Mexico’s president says he’s looking at reopening Colosio assassination case

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday that he has read the letter written by the parents of the confessed assassin of former Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio and confirmed that he is considering reopening their son’s case.

“I already read the letter from the parents of (Mario) Aburto and I gave it to the Government Secretariat with the instruction that they handle it in accordance with the law. If there is the possibility of legally re-opening the case, it will be done,” the president, popularly known as AMLO, said during his daily press conference.

Lopez Obrador said that Government Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero will make a decision on the matter and, on the basis of that, the appropriate action will be taken.

In general terms, the president urged that every investigative possibility be “thoroughly explored” and that no legal proceedings be irrevocably “shut down” in such controversial cases as Colosio’s assassination 25 years ago in the city of Tijuana.

“These cases must not be forgotten due to the passage of time. And we must always demand that the facts be clarified,” the leader of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena) said.

Lopez Obrador reiterated that his administration has the duty to “see what may happen legally, but not to close the file on any of these matters.”

Last Friday, Aburto’s family sent their letter to the president asking him to re-open the case.

“They’re asking that the Colosio Case be re-opened. They trust a great deal in your word and in the transparency that you have given to government and to the country,” said the reporter who delivered the message, addressing the president, adding that Aburto’s parents wanted to go back to the “country that raised them and their children.”

Although Aburto was arrested at the time of the killing, and is currently serving a prison sentence, the investigation lasted many years while authorities tried to find the intellectual author of the deed or indications of an assassination plot.

The killing of Colosio, to whom tribute was paid around the country last Saturday on the 25th anniversary of his death, is considered to be the most serious political murder in Mexico since 1928, when President-elect Alvaro Obregon was killed after leading the country from 1920-1924.