Assassin’s Sentence Stands; Others Freed

A federal judge in Mexico City has upheld a 50-year prison sentence for the man convicted of murdering Mexico’s governing party leader. Francisco Ruiz Massieu, secretary-general of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, was gunned down on a Mexico City street in 1994. In 1995 the gunman, Daniel Aguilar Trevino, and several accomplices were convicted. On Thursday, a judge upheld the 50-year sentence for Trevino, but reduced the sentences of three accomplices and absolved four others. The sentences of Fernando Rodriguez Gonzalez, Jorge Rodriguez Gonzalez and Carlos Angel Cantu were reduced from 50 years to 37 1/2 years each. Absolved and ordered released from prison were Roberto Angel Ramirez Arauz, Maria Eugenia Ramirez Arauz, Jesus Sanchez and Jose Pascual Alvarez. Raul Salinas de Gortari--the brother of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari--was jailed in February 1995 on suspicion of masterminding the assassination plot, but his role in the murder has yet to be determined.