Catholic World News News Feature
A government conspiracy? January 11, 2002
Follow Up story
Archbishop Juan Sandoval of Guadalajara, Mexico, has issued a public statement indicating his belief that Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo was murdered in 1993 by police forces.
The archbishop's announcement is the latest and most direct contradiction of the Mexican government's official position: that Cardinal Posadas was killed accidentally, by drug traffickers who mistook the prelate for another intended victim.
The cause of Cardinal Posadas' death has been a source of contention between Church officials and government authorities since May 24, 1993, when a group of gunmen approached the cardinal's car at the Guadalajara airport, and fired a volley of shots that killed both the prelate and his driver.
Almost immediately after the murder, the government attributed Posadas' death to an accident, and linked it to the city's burgeoning drug traffic. But in a country whose people have grown accustomed to hearing stories of government corruption, many people were not prepared to accept that explanation. Their skepticism has grown in intervening years, as a parade of top Mexican government officials, past and present, have been accused of involvement in graft, drug traffic, and even political assassination.
The immediate circumstances of the Posadas murder lend credence to conspiracy theories, too. Although dozens of witnesses saw the killing, the gunmen were allowed to walk through the airport unimpeded, and board a flight to Tijuana; in fact, that flight was held up for 20 minutes, and left only when the gunmen boarded. The trip to Tijuana took two hours, and yet when the flight landed there were no law-enforcement authorities waiting to arrest the suspects. Instead, they climbed into a waiting car and disappeared.
"Everybody knows Cardinal Posadas was not confused but murdered on purpose," Archbishop Sandoval said in February. "There were many taxi drivers, workers, and passengers at the airport the day of the murder, who saw everything and who have talked."
Indeed, according to many different witnesses, the cardinal was murdered by policemen who had arrived at the airport 10 hours before their victim. "They were expecting him" the archbishop said. "When Cardinal Posadas arrived to the airport (to pick up the papal nuncio, Bishop Girolamo Prigione), the policemen were using walkie-talkies. They had large weapons, identification plates and caps. Finally, Archbishop Sandoval added, after killing the cardinal the assailants tried to distract potential witnesses by an "uncontrolling rage of shooting."
Aside from eyewitness testimony, the archbishop pointed out that he also bases his belief on the results of an autopsy. According to the coroner's report, Cardinal Posadas was victim of a direct assassination. The cardinal's corpse showed that he was shot directly, and repeatedly, from a distance of only a few feet. The gunman certainly would have been able to identify his victim.
Archbishop Sandoval is not the only Mexican who rejects the government's "confusion" theory. Several other political leaders have pointed out that on the day of his death, Cardinal Posadas was wearing his clerical clothes, with a large pectoral cross on his chest. It is highly unlikely that a gunman would have mistaken a man in those clothes for a drug merchant.
Why would someone kill a Catholic cardinal? Cardinal Posadas had spoken out forcefully against the drug traffic that was steadily transforming his city. So the "narcos" may indeed have appointed his assassins. Some Mexicans theorize that the prelate had uncovered some other, deeper conspiracies. But whatever the reason for his death, Catholic leaders in Guadalajara are adamant: Cardinal Posadas did not die by accident.
- Alejandro Bermudez