MEXICAN MURDER MYSTERY

3/23/1994 - Dreams of a new way of governing are dashed when the candidate for president of Mexico's powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party (the PRI for short, an organization founded in 1929 that holds power in the country for 71 years), 44-year-old Luis Donaldo Colosio-Murrieta, is murdered during a campaign rally in Tijuana ... and though an assassin is immediately caught and found guilty, the rumors and finger pointing begin that have not abated to today.

Colosio

Born on February 10, 1950, in Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, Colosio grows up with political fervor running through his veins as the son of Luis Colosio Fernandez (a descendent of 16th Century immigrants to "New Spain" from Italy), a member of the PRI and two-time senator in the Mexican Congress representing the Sonora region.  Following in his father's footsteps is always the plan, and  
after getting a degree from the prestigious Instituto Technologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, in 1972 joins his father's party, and then continues his post-graduate education at the University of Pennsylvania and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria.  In 1979, he is back in Mexico and ready to put his education to use, joining the country's Ministry of Budget and Planning under the guidance of future president, Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

The Monterrey Campus

A political skyrocket with big plans for himself and his country, Colosio is elected to Congress in 1985, serves on the PRI's National Executive Committee, directs the successful presidential campaign of his friend, Carlos Salinas, and in the same election, is elected to the Senate, representing the state of his birth, Sonora.  He continues to add to his political resume by serving in the cabinet of Salinas in the role of the newly created position of Social Development Secretary.  In 1993, the PRI makes him their next candidate for the office of president (the Mexican constitution allows a president only one term).

Salinas

A seemingly slam dunk to become Mexico's next president, trouble begins for Colosio when he gives a speech on March 6, 1994, in which he praises the indigenous communities of the land, condemns government abuses, and vows to fight for the people's independence from government ... positions favored by the then troublesome left-wing guerrillas of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) of the province of Chiapas, but not the reigning members of the PRI.

Campaigning

In the early evening of March 23, 1994, Colosio is campaigning in the Tijuana slums of Lomas Taurinas, moving through a packed crowd of well-wishers while mariachi music plays, when he is shot in the head, from almost point blank range, by a .38 Special wielded by 22-year-old factory worker, Mario Aburto Martinez, of Zamora de Hidalgo, Michoacan ... he leaves behind a widow, two children, and a grieving nation.  Arrested immediately at the scene, Martinez confesses to the crime at trial and is sentenced to 42 years in prison (Mexico does not have the death penalty and Martinez is currently behind bars at the La Palma prison in Almoloya de Juarez) ... but is never clear as to why he murdered Colosio, claiming he is a pacifist and the gun went off by accident.  And like America's JFK assassination in Dallas, the questions and conspiracy theories instantly begin.   

Accident (From You Tube Video)?

In Custody

How could Martinez shoot Colosio from one side in the head, but two and half seconds later, also shoot him in the stomach from the opposite side?  Why did a witness claim Martinez was wearing a security arm band earlier in the day, and if he was, where did he get it from?  Why do some witnesses say they saw another shooter?  Why were Vincente Mayoral, Rodolfo Mayoral, and Tranquilino Sanchez arrested for blocking the path of Colosio's bodyguards, but then released.  Why did Othon Cortez Vasquez, a driver for the PRI, claim he was arrested by the government and tortured for 18 months to admit he fired the second shot?  Were the shooting deaths of Jesus Romero Magana (14 times!), the first federal prosecutor to interrogate Martinez, and Jose Arturo Ochoa (twice in the head and twice in the back), another member of the first interrogation team, part of an on-going conspiracy (or eight other assassinations tied to the Colosio killing, including the Tijuana police chief who was conducting his own investigation ... while some conspiracy believers have the total as 15 or higher).  Did Colosio's widow really die of pancreatic cancer while she was investigating the case on her own.  How were both the gun and the bullets in the case all lost?  Why did several witnesses testify to seeing multiple Martinez look-a-likes (up to seven in one case) at the scene of the crime?  Why were seven members of the assassin's family granted political asylum to live in California?  And on and on it goes ...

Moments Later

Multiple investigations and four special prosecutors later, no one can answer the questions definitively, and most Mexicans do not believe the official story that a lone gunman took out the youthful candidate that they held so much promise for.  What is known is that divisions within the PRI were illuminated and weakened the party to the extent that six years later, their decades old hold on political power was finally broken by the presidential election of Vincente Fox in 2000.

Fox

The reform president that never was ... rest in peace, Luis Donaldo Colosio-Murrieta ... still missed by the people of Mexico.

Memorial

AMERICAN HERO - SILVESTRE SANTANA HERRERA

3/15/1945 - Oh My ... here is an immigrant story that should make your hearts swell and bring tears to your eyes!  

Growing up on a farm near El Paso, Texas, Silvestre Santana Herrera moves to Phoenix, Arizona, where he starts a family with his wife, Ramona ... three children follow, with a fourth on its way when due to WWII, Herrera is drafted into the Texas National Guard, 36th Division.  Headed for the war, he decides to tell his parents about his drafting so they can keep an eye on his family while he is gone ... and gets the surprise of his life when his father confesses that he is really Silvestre's uncle, and the shocks keep coming as he learns he was actually born in Camargo, Chihuahua, both his parents died from an influenza epidemic when he was only a year old, and that for the chance for a better life for the youngster, his uncle takes the 18-month-old baby to his farm in Texas.  "Son, you don't have to go, they can't draft you ... you aren't an American citizen," his uncle tells him.  But he is an American in his heart, so he goes.  

In 1945, on this day in March, Herrera is in France, serving as Private First Class as a member of the U.S. Army's 142nd Infantry.  Finding his platoon under attack near the town of Mertzwiller (near the country's border with Germany), while most of the unit pulls back to find cover, Herrera single-handedly charges an enemy machine gun emplacement, firing his M-1 rifle from his hip and throwing grenades, eliminating the position and taking eight German soldiers prisoner.  Free to advance again, the platoon runs into another machine gun position later in the day, this time one protected at its front by a large minefield.  Charging again as in the morning, Herrera steps on a mine that shatters his leg below the knee, but one good leg left, he continues his advance towards the machine gun ... until he steps on another mind that severs his "good" leg below the knee ... and that doesn't stop the heroic soldier either.  In extreme pain, bleeding profusely, Herrera pushes himself into a kneeling position and pours rifle fire at the German position ... pinning down its occupants, who are soon eliminated when Herrera's platoon attacks the position from its flanks.  

Still recovering from his wounds (he tells a doctor at the aid station he is brought to, "Just try to save my knees, Doc."), seated in his wheelchair, on August 23, 1945, Herrera is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman, who tells the injured warrior, "I'd rather be awarded the Medal of Honor than be President of the United States."  

And there will be more honors ... the government of Mexico awards Herrera its Order of Military Merit (First Class) and he becomes the only soldier ever able to wear the highest military honor of both the United States and Mexico, the governor of Arizona orders August 14, 1945 to be "Herrera Day" and the soldier gets a parade welcoming him home (he is the first Arizona Medal of Honor winner), a drive is started to make him a United States citizen (which quickly takes place), Arizona citizens raise $14,000 to provide Herrera and his family with a new home, Valle Del Sol, Inc. honors him with a Special Recognition Award in 1994, and a Hall of Fame award in 1996, also in 1996, he is honored in the United States House of Representatives (on the recommendation of Congressman Ed Pastor), an elementary school in Phoenix bears his name, a portion of 3rd Street in Phoenix is renamed "S. Herrera Way," and the new United States Army Reserve Center in Mesa, Arizona is dedicated in Herrera's honor.  

A hero by any definition of the word, surrounded by family, Herrera dies in his Glendale, Arizona home on November 26, 2007, at the age of 90.

Herrera

Receiving The Medal Of Honor

American Hero

Parade Rest