Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994 TAG: 9404050151
SECTION: NATIONAL/INT PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MEXICO CITY LENGTH: Medium
The suspects include three men who had been hired to guard presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio at the March 23 Tijuana rally where he was assassinated, as well as the head of the local security detail.
There was no word on possible motives, officials said. Five of the seven are in custody, the attorney general's office said.
The man who confessed to firing the fatal shots, Mario Aburto Martinez, told police he went to the rally alone, but also said he belonged to an unspecified political group that has thousands of members.
Colosio, as the candidate of the long-incumbent Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was seen as a shoo-in for the Aug. 21 election.
Special prosecutor Miguel Montes Garcia said Aburto remains the man accused of firing the shots.
Of the other suspects in custody:
Montes said Tranquilino Sanchez interfered with Gen. Domiro Garcia Reyes, one of the soldiers assigned to guard Colosio, ``easing the access of Mario Aburto Martinez to a point close and alongside Colosio.''
Another guard, Vicente Mayoral Valenzuela, ``opened a path toward the victim'' for Aburto, Montes said.
Mayoral Valenzuela's son, Rodolfo Mayoral Esquer, shoved and interfered with another army security man, Col. Federico Antonio Reynaldos del Pozo, ``managing to distract him and thereby diminish the security measures.''
Rodolfo Rivapalacio, who headed the local security detail, was accused of hiring the other three men, who have been widely identified as former policemen employed on a temporary basis to provide security for Colosio's appearance.
Two other men who have not been identified and who remain at large also were involved, Montes said.
by CNB