanel: This Tijuana-based cardiologist assisted in the medical treatment of Colosio at the city's General Hospital. Her initial statement that the candidate's abdominal wound could have been caused by a different weapon than the one that caused his head wound helped fuel the second-gunman theory. The hypothesis was eventually discarded. She still works at the Del Prado Medical Center in Tijuana.
Senator Luis Donaldo Colosio Fernandez: Father of slain candidate, he publicly maintains his skepticism over the official version that names Aburto Martinez as soly responsible. He declared last February that his son "was murdered amid a deep deterioration of his relationship with President Carlos Salinas."
Carlos Salinas de Gortari: He was president of Mexico at the time of the assassination and was named in various journalistic analyses as having caused or encouraged the conditions that led to the murder of his ex-colleague. He has publicly maintained his innocence.
Gen. Rafael Macedo de la Concha: Current Attorney General of Mexico, he recently declared that the Colosio case isn't closed but is in "technical reserve," which he characterized as applying to a case that could be reopened if new information warranted it. To date, none has been found.
– Enrique Garcia Sanchez - San Diego Union-Tribune (March 23, 2004) |
The presidential election’s second place finisher is pondering civil disobedience, as his advisor hints at violence.
So far, international commentators have refused to find a flower to identify the rallies held by supporters of former Mexico City mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It is not that the Latin American country has a shortage of colourful plants, but rather the realization that the state of affairs is much different than what transpired in places like Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in years past.
In the former Soviet Republics, international observers cited irregularities - before, during and after the elections took place - and questioned the legitimacy of the bodies that oversaw the process. In Mexico, European Union (EU) monitors reported no incidents in the vote count, precisely the topic that has supporters of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) pondering acts of civil disobedience in an effort to force a ballot-by-ballot recount.
The official results from the Jul. 2 election placed Felipe Calderón of the governing National Action Party (PAN) as the winner with 35.88 per cent of all cast ballots, followed by López Obrador of the PRD with 35.31 per cent. López Obrador has filed a legal challenge, alleging widespread fraud - particularly when the votes were tallied from the certificates of each polling station - and calling for a hand recount of every ballot.
The legal recourse is well within López Obrador’s rights, but it would have been practically impossible were it not for the emergence of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in 1990. Two years earlier, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) government - which was in charge of organizing elections through the Interior Secretariat - blamed the breakdown of a computer system for unexpected delays in the distribution of results from the presidential election. In the end, PRI nominee Carlos Salinas de Gortari was declared the winner with 50.7 per cent of the vote, defeating Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the leftist National Democratic Front (FDN).
To this day, many Mexicans believe that the 1988 election was a sham. Since the birth of the IFE, opposition parties began to defeat the ruling PRI in state races, and the word "fraud" practically disappeared from the nation’s political vocabulary. Last year, the IFE was regarded as one of the most trusted institutions in the country, surpassing the presidency and the Supreme Court.
The Federal Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE) is pondering the PRD’s challenge, and is expected to issue a ruling before Aug. 31. The winner of the presidential election must be officially declared on or before Sept. 6, but that has not stopped López Obrador from assembling his supporters and claiming that "the social peace of the country is at stake" if the recount does not take place. This past Sunday, PRD advisor Manuel Camacho warned about possible acts of violence, saying, "If the votes are not counted, all these people who are now smiling will raise their fists."
Camacho’s career offers a glimpse at the kind of advice that López Obrador is getting. A long-time PRI member, he was appointed by Salinas to serve as Mexico City’s mayor in 1988. For years, Camacho was seen as a prospective presidential contender, due to his closeness to the president. When Salinas eventually decided to favour social development secretary Luis Donaldo Colosio with the nomination in November 1993, Camacho snapped and refused to congratulate Colosio, as was customary in PRI politics.
When Colosio was murdered in March 1994, the public’s anger was felt inside the Mexico City funeral chapel where the candidate’s body laid. Camacho attempted to enter the building, but was literally hissed back into the street by the crowd. Things would have been different if he had followed party discipline and graciously acknowledged Colosio’s candidacy, as other presidential hopefuls had.
After a brief hiatus, Camacho founded the Party of the Democratic Centre (PCD) in 1999, finally getting the chance to become Mexico’s president that Salinas had purportedly denied. In the 2000 election, he received 0.6 per cent of the vote. His only contribution to the campaign came in a PAN radio spot which urged supporters of eventual winner Vicente Fox to tell exit pollsters that they had "voted for Camacho" to create confusion.
Now, in his role as one of many has-beens who assembled around López Obrador - especially when polls had the PRD member topping the 40 per cent mark - Camacho has become the first person to, albeit in a veiled fashion, warn the government and the country about possible acts of violence.
At this point, no clear evidence suggests that López Obrador lost the election during the tallying process. Voting intention polls released in early May clearly show that Calderón gained support after the PRD candidate excused himself from the first presidential debate. If López Obrador had assembled a better team of advisors, things could have been different. |
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