Cover-up in murder case alleged

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 10

Cover-up in murder case alleged

NZPA-Reuter Mexico City Mexican journalists have accused the authorities of blocking the discovery of the killers of a leading political columnist in spite of five years of investigations.

Manuel Buendia was shot on May 30, 1984, by a lone gunman near a Mexico City parking lot. A special team of detectives has investigated over 300 suspects but no arrests have been made.

Last Friday the Union of Democratic Journalists presented the Mexico City Attor-ney-General’s office with a formal accusation, saying officials protected those involved with the complicity of the former President, Miguel de la Madrid. “There’s no doubt the assassin was someone very important in the past Administration,” Eduardo Valle, president of the U.P.D., told Reuters.

The new President, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was elected last July but his P.R.I. party has ruled the country since 1929. At the time of his death Buendia was one of Mexico’s most widely respected journalists, known for his independence in a country where many reporters are on the Government payrolls. His column in the daily, “Excelsior,” denounced official corruption and campaigned against ultra-Right-wing groups and activities by the United States Central Intelligence Agency in Mexico. Buendia, aware of his powerful enemies, always carried a pistol and had it with him at the time of his murder.

The U.P.D. cites the loss of key evidence, including three of the five bullets that killed Buendia, as a sign of a cover-up.