March 23, 1994: Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta, predicted to be elected the next President of Mexico, is assassinated at a campaign appearance in Tijuana. He was 44 years old.
Born in 1950 in Magdalena de Kino, in the State of Sonora, less than 60 miles from the U.S.-Mexican border at Nogales, Arizona, he was the son of Luis Colosio Fernández, who represented Sonora in the Mexican Senate. Both father and son belonged to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI).
That party was founded in 1929, and it had won every Presidential election in Mexico since. Since the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1920, the country had known political stability, but also a great deal of political corruption -- the PRI didn't quite make the country a one-party state, but they were pretty much untouchable -- and poverty, as the nation's oil riches did not reach the poor.
But Colosio wanted to be a different kind of politician. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, one of America's Ivy League schools, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. In 1979, he began working with Carlos Salinas de Gortari. In 1985, Colosio was elected to the Mexican Congress. In 1988, he managed Salinas' successful campaign for President, and was himself elected to the Senate.
Although the PRI maintained power, one move aimed at limiting corruption was to limit the President of Mexico to a single 6-year term. So, in 1994, Colosio ran to succeed Salinas. March 6, the PRI's 75th Anniversary, he spoke in front of the Monument to the Mexican Revolution. He spoke of indigenous communities, government abuse, and the people's independence from government, all hot-button issues, at a time when the Zapatistas, a far-left separatist group, were making similar statements.
Not only did it sound like Colosio was breaking with Salinas, but it sounded like he was breaking with traditional PRI aims. Nevertheless, Salinas, still President and still leader of the PRI -- and thus permitted to replace Colosio if he saw fit, even with the election less than 6 months away -- told the media, "Don't get tied up in knots: Colosio is the candidate."
But at 5:05 PM Pacific Time (8:05 U.S. Eastern), Colosio was campaigning in a poor neighborhood of the border city of Tijuana, when he was shot in the head. He was taken to the city's main hospital, after an argument that he should be flown across the border to a hospital in San Diego, but he never had a chance.
The shooter was Mario Aburto Martínez, then 23 years old. He confessed, and said that he acted alone. He was sentenced to 42 years in prison, meaning that he will be released if he lives until 2036.
There are those who believe he did not act alone, but, rather, did so on Salinas' orders, so that a more loyal candidate could win. He got one, Ernesto Zadillo, who won the election, but with just a shade over 50 percent of the vote. Later in the year, the Mexican economy collapsed. Despite an American bailout, the PRI was damaged, and Vicente Fox, of the National Action Party (Mario Aburto Martínez or PAN), ended the PRI's 71-year hold on the office.
Colosio's father, Senator Luis Colosio Fernández, outlived him by 16 years. As of March 23, 2022, Salnas and Zadillo are still alive. In 2018, Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta's son, Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas, was elected to the Honorable Congress of the State of Nuevo León, equivalent in America to the lower house of a State leigslature. In 2021, he was elected Mayor of the city of Monterrey. (UPDATE: In 2024, he was elected to the Mexican Senate.)
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March 23, 1994 was a Wednesday. This was also the day of the Green Ramp Disaster at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. I have a separate entry for that event.
Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games in the NBA:
* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 99-87 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 100-92 at The Omni in Atlanta. Kevin Willis scored 32 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Despite their proximity, Atlanta and Charlotte have never become an NBA rivalry.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 112-109 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas. Doug Smith led all scorers on the night with 36 points.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 111-107 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 78-77 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.
* And the Orlando Magic beat the Utah Jazz, 98-93 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
There were 6 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers, who turned out to be Gretzky's last team, beat his 1st NHL team, the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.
* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers played to a tie, 1-1 at the Miami Arena.
* The Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at the Ottawa Civic Centre (now the TD Place Arena).
* The St. Louis Blues, for whom Gretzky played 18 games in 1996, beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.
* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.
* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Los Angeles Kings, 6-3 at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Despite the loss, Wayne Gretzky scored a goal for the Kings. It was the 802nd of his career, making him the NHL's all-time leader. I have a separate entry for that event.
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