01x01 - Episode 1

[bunniefuu]

CARLOS SALINAS DE GORTARI:
The PRI lives on,

and it will continue

to demonstrate this
in elections.

-Long live the PRI!
-[CROWD CHEERING]

-Long live Mexico!
-[CROWD CHEERING]

DORA ELENA CORTÉS JUÁREZ:
The Institutional

Revolutionary Party
was the hegemonic party.

It had been governing
for 65 years

-in different stages since 1929.
-♪ [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

LUIS DONALDO COLOSIO MURRIETA:
That women and men

with whom I share ideals

have decided to propose me
as the candidate

of the Institutional
Revolutionary Party

is, for me, the highest honor.

Luis Donaldo
was the hope of Mexico.

He was the one
who was meant to be destined

to become president of Mexico.

LUIS: To do it
with the enthusiasm

of a party man,

my candidacy for the presidency
of the Republic.

[CROWD CHEERING]

Colosio's ideals
were very transparent.

He was an atypical politician.

LAURA ELENA COLOSIO MURRIETA:
He wanted to renew

this official party.

He wanted there
to be a separation.

[CROWD APPLAUDING]

Colosio was uncomfortable
for all the PRI groups.

-[CROWD CHEERING]
-♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

-[g*nsh*t]
-[CROWD CLAMORING]

There is a breaking point

of before and after
the assassination of Colosio.

It changed
Mexico's contemporary history.

CROWD: Who was it? Who was it?

CARLOS: In politics
there are no coincidences.

Too many interests
converged here.

MARIO ABURTO MARTÍNEZ:
At no moment was it my intention

to harm the candidate.

Not that serious.

He is called
the confessed m*rder*r,

but under what conditions?

Mario Aburto should be free.

Now, is when
one has to show the entire world

who the Aburto family is

and that Mario Aburto
is innocent.

LAURA SANCHEZ LEY:
The declassification process

was hell.

After years and years of hearing
the historical truth,

I realize that there was a story
beyond the official truth.

MEXICAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL 1:
Who asked you to do it?

MARIO: I'm sorry,
I won't be able to say that.

RAMÓN GARZA: It was clear
that some of the cartels

that were operating strongly
at that time

were not in agreement
with his candidacy.

I have always calculated
that it was a plot.

GUSTAVO SALAZAR FERNÁNDEZ:
I would ask,

why are they interested

in everyone who was alive
back then already being dead?

I don't know.

LAURA: There is a twist

in the history
of the Colosio case.

Some gaps really begin to open.

LOPEZ OBRADOR:
Here it was proven

that there was a second sh**ter.

That second individual
was from CISEN.

This man was wearing a jacket
completely stained with blood.

DORA: And in addition,

with signs
of having fired a firearm,

that already made him
a candidate to be a suspect.

And he was always protected.

The Attorney General
of the Republic

arrested 31 years later,

an agent
of the now-defunct CISEN.

LAURA: For me,
Jorge Antonio Sánchez Ortega

was always a loose end.

♪ [THEME MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

COLOSIO: POLITICAL ASSASSINATION

♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪

Expectation in Mexico,

given the possibility
that Mario Aburto,

the confessed assassin

of presidential candidate
Luis Donaldo Colosio,

may be released.

Let us remember that the crime
in question occurred in 1994.

Osorio, good afternoon.

FEMALE REPORTER 1:
That's right, Octavio,

the Supreme Court of Justice
of Mexico

defines today the future
of Mario Aburto Martínez.

Mario Aburto is accused of being
the sole confessed assassin

of the m*rder of the then
candidate of the official party,

Luis Donaldo Colosio,
a crime that occurred in 1994.

♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

JESÚS GONZALEZ SCHMAL:
I take the Mario Aburto case

to account
for a human rights violation.

Mario Aburto should be free.

As of March 24, 2024,

he fulfilled
the maximum sentence

established in the penal law
of the state of Baja California,

where the events occurred,
which was 30 years.

The federal law
was improperly applied to him,

which punishes the same crime
of aggravated homicide

with 45 years.

Thus, here there
is a prolonged injustice

with a deprivation of liberty
that he does not deserve.

Not only is he a victim,

the family
that is in the United States

has suffered that same t*rture
for 33 years,

perhaps more than Mario himself.

♪ [CALM MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

JOSÉ LUIS ABURTO MARTÍNEZ:
We have remained silent
for a long time.

And I think that now is when
one has to show the entire world

who the Aburto family is

and that
Mario Aburto is innocent.

♪ [DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

JOSÉ: We cannot visit Mario
in Mexico for the reasons...

that they could take our lives,
they could k*ll us.

We decided that we could
no longer be in Mexico

because our lives
were in danger.

We had to do something.

And we decided
to come and cross over here,

to the United States,
and request political asylum.

MALE REPORTER 1: Among those
who crossed illegally

this weekend were María Luisa,

the mother of Mario Aburto,
who is imprisoned in Altiplano,

and another of her sons,
José Luis, 19,

who was accompanied by his wife.

JOSÉ: When the assassination

of Luis Donaldo Colosio
occurred,

the Office of the Attorney
General of the Republic

did not stop harassing us.

They threw bottles of whatever
they were drinking at us,

they threw stones at us,
they broke our windows.

After two or three months,
they became careless,

and at that moment,
we ran out of the house.

We even left the door open.
We ran out.

We went to the boulevard
to stop anyone to ask them

as a favor to help us,

to take us out,
toward the border.

And, well, thank God,
a taxi passed by. We stopped it.

And when we got in,

they quickly loaded up
into the trucks.

[SIREN WAILING]

JOSÉ: They turned on the siren

and came close to us,
telling the taxi to stop.

I told him,
"No, we are such-and-such,

if you stop the taxi
they are going to k*ll us."

"Head to the border."
"But I have to stop."

"No, go, they will k*ll you too.
Let's go."

We arrived at the border,
and at the border

we opened the door
and got out running.

They jumped the metal fence,
the mesh that divides Mexico

from the United States,
one by one,

and when they set foot
on North American territory,

the Border Patrol arrived
and they identified themselves.

There is a series,
a photographic sequence

that captured
that entire moment.

♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪

ADRIANA MIRANDA BADILLO:
The family leaves

because everything
was very heated.

They can come back now
but they're still very afraid

that something
might happen to them.

It is the fear
of the politicians of that time,

that someone may come
to seek revenge on them.

♪ [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

LAURA:
My name is Laura Sánchez Ley,

I am a journalist,
I have been active for 16 years,

13 of which I have spent
investigating the Colosio case.

And I came to the Colosio case

because I covered the police
beat in a neighborhood

called Lomas Taurinas,
in Tijuana,

which was the sad place

where Luis Donaldo Colosio
was assassinated

on March 23, 1994.

Although the media world told us

that everything
had already been told,

it was not true.

I realized that there
was a story beyond that

and tried to locate
Mario Aburto's family,

and I began to search

in the Yellow Pages
in California.

And well, finally,
after calling all the Aburtos

that I found
in the Yellow Pages,

I finally got in touch
with the Aburto Martínez family.

That morning,
I remember it perfectly,

Mr. Rubén Aburto answered me,
Mario Aburto's father,

who confirmed that it was them.

It was really difficult
to try to talk to him.

He was a very angry man,
full of rage,

who did not want to have
any contact with the press.

[SIGHS] The press--

There is good press
and bad press, like everything.

♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

JOSÉ: And the press
twists our versions.

They put what they want.

LAURA: I remember perfectly

something that Mr. Rubén
told me.

He said that
he did not want to speak

with anyone from the press

and that he would
only speak with me

because I had worn-out shoes.

It seems to me that
one of the most beautiful things

the family did was to entrust me
with their greatest secret.

♪ [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

LAURA: And that was that
throughout all these years

the Aburto family has been
recording the communications

they have from prison

with Mario,
from all the prisons.

They, as a counter-response
to the government, said one day,

if the government
is recording us,

is intercepting our calls,

and cutting off
our communication,

we are going
to start recording them.

MARIO: I tell them
that they are violating

the Constitution

and they say, "Well, you are
in a prison," they tell me--

RUBEN ABURTO CORTEZ:
They tell me it's true.

MARIO: My time is up now, Dad.

Next Saturday I'll call you.

RUBEN:
I love you very much, son.

MARIO: Yes.
And you keep recording me, okay?

-RUBEN: Yes, that's fine.
-MARIO: Bye. I love you.

-Bye.
-RUBEN: Bye.

These tapes allowed us
to get to know Mario,

who, in each audio, tries
to demonstrate his own truth.

MARIO: Yes, please tell me.

LAURA: Mario, look,
we have very little time.

What I want to do
is write something this week.

Mario, are you innocent?

Did you do it? Or did you not?

MARIO: I am innocent
and I did not do it.

LAURA: That was the first call
I had with Mario.

He tells me that a lot of time
had already passed,

that men also cry,
and he begins to cry,

his voice starts to break
and he tells me

that he can't take it anymore,
and that he can't endure it.

He had practically
already lost his eyesight,

he could see very little.

In fact, Mario looks much older
than his actual age.

He looks like a man
practically entering old age.

MARIO:
They made me the scapegoat

because they knew that
since I was innocent,

they would never
prove anything against me.

And so they took advantage
of the situation

to cover their tracks.

He feels that
he had the bad luck

of going to the wrong place
at the wrong time.

♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

LAURA: On the morning
of March 23, 1994,

Mario wakes up very early.

It was March, nights are cold
and very dark in Tijuana.

-[WATER BUBBLING]
-♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪

LAURA: Since he was a child,
Mario was always described

as a person who liked
to be well dressed,

well groomed, well combed.

♪ [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

LAURA: Mario Aburto
is the second of six siblings.

There are four boys
and two girls.

He used to tell me,

you have to study
to be someone in life.

For me he was like my father.
He gave me very good advice.

He always wanted
the best for us.

He was always
a very withdrawn child.

He really was a child
who didn't talk,

who didn't like to chat
with classmates

in the classroom,

and who always
took refuge in drawing.

They also tell us that
he was a very bullied child.

They say they called him
"The ab*rtion."

ATAHUALPA GARIBAY REYES:
Mario Aburto's family

is originally from Michoacán,

and the father and mother
decide to move to Tijuana.

♪ [GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

ATAHUALPA:
The Buenos Aires neighborhood

was a completely rural area,

with no roads, no services.

[DOG BARKING]

They bought a plot of land,

and built a house,
well, a little cabin.

I think seven or eight people
lived there.

JOVANNY RIVERA HUERTA:
It was an ordinary,

everyday family like any other.

From what I saw of Mario,
he was a hardworking person,

quiet, who greeted the kids

who were playing
there in the street.

He started working

at several maquiladoras
in the city

where he earned


Imagine what that was
at that time and now, right?

So, the decision is made
for Mario Aburto

to go to the United States

with his older brother
and with his father, Don Rubén.

♪ [HOPEFUL MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

LAURA: The situation
in the United States

was extremely favorable,
he made wooden furniture,

where he came to earn


Well, it was a paradise
for a person who had lived

in precarious conditions
his entire life.

So, he begins to form groups
of Mexican-American friends,

his life really changes.

It seems to me
that he begins to live

the life
of a 20-year-old young man

that never had the opportunity
to live in Tijuana.

♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪

Then my father told him,
"Mario, can you go back

so you can take care
of your little brothers?

Because they are alone there."

LAURA:
When he returns to Tijuana,

the conditions
are extremely precarious

and he falls back
into a very deep depression.

Well, imagine coming
from the United States

to work again for 300,


It really becomes
a complex situation,

which causes him
to constantly change jobs.

Until he finally ends up,

a few months
before March 23, 1994,

at a company
called Cameros Magnéticos,

-where they made cassette tapes.
-♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

LAURA:
That very cold morning of '94.

From there he walks a few blocks
until he reaches the bus stop

that will him
to Cameros Magnéticos in Otay.

He was a very withdrawn man,
who did not like to talk much.

He really interacted
very little.

He arrives on the bus

from the Buenos Aires
neighborhood...

and clocks in at 5:54 a.m.

where he begins his workday
as a machine operator.

There we have
several testimonies

from people who worked
at Cameros Magnéticos

with Mario Aburto,

who said that between 10:30
and 11:00 in the morning

they see him leave his work area
to go into the cafeteria

that was located
on the upper floor

of the maquiladora.

He talked
about the usual things,

he talked about sports, they say

that he particularly liked
to talk about soccer,

he liked to talk about politics,

they even nicknamed him
"The politician."

Everything goes on
in total normality,

although his coworkers
do report something,

and that is
that in the cafeteria

they see him a bit nervous,

more apprehensive
and a little more withdrawn.

They also see him eager

to leave that workday
more quickly.

Well, during the investigation
another coworker of Mario Aburto

is also interviewed, who attests
that he saw how on the calendar

from March 15th
to March 24th, 1994,

Mario Aburto had
the 23rd and 24th marked.

He leaves Cameros Magnéticos
and from there he takes the bus

that takes him
directly to Lomas Taurinas.

LAURA: We have another testimony
from a coworker of Mario Aburto

from the maquiladora.

He attests
that Mario allegedly told him,

"Today is the day
I am going to become famous."

Finally, Mario Aburto arrives
from downtown Tijuana...

[MARIO BREATHING HEAVILY]

...goes down a steep ramp
and crosses a sewage canal.

[MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY
OVER SPEAKER]

♪ [FESTIVE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

ATAHUALPA:
People were arriving on foot

and with all the people,
the crowd,

there was a lot of heat.
It was very tense.

-[CROWD CHEERING]
-LUIS: ...in presence of...

ATAHUALPA: The sound system
that was hired to entertain,

to set the mood,
was already very loud.

-LUIS: Long live Tijuana!
-[CROWD CHEERING]

LAURA:
Mario Aburto positions himself

in front
of the television cameras

that were already installed
at a completely packed rally...

-♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪
-...and below the platform

where Luis Donaldo Colosio
would give his speech.

[CROWD CHANTING]

LUIS:
...that responds to the needs

of more and better
opportunities for everyone,

but above all
for those who have the least.

He finishes a little
after 5:00 in the afternoon,

he walks through the crowd

that really
does not let him pass.

And it is here where

Mario Aburto
finally positions himself

exactly next to the candidate.

♪ [MUSIC INTENSIFIES] ♪

[g*nsh*t]

[g*nsh*t]

MALE POLICE OFFICER 1:
The candidate

was shot in the head.

FEMALE POLICE OFFICER 1:
Copy that, copy that.

[CROWD CLAMORING]

PEDRO SERRANO GANDARA:
I receive the request

for support via radio frequency,

where they tell us,
"Come to Lomas Taurinas

because g*nshots
are being heard."

And when I arrive at the scene,

I see many people
agitated, stirred up.

It was total confusion.
You could hear screams, crying.

[CROWD SCREAMING, SOBBING]

ATAHUALPA: They started to say

that the candidate
had been hit...

that a stone
had been thrown at him.

So, right there,
my reporter's instinct told me

that this was not
something normal.

[CROWD CLAMORING]

♪ [TENSE MUSIC CONTINUES] ♪

PEDRO: In the tumult I see
that they are bringing a person,

a civilian...

completely bloodied,
his face covered in blood,

and they were holding him
bent over by the head.

[CROWD CLAMORING]

I saw them take him away,
that I did see.

[POLICE SIREN WAILING]

Colosio is taken out
in a civilian vehicle.

But he was in serious condition,
literally mortally wounded.

-[AMBULANCE SIREN WAILING]
-♪ [DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

NORMA MERAZ DOMÍNGUEZ:
Hmm, Diana Laura, his wife,

arrives 20 minutes
after Luis Donaldo had arrived.

We go directly
into the operating room area

and the doctor who accompanied
Luis Donaldo, Dr. Castorena,

approaches Diana and says,

"We are doing everything we can.

There are surgeons,
they are specialized,

everything is being
taken care of."

[CROWD CLAMORING]

ATAHUALPA: I believe
there were about 80 of us

in an emergency area.
The space was very limited

and there was
a lot of speculation,

many conjectures,
information was not flowing.

JOVANNY:
The official reports say that

Luis Donaldo Colosio
was shot in the head

and that afterward
he was shot in the abdomen.

-[CROWD CLAMORING]
-♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪

There was a lot of tension
because outside the hospital,

on the stairways,

many followers
of Colosio and of the PRI...

began to arrive and started
shouting slogans calling to go

and attack the government center

where Ernesto Ruffo
had his office.

-SUPPORTER 1: Let us in!
-SUPPORTER 2: Let's go!

Let us in, come on! Let us in!

If not, we will break the glass!

ERNESTO RUFFO APPEL:
In some way,

being a governor prepares you
for a series of situations.

I faced the situation
as best I could.

In my judgment,

based on the popular reactions
that I sometimes witnessed,

it did not seem strange to me

that the people who were there,
who were from the PRI,

would start
shouting slogans against me.

The PRI members

were already blaming
the PAN government

for the attack
on Luis Donaldo Colosio.

They still did not know
whether he was alive or dead.

MALE REPORTER 2:
Silence! Silence!

[CROWD CLAMORING]

After being locked in there
for a long time,

the doctor comes in
and says to her,

"Ma'am, would you
like to accompany me

to the operating room?"

At that moment we knew...

what was the outcome.

Members of the media...

with deep sorrow...

I must inform you that,
despite the efforts...

that were made...

Mr. Luis Donaldo Colosio,

candidate of the Institutional
Revolutionary Party

for the presidency
of the Republic...

-has passed away.
-[CROWD GROANING]

♪ [SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

[SOBBING] Why?
When there is a young man

who's going to help us
with this cleanup,

they take him away from us. God!

Diana Laura returns...

her pearl-colored suit
stained with blood.

And she tells me,
she breaks down,

and she tells me,

"This wasn't supposed
to be like this."

And she grabbed me
by the shoulders,

shook me, and said,

"This wasn't supposed
to be like this.

I was supposed to go first."

Because of the illness
she suffered from,

which was pancreatic cancer.

"And now,
what am I going to tell my son?"

[STAMMERING] And she cried.

Well, it was anguish,
it was such deep pain

that perhaps that was
a stab wound for her, right?

Right?

Because her husband
was more than her husband.

He was her friend,
her confidant,

her partner,
the love of her life.

He was the father of her son.

He-- he was all of that.

And he was gone.

♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪

JOSÉ: I found out
because I was working

at a company
in the same city of Tijuana.

One of the supervisors
came running and told me,

"Hey, there's someone who has
the same last name as you.

He's on television."

He told me, "Well,
they shot the candidate

and-- and they're blaming him."

When I finally saw it,
I couldn't believe it.

And seeing your brother
bleeding like that,

it's something horrible.

I thought, I said,
"They're going to k*ll him."

It went through my head, I said,
"They're going to k*ll him."

[SIREN WAILING IN DISTANCE]

♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

-♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪
-[TYPEWRITER CLACKING]

MEXICAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL 2:
How long did you prepare
to harm the candidate?

[DOOR CREAKING]

MEXICAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL 2:
He didn't answer the question.

MARIO: You will handle this
how you want.

MEXICAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL 2:
I am asking you,
the lawyers are present here.

XAVIER CARVAJAL MACHADO:
In the year 1994,

I served as the lawyer
of the person

who had attacked
candidate Colosio.

-[TYPEWRITER CLACKING]
-[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

XAVIER: It was a request
from the Office

of the Attorney General
of the Republic,

which saw the need
for there to be a person,

at the moment
the alleged attacker

of Colosio was going to testify,
a person who would be credible.

Throughout
the entire proceeding,

Aburto remained reluctant...

-[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
-...to testify, head down.

-MARIO: I won't talk.
-MEXICAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL 3:
What's wrong?

XAVIER: Then we see the news

through a television
we had to the left,

at the time
of the candidate's death.

-[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
-♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

XAVIER: And I take
the young man Mario Aburto,

I put him against the wall
and I told him...

"He's dead.

If you k*lled him,

declare whatever you have to say
in your defense,

whatever you can say
to defend yourself."

And I remember very well
how his chin trembled,

it trembled and then
his entire face trembled,

all of his eyes,
he couldn't believe it.

Until he buried his chin
into his chest.

♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪

That night felt very long to me,
very eternal,

and I really couldn't sleep
because I was worried.

And Suburbans
started to come out,

the government already pointing
high-caliber r*fles at me,

that otherwise
they would sh**t me.

telling me not to move,

that otherwise
they would sh**t me.

♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

So, I raised my hands.
"What happened?"

They started beating me.

Until we arrived at the Office
of the Attorney General
of the Republic.

And they took me down
to the basement

they had there in Tijuana.

When I finally saw him,
I couldn't believe it.

My brother was badly beaten
and had a blow to the head.

And besides that,
he was just like this.

As if he were gone in the mind,
I mean, from the blows,

or they had given him something
to drug him,

or they gave him something.

Because no, no, no,
he wasn't even blinking.

No, no, that's how he was,
just like that.

MARIO: They drugged me.

They were intimidating me,
and they tortured me.

ADRIANA:
They were constantly giving him

a liquid that he says
was not alcohol,

it wasn't, but he knew

that it kept him dizzy
and semi-conscious.

There are two testimonies
that corroborate this version

that he was not treated properly
at the facilities

of the Attorney
General's Office in Tijuana.

One of them is that
of José Luis Pérez Canchola,

who at the time
was the Human Rights Prosecutor

of the state, who recounts

that when he arrived
at the facilities he realized

that Mario Aburto was being
transported on a mattress.

That statement would later

also be given by
his then lawyer,
Xavier Carvajal.

I feel that
they were protecting him.

That if they wanted anything,

it was that nothing
should happen to him.

Because for this incident,

I also thought
it was extremely important

for the truth to be known,

what had happened,
who k*lled him.

It was clearly a terrible
and horrible violation

of his human rights

to transport someone
wrapped in a mattress or foam

so that someone else
would not k*ll him.

It seems ridiculous to me.

He belongs
to the Tijuana Bar Association,

an association
affiliated with the PRI.

They cover for each other,

and obviously
they were not gonna say

that they took him out
to the beach

wrapped in a mat
to beat him with sticks

so that no marks would show,

but they held his head
and hit him on the ears

so as not to leave marks.

They told him,
"Look, in that truck.

Do you hear that sound inside?

Your mother is in there,
they are torturing her there,"

and they were hitting him.
"Confess already, confess."

MARIO: And they told me
that they were also torturing

my mother
and my eight-year-old
little sister.

And they showed me
naked photographs of them.

And they said
they were going to r*pe them

and then
they were going to k*ll them.

They put us in a room
when they took us

to the Attorney General's
Office.

They stripped us naked,
and my daughter was very little,

she was about eight years old.
So, she said, "No, no."

I didn't want them

to take my daughter's
clothes off, right?

Because she was little,
it embarrassed her, right?

And they told us, "If you
don't take your clothes off,

we are going
to k*ll you right here."

So, we took our clothes off
and they were mocking us.

Someone had a camera
and was taking photos.

♪ [POIGNANT MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

JOSÉ: They took me down
to the basement

and started torturing me.

Very horrible tortures.

Beatings, Tehuacán water
with chili through the nose,

electric shocks
to my private parts.

[ELECTRIC WHIRRING]

A bag over my head,
blows to the stomach.

They laid me down,

put a towel on me
and poured water on my face.

And other things

that cannot be told
because it would be shameful.

They hurt me a lot.

I thought
they were going to k*ll me.

ADRIANA: And Mario says,
"No, no, no.

Do it to me,
but not to my family."

Until he ended up confessing.

MARIO: At no time
was it my intention

to harm the candidate.
At no time.

That serious, right?
A slight injury and...

Only to injure the candidate,
nothing more.

And so that
the press would film me

and I could say on camera
that what I had done

was precisely to prevent
acts of warfare in Mexico.

ADRIANA: Yes, he is called
the confessed assassin,

but, under what conditions?

XAVIER: I find it very difficult

to believe
that Mario Aburto was tortured.

At least in my presence,
he was not mistreated.

MARIO: When he was in Tijuana,

the governor of Sonora,
Mario Fabio Beltrones,

together with agents

of the Office of the Attorney
General of the Republic,

began to t*rture me.

He would have been tortured
by Manlio Fabio Beltrones,

one of the most prominent
politicians of the PRI.

♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

I didn't lack the desire...
but I didn't do it.

-And he knows that,
and everyone knows it.
-And why do you say that?

I mean,
I didn't lack the desire, huh?

Imagine what I wouldn't
have wanted to do to him.

I think all of Mexico
wanted to do it...

but it is a big lie.

He was in Tijuana,

he was in the Office
of the Attorney General

of the Republic in Tijuana.

MANLIO FABIO BELTRONES RIVERA:
I only saw him

before they transferred him
to Mexico,

and to certify
what Diana Laura asked of me...

that he was alive.

[CROWD APPLAUDING]

NORMA: When Diana Laura arrives

at the cemetery,
at the Magdalena Cemetery...

PRIEST: Let's ask the Lord...

...she delivers a speech...

that was more like a letter.

It was...

a piece of oratory...

and it was a funeral prayer.

The b*ll*ts of hatred,
resentment, and cowardice,

cut short
the life of Luis Donaldo.

Even as her voice breaks
slightly,

she draws strength
from that outward fragility,

but also from...
an impressive inner strength.

♪ [POIGNANT MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

LAURA ELANA: It was a very hard
mourning process.

I think we all suffered
post-traumatic stress from it.

We miss him very much,
we cried for him a great deal.

Today we keep him in our hearts
in a very special way.

Luis Donaldo was
my older brother,

the one I trusted,
and the one I turned to

in order to express
my personal concerns.

He always had
a philosophical expression

with which he supported me
and made me feel very good.

He was a child,
who from a young age,

really liked oratory,
he liked to compose,

he liked poetry.

And he was a great poet
and a great reciter.

He had a magnificent tone.
of voice, he was self-critical,

he knew how to listen to people.

LAURA ELANA: On one occasion
he hugged me and said to me,

"Don't tell anyone, but someday,

I want to be governor
of Sonora." He was 17 years old.

[CROWD APPLAUDING]

LUIS: The support
that we will provide

to the national agreement,
we understand

as our unbreakable decision
to fight alongside workers,

peasants, and popular classes

for the satisfaction
of their just demands.

LAURA ELANA: Luis Donaldo
was a man who rose very quickly,

a professional, a politician,
a public servant,

who was very honest,
upright, very ethical.

-[LUIS SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]
-[CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING]

But without neglecting attention
to his son.

Luis Donaldo
was a very affectionate father.

LAURA ELANA:
For an eight-year-old child,

small, it was very strong,
very painful,

because he was his friend.

And it was very hard.

The girl was very little,
but for him it was very hard.

NORMA: A month and a half later,
Diana Laura tells me,

"What Donaldito, Donaldo,
said to me threw me off.

Imagine what he asked me, Mom...

who could lend us


She tells him...

"Lend 10,000 pesos?

And what do you want


And he tells her,
"Well, to give them to Aburto

so that he will tell us
who sent him to k*ll my dad."

LUIS DONALDO COLOSIO RIOJAS:
Let us allow Mexico
to turn the page

on a very,
very dark part of its history.

Because we truly need to begin
a process of reconciliation.

We must do it
starting from forgiveness.

There is no reconciliation
if it does not begin

with forgiveness.

I forgive that person.
May God bless him.

May he be released.
May he return to Mexico.

-♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪
-He has worked through,

in his own very personal way,
his own grieving processes.

But I felt very angry,
very indignant,

very hurt, with a lot of rage.

I am not a judge.

I am not a judge.
Justice must do its job.

♪ [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

MALE REPORTER 3:
Mario Aburto's hope fades.

Today, the Supreme Court
had to decide his freedom.

However, the verdict
has been postponed

because one of the five justices

was unable to vote
due to a legal impediment.

Now a substitute must be sought.

In the meantime,
and until a new date,

the confessed assassin
of Luis Donaldo Colosio

will remain in prison.

JESÚS: When he learns
of these postponements,

Mario feels a frustration

that leads him
to doubt everything.

But on the other hand,
he maintains hope.

[PENCIL SCRIBBLING]

JESÚS: Painting is clearly
one of his most evident forms

of expression
or emotional release,

and not only that,
he also devoured books

and completed
his high-school studies there,

and is now pursuing
a law degree.

EMMANUEL SANTOS NARVÁEZ:
When you learn his story,

you realize how he was able
to endure these 30 years.

He is a very structured person,
for example,

he shared copies with us

of an injunction
he was filing at the time,

handwritten, in which the lines
were perfectly organized.

He knows his case in depth.

-[TYPEWRITER CLACKING]
-Did you know, Mr. Hijonosa,

that all the other witnesses...

they have said that
the second shot that was heard

was heard slower than the first.

LAURA:
I believe that Mario Aburto,

and his participation
in the first shot

has been very obvious,
the shot to the head,

the shot that will always
generate doubts for me

is the shot to the abdomen.

♪ [INTRO MUSIC PLAYS] ♪

The special prosecutor said
last night that the hypothesis

that Mario Aburto Martínez
acted alone

to commit the m*rder
has been strengthened.

-♪ [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING] ♪
-Well, once the attack occurs,

the first versions
from the authorities

begin to circulate,
and it is really not understood

how they arrive so quickly

at this construction
of the m*rder, where they assert

that Mario Aburto fired
the first shot to the head.

[g*nsh*t]

And once he fires
the first shot,

the candidate makes
a 180-degree turn,

despite the fact
that it is proven

that he suffered brain death
within milliseconds,

he has the ability
to make this turn

and positions himself directly
in front of Mario Aburto

who already has his hand
prepared and gripping the weapon

-to fire at the abdomen.
-♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪

PATHOLOGIST:
This is the exit wound.

Left parietal...

It exits
through the temporal lobe,

and the entry point
of the b*llet is identified.

GUSTAVO: Would you kindly
show me the entry point, doctor?

There, it's like I manage
to see me and half heard me,

but it saddens me
that it is so deteriorated.

That video was kept
for 25 years.

So, it's easy to say,
but it's a quarter of a century.

The order was given
to keep it classified.

So, I... would ask why?

Why are they interested
in everyone

who was alive back then

already now being dead?
I don't know.

♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

GUSTAVO:
In the case of Mr. Colosio,

the first impact
was to the cephalic extremity,

or-- or head. And the second

was the encephalic wound
to the abdomen.

Really, for those of us
who know the specialty,

it poses no problem at all.

It is perfectly clear
how things happened.

The shot to the abdomen...

was an attempt
to finish him off.

What happened is that
the person who carried it out

already had the revolver
in his hand

and the hand of a state
judicial police officer

gripping him firmly.

So, he fired as best he could.

And it was a shot
that we call encephalic,

with entry and exit wounds
very close to each other

and a skin bridge between them.

This is where
a controversy arises

that it is not possible
for the body

to have turned
because he was already dead.

This is false.

The body
reached the ground alive.

It reached
the general hospital alive.

It entered
the operating room alive.

And that is where he died
an hour and a half later.

It was difficult
for many people,

even for police officers
and doctors,

to believe that Mario Aburto
had fired at the head

and then in a few seconds
or fractions of seconds,

at the side.

And that would point
to two shooters.

The tests
that were carried out...

yield as a result the fact

that both shots
are of the same caliber,

and it is possible,
that being the same caliber,

they were fired
by a .38 special weapon.

But to be able to prove

whether it was
the same revolver,

we would need to have the b*llet
that passed through the skull.

But it is not available
because the projectile passes

through the skull and is lost.

So, two armed people,

each with a .38
special revolver,

could indeed have fired
the shots.

[g*nsh*t]

[g*nsh*t]

That same day, March 23rd,

the authorities detain a person
in Lomas Taurinas.

They take him into custody
at the facilities

where they administer
the sodium rhodizonate test,

which comes back positive.
That is to say,

he could have fired
a weapon in recent hours.

What does this translate to?

That there could have been
a second sh**ter.

DORA: I continue to believe that
Mario Aburto did not act alone.

It is very difficult for me
to believe

that a young
maquiladora worker, humble,

whom they even said
was ignorant,

could arrive
at a place like that

and k*ll the candidate
with such precision.

MEXICAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL 1:
For this act,
did you handle the weapon?

MARIO: Yes.

MEXICAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL 1:
Is it yours?
Did you have it for a long time?

-MARIO: No.
-[DOOR CREAKING]

MEXICAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL 1:
When did you acquire it, son?

MARIO: I bought it and they
left it for me in a place

where they indicated
where I was going

to receive the weapon
and everything.

MEXICAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL 1:
Who asked you to do it?

MARIO: I'm sorry,
I won't be able to say that.

You can see that I am trying
to protect the people.

MEXICAN FEDERAL OFFICIAL 1:
It is obvious.

That is to say,
from the very first hours

the authorities suspected

that Mario Aburto
had not acted alone,

and the strategy was to begin
searching for participants.

Well, it turns out that one day

the story takes a complete turn,
a total twist.

FORMER POLICE OFFICER:
I do not disclose
my identity out of fear,

out of fear for my safety
and that of my family.

I belonged
to the Tijuana Municipal Police

and I received an offer

to participate
in an extrajudicial operation.

They wanted to prepare
a group of people

to provide security
for the candidate.

And that was where I met
Mario Aburto.

The person who recruited us
was Rodolfo Rivapalacio,

a chief in the State Judicial
Police of Baja California.

LAURA: Rodolfo Rivapalacio,

very little is really known
about him.

The authorities
did not investigate

his past very much,
but what we do know

is that he was a judicial
police officer in Tijuana

and that he dedicated himself
to carrying out
semi-covert tasks

for the Institutional
Revolutionary Party in Tijuana.

FORMER POLICE OFFICER:
That security operation
was really organized by them.

The people of the Institutional
Revolutionary Party, the PRI.

It is an event of such magnitude
that one cannot help but ask

whether there could have been
something more.

♪ [TENSE MUSIC PLAYING] ♪

♪ [MUSIC CONCLUDES] ♪