The federal justice system ordered the Attorney General’s Office to begin an investigation into the alleged torture of Mario Aburto after he was arrested for the killing of Luis Donaldo Colosio on March 23, 1994, in Lomas Taurinas, Tijuana.
In the same sentence where the 45-year prison sentence was invalidated, the First Collegiate Criminal Court of Toluca ordered the opening of an investigation file because, since that year, a judge has ordered an investigation into the scandals and there is no evidence that this is the case.
Since July 2022, the Prosecutor’s Office has started the investigation of Aburto’s torture, based on a recommendation from the National Human Rights Commission issued in October 2021. Therefore, the court warned that, if there is a previous investigation, the authorities must not duplicate their performances.
“It is important to note that if there is currently any previous investigation or investigation folder initiated due to acts of torture reported by the complainant Mario Aburto MartÃnez or Tranquilino Sánchez Venegas, the investigating ministerial authorities (whether federal or local) must provide the necessary not to delay, duplicate, or obstruct the corresponding investigation of torture in its criminal aspect, but, in any case, they must act in terms of collaboration with the aim of speeding up the investigation of the possible criminal act and its possible participants,” he ruled.
In his defense, Aburto requested the cancellation of his 45-year prison sentence due to the torture he suffered. However, the court rejected this specific argument because it was estimated that the restoration of his process from the first judicial case would not provide a greater legal benefit since it would delay his freedom.
In February, lawyers Xavier Carvajal and Marco Antonio Macklis appeared before the FGR delegation in Tijuana to testify as witnesses in the torture investigation.
Both joined Aburto as defenders on the day of his first statement.
Carvajal told the press that this investigation is nothing more than a distraction for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to persecute officials from previous governments because he knows that Aburto confessed in his presence that he was the killer.
For his part, Macklis disclosed that during the interrogation he was asked about Diego Valadés and Manlio Fabio Beltrones, then Attorney General of the Republic and Governor of Sonora, respectively.
In his conference on October 28, 2021, AMLO stated that his government is ready to protect Aburto if he reveals something new about the crime of Colosio.
