Narcotics Link in Colosio’s Death Dismissed

The attorney general’s office Thursday played down allegations by a former justice official that the assassination of a presidential candidate in March may have been entangled in a web of drugs and politics.

In a statement responding to testimony given by Eduardo Valle Espinosa to Mexican authorities last month at a closed-door hearing in Washington, the office of Atty. Gen. Humberto Benitez Trevino said Valle had provided no proof of his key allegations.

Valle, formerly a senior aide in the attorney general’s office, has said he has evidence that local drug lords tied to Colombia’s Cali cartel have infiltrated the upper reaches of Mexican politics and may have masterminded the killing of ruling party candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio.

He said there is a “concrete possibility” that officials being paid by Mexican cocaine kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego helped plan and carry out the assassination.

The attorney general’s office stated Thursday that Valle “said there were several grave deficiencies in the security organization of the candidate Colosio, without providing any proof that would back his allegations or show any responsibility of the citizens he has mentioned.”