Thirty years after his father was assassinated while running for president, Luis Donald Colosio Riojas, himself a rising star in Mexican politics, is hoping for a pardon for the convicted murderer.
The budding politician was just 8 years old when his father, Luis Donald Colosio Murrieta, was shot in the head during a chaotic campaign rally in Tijuana, near the U.S. border, shocking the nation.
The 38-year-old, once touted as a presidential candidate like his father, has dropped out of the race, at least this time, and is instead running for the Senate in June's election.
The murder of Colosio Murietta on March 23, 1994 is considered a pivotal moment in Mexican political history.
About two weeks earlier, he had given a speech that was interpreted as a critique of the corrupt old guard of the then-hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
“The root of many of our country's evils lies in the overconcentration of power…I see a Mexico hungry and thirsty for justice,” he said.
Like the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Colosio Murietta's murder sparked a storm of conspiracy theories about who was behind it.
The attack was the focus of the 2019 Netflix television series “Crime Diaries: The Candidate.”
Mario Aburto, now 53, is the only person to be imprisoned for the murder of Colosio Murietta, who was considered a presidential candidate.
According to investigators, Abulto admitted to the crime and said he committed the crime alone.
A working-class resident of Tijuana who was not well known as a political activist, he was sentenced to 45 years in prison, where he remains.
In a double tragedy, Colosio Riojas' mother died of pancreatic cancer a few months after the assassination.
He and his sister were taken in by their maternal aunt, who also passed away this month after a battle with cancer.
In a video posted to Instagram, Colosio Riojas paid a touching tribute to the woman he called her “second mother” and “saved my life at the worst moment of my life.”
The killings, along with an uprising by Zapatista rebels that year, shook international confidence in Mexico's stability, coming months after a landmark free trade agreement with the United States and Canada went into effect.
The PRI panicked by choosing another candidate, Ernesto Zedillo, who had been elected president in 1994.
But the next election six years later brought a surprising end to 70 years of rule by a party that Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa once described as a “perfect dictatorship.”
– “Name recognition” –
Colosio Riojas has been in the political spotlight since he was elected mayor of the industrial city of Monterrey, the capital of the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, in 2021.
He is currently seeking a seat in the Senate not as a representative of the PRI, but as a representative of Civic Movement, a centre-left minority party founded by former PRI members.
“Due to Mr. Colosio Jr.'s name recognition and party position in Nuevo León, he is likely to be elected to the Senate and remain a prominent figure in local and national politics,” said EMPRA, a political risk advisory firm. stated in the research note.
Colosio Riojas made headlines in January when he asked President Andres Manuel López Obrador to pardon Aburto, but the president rejected the idea.
Colosio Riojas addressed the issue again this month, saying, “I forgive that man. May God bless him. May he be free to leave Mexico. And may we as a nation… May he allow you to heal.”
The assassination of Colócio Murrieta has long been considered one of Mexico's greatest mysteries.
The original lead investigator, Judge Miguel Montes, initially said it was the result of a conspiracy.
He then changed his tune and realized that Aburto was acting alone.
Decades later, the plot continues to take twists and turns.
In January, a judge threw out evidence submitted by the attorney general's office against a second suspected gunman on charges of collusion with a now-defunct government intelligence agency.
Corruption and violence related to the multibillion-dollar drug trade have recently led to frequent attacks on politicians, especially at the local level, in Mexico.
Colosio Jr. said of his decision not to run for president: “The most selfish reason, but probably the most important reason, is for my children.”
“They are my whole world and they need a father.”
Colosio Riojas will be 44 years old when Mexico holds another presidential election in 2030. This is the same age as his murdered father.
dr-st/acb
