Investigation into murder of Mexican cardinal re-opened

Mexico City, Mexico, Feb 16, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The Supreme Court of the Mexican state of Jalisco has nullified the sentences of 13 individuals involved in the killing of Cardinal Jesus Posadas Ocampo in 1993, resulting in the reopening of the investigation into the incident that continues to stir controversy among the Mexican public.

Cardinal Posadas, who was Archbishop of Guadalajara, was gunned down during a confusing series of events at the city’s airport in May of 1993.  Although some have held the cardinal was caught in the middle of a gunfight between two drug trafficking gangs, there are many clues that indicate it was a planned assassination.

The high court in Jalisco decided to nullify the sentences over technicalities.  The case will be remanded back to a criminal court where arguments, witnesses and evidences will be re-examined.

According to the Mexican daily El Tiempo, “Three years after the murder that gave way to the worst cycle of political destabilization, the re-opening of the Posadas case will bring to the forefront of the investigations the official version that it was confusion and the hypothesis of the Church hierarchy that it was a crime of conspiracy.”

The newspaper said the reopening of the case casts doubt upon the conclusions of former government attorney Jorge Carpizo McGregor, who garnered international support for his theory that the cardinal was killed out of confusion, without seriously analyzing the hypothesis that the murder was planned and deliberate.

El Tiempo notes that an investigation by journalist Jose Alberto Villasana, who wrote a book about the killing, revealed two inconsistencies in the Carpizo McGregor investigation.  “The cardinal was not caught in the crossfire because there were no bullet impacts in the car in which he was riding, and the cardinal suffered direct gunshots, going from top to bottom and from short distance.”

The re-opening of the case will allow for an examination of the contradictions in the conclusions filed by the special commission charged with investigating the murder, the report stated.