AMLO Is Interested In Clarifying The Colosio Murder Case

On Thursday, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) offered State protection to Mario Aburto, who argues that the Police tortured him to plead guilty to the murder of the Institutionalist Revolutionary Party (PRI) presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio in 1994.

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"If he can prove he was tortured, he is threatened, and he has kept silent because of it... the Mexican state would protect him," AMLO said, adding that "we are very interested that there is no doubt or suspicion about the unfortunate murder of Luis Donaldo Colosio."

Previously, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) asked the Attorney General's Office (FGR) that the Colosio case investigations be reopened because Aburto was tortured after being arrested on March 23, 1994 in Tijuana, where the PRI candidate was shot dead.

"A man –supposedly Aburto– was arrested at the scene of the crime, but many people believe that... the killer was replaced with an innocent man. Millions of Mexicans believe that the PRI was behind the murder of Colosio, who was determined to take the then omnipotent party in a new direction," Mexico News Daily recalled.

For the past 27 years, Ruben Aburto, the father of the convicted citizen, has maintained that his son was used as a scapegoat to hide what the PRI did during the administration of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who was the Mexican President when Colosio was murdered.

AMLO called Aburto's case a "matter of state" and confirmed that his administration would offer protection to him and his family if necessary. In February, Aburto denounced before the CNDH that he has been the victim of cruel treatment and torture since his arrest and requested that his case be reopened so that "society knows the truth."

Regarding these statements, the Secretary of Public Safety and Protection Rosa Rodriguez clarified that Aburto’s human rights have been respected during the AMLO administration. "At the moment he is not incommunicado and is in good health," she said and clarified that the Executive branch is analyzing "what will be the response to the CNDH recommendation."