Suspect arrested Colosio assassination 1994
A federal prosecutor in Mexico has announced the arrest of a suspect in the 1994 assassination of presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio, a crime whose reverberations still affect the country’s political landscape. The suspect, identified as Jorge Antonio Sánchez Ortega, was apprehended in the city of Tijuana and is being held in a maximum-security prison awaiting further proceedings.
Colosio was the candidate of the ruling party, Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and was shot twice during a campaign rally on 23 March 1994 in Tijuana. The only person previously convicted for the killing, Mario Aburto Martínez, has been serving a lengthy sentence since the event, but many years of speculation and allegations have suggested he did not act alone.
According to investigators, Sánchez Ortega is linked to alleged involvement in the second gunshot fired during the attack. He was reportedly a federal intelligence agent assigned to Colosio’s security detail. Officials say ballistic and witness evidence indicate that there was more than one shooter. The arrest marks one of the most significant developments in a case long regarded as a major political scandal in Mexico, characterised by claims of cover-ups and enduring unanswered questions.
This development may reinvigorate calls for transparency and accountability in the investigation, given that for decades many Mexicans have doubted the original lone-gunman version of events. The prosecutor’s office has yet to publicly disclose all the charges Sánchez Ortega faces or whether further arrests are forthcoming.
