Book examines unresolved issues in investigation of murder of Mexican cardinal

Mexico City, Mexico, May 26, 2008 / 20:09 pm

“The Truth Will Set You Free. Be Not Afraid. And the Murder of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo?” is the name of a new book by two Mexican lawyers examining unresolved issues related to the investigation into the murder of the archbishop of Guadalajara on May 24, 1993.

Fifteen years after the crime, Fernando Guzman and Jose Antonio Ortega, lawyers for the Archdiocese of Guadalajara, review the events that have occurred surrounding the murder and note that the official account of the cardinal being caught in crossfire was rejected by the Mexican Attorney General himself in 1999 during hearings on the case.

During those hearings, the Attorney General accepted the claim that it was the second round of gunfire that killed the cardinal and that came from a few meters behind his vehicle.

The book also recalls that after his investigation, the Attorney General concluded that Cardinal Posadas “led an exemplary and authentic life in accord with his way of thinking and his Catholic faith, both publicly and privately, and that he was an innocent victim of violence.”

In another chapter the authors assert that the “purpose of the murders was twofold: to deprive him of his life, and of his good name, his honor and his prestige by linking him to drug trafficking.”  They also note that Bishop Luis Reynoso—who many people cited as a supporter of the “crossfire” hypothesis—acknowledged that the death of the cardinal was “direct and intentional.”

The book also documents the unanimous position of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference, which between 2001 and 2005 “sent seven letters to President Vicente Fox asking for an explanation of the murder.”