Cover-Up Rumors Buzz in Slaying

Almost a month after the slaying of a well-known columnist, a controversy is raging here about whether authorities have mounted a cover-up designed to protect those allegedly behind the slaying.

The dispute has caused divisions in the scrappy journalistic community here, and has also fanned political opposition to the ruling party.

The news media here have become forums for widely differing points of view, as paid notices commending the government’s investigation have appeared along with articles questioning authorities’ zeal to pursue the matter.

Powerful Interests

Behind the controversy are rumors that officials may be protecting powerful interests who, the theory goes, ordered the slaying of Hector (Gato) Felix Miranda, columnist and co-editor of the maverick weekly Zeta, who was slain as he drove to work on April 20. Felix’s barbed column specialized in lampooning the rich and powerful. Officials deny any cover-up.

Authorities have named two principal suspects--Victoriano Medina Moreno, a 37-year-old ex-security guard at Caliente Racetrack and former Baja California Judicial Police officer, and Antonio Vera Palestina, 35, ex-security chief at Caliente and one-time police officer in Mexico City, who remains a fugitive.

A third man, also a former race track guard, is being sought in connection with the case, although his alleged role is unclear.

Medina, the alleged trigger man, is in custody here pending trial. He has renounced a confession in which he acknowledged his role in the slaying.

Authorities say that all evidence thus far indicates that the two are both the “material” killers and “intellectual authors” of the murder. The two men were motivated by negative items Felix had written about one or both of them, police say. However, journalists here can recall no instance in which the acid-tongued columnist mentioned either man’s names.

Authorities Pressed

Critics say the government is wary to delve beyond the material killers. But officials caution that the case is not closed, and that they are willing to pursue any new leads that develop.

“If any person presents us evidence indicating that there is another intellectual author of the crime, we will certainly investigate,” said Miguel Angel Torres, chief spokesman for the Baja California governor’s office. But such evidence has not arisen, Torres said.

Nonetheless, many journalists and others say there is ample evidence to indicate that the crime’s mastermind may still be free. Many have pressed authorities to question Jorge Hank Rhon, president of Caliente Racetrack and a frequent target of the slain columnist. Hank, whose father, Carlos Hank Gonzalez, is a former mayor of Mexico City and is counted among Mexico’s power elite, has denied any role in the slaying.

Others are not convinced.

Since Felix’s murder, Zeta, the newspaper where his satirical column appeared, has published a half-page question directed at Hank: “Why did one of your bodyguards kill me?” asks the the copy, which is “signed” by the dead columnist.

On the other half of the page, the columnist continues to speak, from beyond the grave as it were, posing another question for Baja California Gov. Xicotencatl Leyva Mortera. “Who ordered my murder?” the dead journalist wants to know.

Another newspaper, Novedades de Baja California, based in Mexicali, has run a daily front-page reminder of the murder, quoting the state police chief’s oft-repeated comment that he would never be satisfied with only the “material” killers. “Who ordered the killing of El Gato?” the newspaper asks pointedly each morning, using the columnist’s well-known nickname.

Watchdog Group

Meanwhile, a group of journalists is planning on publishing a letter to Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid this week, imploring authorities to press the investigation and seek the true mastermind.

“We do feel that there was another intellectual author of the crime,” said Gilberto Lavenant, a lawyer and columnist here, who noted a lack of motive by the suspects, among other inconsistencies in the official account.

“If they had no personal reasons to commit this crime,” Lavenant said, “then it’s obvious that they received orders from someone else.”