Cardinal Sandoval warns “Popeye” could be manipulated to plead guilty

Mexico City, Mexico, Jan 30, 2008 / 09:26 am

Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara expressed his concern this week that officials charged with investigating the murder of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas, could warp statements by Alfredo Araujo Avila, known as “Popeye,” to make him plead guilty for the crime.

Cardinal Iniguez said news reports “seem to be aimed at warping statements by Araujo to make it appear he is confessing to killing Cardinal Posadas because he confused him with Chapo Guzman, something that is totally absurd.”  He pointed out that the theory that Cardinal Posadas was murdered amidst a gun battle between drug traffickers has been completely discredited.

The cardinal stressed that the capture of Araujo is important not because he was necessarily the person responsible for the murder but because “he knows, because he was there.”  Each time a drug trafficker is detained, he went on, the press links him to the Posadas case “and they say he was the one who killed him.  They have about three dozen drug lords they have made guilty of the Posadas case,” he said.

Cardinal Posadas died on May 24, 1993 at the Guadalajara International Airport after being shot 16 times. His chauffer, Pedro Perez Hernandez, was shot 10 times, and the car they were in took over 52 bullets.