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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mexico Names Second Gunman In Assassination

Associated Press

The attorney general announced Friday that a second gunman was involved in the assassination of the ruling party’s presidential candidate last year.

“The hypothesis of a single assassin is untenable,” Attorney General Antonio Lozano Garcia told reporters Friday night. “Without a doubt the crime scene was manipulated.”

Lozano also said he had issued an arrest warrant for the alleged second gunman, whom he identified as Othon Cortes Vazquez. The Mexican news agency Notimex said Cortes, 38, was detained in Tijuana and was taken to Toluca, where he was being questioned by prosecutors.

The attorney general’s claim that evidence in the case had been tampered with raised the specter that security or other officials might have been involved.

The March 23, 1994, assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio, who had been strongly favored to win the August elections, stunned the nation.