Some say assassination arrest is meant to distract

On track to be elected Mexico’s next president a few months later, Colosio, 44, was a progressive voice inside the rigid hierarchy of the PRI. He vowed to institute reforms and clean up deeply entrenched corruption and cronyism.

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A DRAWING of Luis Donaldo Colosio, once a frequent customer, hangs in a Mexico City taqueria in 2023.

(HECTOR VIVAS Getty Images)

Some have speculated that hardliners within the ruling party were behind his killing — a theory long rejected by the PRI leadership.

The arrest of an alleged accomplice in the Colosio killing came days after another high-profile political assassination, this time of Mayor Carlos Manzo of the western city of Uruapan. Authorities blame organized crime for the killing of Manzo, who was gunned down at a Day of the Dead festival this month in what some call Mexico’s most sensational political assassination since Colosio’s slaying.

The killing of Manzo — who assailed the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum for not doing more to combat cartels — sparked massive protests in his home state of Mi-choacaén, a cartel battleground. Many criticized Sheinbaum’s government for what they called its lax attitude toward organized crime, an allegation denied by the president.

The most recent development in the Colosio case came Nov. 8 when federal prosecutors in Tijuana arrested a former intelligence agent, Jorge Antonio Sanchez Ortega, who had been wanted since last year in connection with Colosio’s killing.