Mario Aburto Martínez, sentenced to 45 years in prison for the 1994 murder of the PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, On Monday, he obtained an amparo ruling in his favor against the Attorney General of the Republic (FGR), an institution that has allegedly failed to investigate various acts of torture that the detainee would have suffered.
Judge Antonio Gonzalez Garcia, head of the Second District Court of Amparo in Criminal Matters of Mexico City, partially granted the amparo to Mario Aburto, in a trial promoted since 2022 by lawyers from the Federal Institute of Public Defenders (IFDP), an organization that is part of the Council of the Federal Judiciary.
In the public resolution of the file, to which he had access HIGH LEVEL, the togado only detailed that the amparo trial was partially dismissed (concluded without analyzing the merits), although At the same time, the amparo was granted against some of the omissive acts of the FGR.
Specifically, Mario Aburto, now 52 years old, claimed in his lawsuit that he had suffered violations of due process and torture, grievances that the Prosecutor’s Office had refused to investigate despite the fact that, since October 2021, the National Human Rights Commission ( CNDH) issued a recommendation to the FGR to investigate the allegations made by the prisoner.
Reopening of the Colosio case
Because in this trial the suspension of the omissions claimed by Aburto Martínez had been granted, in April 2022 the Prosecutor’s Office created a Special Investigation and Litigation Team for the case of Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, although this body has always denied before Judge González García that the sentenced person suffered torture.
However, the judge had already ordered the FGR to prove this refusal, because “when they are dealt with (sic) of omissions, the responsible authority has the burden of proof to demonstrate” that the acts claimed did not occur.
In this vein, last month the Prosecutor’s Office questioned the lawyers who witnessed the first testimonies of today’s prisoner, minutes after the events that occurred on March 23, 1994.
“I was present there and I give you my word as a gentleman that I never noticed an act of torture that had occurred against the person of Mario Aburto, I never noticed, I would not have allowed it,” said Marco Antonio Macklis Mercado in an interview with HIGH LEVEL.
Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, 44 years old in 1994, was deprived of his life after being shot twice, one of them to the head, when -as the presidential standard-bearer of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)- he had concluded a rally of Campaign.
The crime left her two children, then 1 and 8 years old, orphaned. The eldest of his offspring, Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas, today he is mayor of Monterrey.
Way to freedom
The protection that Mario Aburto obtains today is part of a strategy undertaken by public defenders who, together with the CNDH, are trying to free the murderer based on the numerous irregularities that occurred in the investigation of this case.
Despite the fact that Aburto Martínez acknowledged on several occasions that he activated the weapon that deprived Colosio of his life, due to the torture he alleges to have suffered, he tries to reverse his sentence. In fact, against the sentence of 45 years in prison, he maintains another request for amparo in the First Collegiate Court in criminal matters of the State of Mexico.
Recognition of the crime of homicide is one of the elements that is sought to be excluded, once the torture that he claims to have suffered is proven.
In this regard, in 2022, Salvador Leyva, technical secretary for Combating Torture of the Federal Institute of Public Defenders, who headed the team of public defenders representing Mario Aburto, pointed out that the objective of these demands was to obtain the release of the sentenced person. .
“If these violations lead to freedom, then of course that is what we are looking for”, Leiva said.
After being sentenced, both Mario Aburto and his family have maintained that he is not the true murderer of Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta. The sentenced man argues that he admitted his responsibility for the crime because he suffered torture and threats.
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surya palaces Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal analysis and human rights. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.
