On the afternoon of Monday, May 24, 29 years ago, an armed commando broke into the parking lot of the Miguel Hidalgo airport in Guadalajara. The main target of the attack was the passenger of the white Ford Grand Marquis who, according to official investigations, was mistaken for the assassins.
The attack perpetrated by assassins in the service of the Arellano Félix brothers ended the life of Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo and eight other people. Then Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán Loera became known, who for the next 25 years became the most wanted criminal by Mexican justice.
1993 was turbulent. The Old Year would break the EZLN and would ruin the globalizing and transexennial project of Salinism, materialized in the Free Trade Agreement. The Zapatista rebellion, however, was preceded by a wave of violence that spread through the states of the Northwest.
Since then, the criminal gangs —according to the official version— have disputed the territories. The struggles between the Sinaloa Cartel would open the way to the Juárez Cartel and since then the list of capos identified by the DEA and the nicknames —El Azul, Don Neto, El Señor de los Cielos, Los Zetas— would grow, which fed a circumstantial narrative then, although perennial.
Pope John Paul II appointed Juan Sandoval Íñiguez instead of Posadas Ocampo. The cardinal of Yahualica spent 15 years at the head of the archdiocese, which after his retirement is now occupied by Francisco Ortega Robles, who was transferred from Monterrey to the pearl of Guadalajara.
Over the years, Sandoval Íñiguez’s claims about the death of his predecessor have weakened. The case remains open despite a host of special commissions and conspiracy theories that have circulated since then. The only one of those directly involved in the investigations is Rodolfo El Chino León Aragón, who was then in charge of the Federal Judicial Police; the culmination of his political career occurred last year, when he was seeking re-election as mayor of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca; he lost by less than 500 votes with the morenista Daniel Méndez Sosa.
The democratic transition perhaps had a terrible culmination. The Fourth Transformation also ended a stage in cooperation between US and Mexican agencies tasked with combating criminal gangs. His formula to stop the violent spiral inherited from the Calderon administration has given meager results. Since the assassination of Cardinal Posadas Ocampo, five six-year terms have passed. For your clarification, the new Attorney General of the Republic has simply been omitted.
Insecurity and violence have become chronic problems in Mexico. Now others are the most wanted. El Chapo pays in the United States for his criminal career. His story lives its last chapters. This noon, the magistrates of the upper chamber of the Federal Court of Administrative Justice will decide on the appeal filed by the late director of the Altiplano prison, Valentín Cárdenas, against the sanction imposed on him by the Ministry of Public Administration after Guzmán Loera escaped from that maximum security prison in 2014.
SIDE EFFECTS
COLLAPSES. Rental car dealers who oppose the proliferation of taxi services by application planted themselves at the headquarters of the Ministry of Mobility of the capital government and at the entrances to the Benito Juárez International Airport. At the other end of the megacity, the roads around the Pemex Tower were affected by a block of oil workers affiliated with section 35, who demanded permanent employment from employees with temporary contracts. Local authorities identified Felipe Careaga, former manager of the Tula refinery, as the main instigator of the protests.
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Journalist and columnist for El Economista, author of Doña Perpetua: Elba Esther Gordillo’s power and opulence. Elba Esther Gordillo against the SEP.