Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas, a senator from the Citizen Movement, has requested President Claudia Sheinbaum to consider a pardon for Mario Aburto, the confessed assassin of his father, Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, in 1994 during a campaign event in Tijuana. The proposal, put forward in an interview on the program 'Café Milenio,' aims — according to the legislator — to bring a definitive closure to one of the most emblematic cases in recent Mexican political history. Colosio Riojas explained that his request is not intended to reopen the case or generate a new controversy, but to prevent the assassination from continuing to be used for political purposes. 'It has been a very much-handled case,' he stated when referring to the treatment that different governments have given to the 1994 assassination. The senator considered that, more than three decades after the events, the country needs to move towards a stage of institutional closure and social reconciliation. Presidential Pardon, a Faculty of the Executive Branch According to the Mexican legal framework, the head of the Executive Branch has the power to grant pardons in specific cases. In this sense, the legislator proposed that President Claudia Sheinbaum could exercise this authority exceptionally in the case of Mario Aburto, who was sentenced for the homicide that occurred in Baja California. Additionally, he suggested that if the pardon is carried out, the possibility of Aburto leaving the country be considered as part of a measure to close the episode. Historical Debate and Political Use of the Case The assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, which occurred on March 23, 1994, marked a turning point in the country's political life and has been the subject of multiple interpretations, investigations, and controversies over the years. Colosio Riojas maintained that prolonging the debate on this case does not contribute to solving current problems of insecurity and justice in Mexico. Instead, he considered it necessary to focus efforts on addressing the violence that currently affects the population. The senator's request once again places the scope of the presidential pardon and the treatment of historical cases in Mexico at the center of the debate. Meanwhile, any eventual decision would rest with the federal Executive Branch, in a context where the country faces new challenges in terms of security and justice.
