PRIISTA CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR ASSASSINATED;
STORY BECOMES FUEL FOR GUERRA SUCIA

by Jeff Barnet, Frontera NorteSur Editor

Four bullets killed the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate for mayor of Balleza, a southeastern Chihuahua town of 17,000 residents, on June 3. Raul Fernández Villalobos, 47 years old, who had been PRI mayor of Balleza once before from 1992 to 1995, was gunned down by two assassins using .38 and .45 caliber weapons outside his home at 9:15 a.m.. The Chihuahua State Police (PJE) put 130 agents on the case statewide, but as of June 30 they had not found the killers.

PJE investigators say they are looking for two suspects, both male, one with a moustache and wearing a black cowboy hat. The suspects were seen carrying an AK-47 in addition to the pistols.

The state Secretary General of the PRI Antonio García approved the registration of Fernández's widow, Sylvia Moreno Leal, to run as PRI candidate for mayor of Balleza in the July 5 election. Moreno said she was encouraged to run by one of her three sons, Raul, who said to her, "Mother, we are going to go on, even with our pain, I ask that you go on." Moreno was also supported by her brothers and her mother-in-law. Moreno was head of the System for the Integral Growth of the Family (DIF) from 1992 to 1995, and also worked for 15 years in a banking institution in Balleza.

Shortly after the murder, it became known that a similar attack--using similar weapons--had been made upon Fernández on April 19, just two hours after he announced he would challenge Javier Garfio for the PRI nomination. In a newspaper interview of April 28 with El Sol de Parral, Fernández said his attackers "wanted to kill me; it was not a scare." Moreno, Fernández's widow, claims they went to the PJE for help, "but they didn't do anything." The PJE said that they had investigated the matter.

State diputados (representatives) of the PRI, PAN, and Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) demanded a "thorough investigation" on June 5. PRI diputados went so far as to demand the resignation of state attorney general Arturo Chávez Chávez, claiming that the "state of public insecurity" under the PAN was "intolerable."

The assassination of the small town PRIista candidate soon became an issue between high-level PRI and the National Action Party (PAN) leaders. PAN Governor Francisco Barrio Terrazas said that Fernández's murder was "directly related to the internal struggles of the PRI party, as well as to confrontations between drugtrafficking organizations," according to El Diario June 9.

Barrio also compared the Balleza murder to the 1994 assassination Luis Donaldo Colossio, PRI candidate for president, in 1994. "We had not wanted to mention it, because we did not want to be misunderstood. We are not trying to make a political profit from this," Barrio said.

Interviewed in the Oval Room of the Palace of Government, Barrio also said: "We have wanted to be very prudent, very responsible in relation to this subject, the murder. From the first moment, we saw elements that indicated the action of narcotics traffickers."

Barrio said he could not say if Fernández was himself involved in drugtrafficking. However, he did say, "The PJE investigator in the South Zone tied drugtrafficking to the group that threatened him the first time, and now perhaps it was the opportunity of another group."

The governor reiterated that "this has the appearances, again, of a conflict between internal groups. I believe it resembles what happened to candidate Colosio, when there were forces struggling inside his own party."

PRI leaders severely denounced Barrio's comments. PRI state president Jorge Sandoval said, "Maybe Governor Barrio would like to ask the narcotics detectives in Ciudad Juárez if violence and insecurity has anything to do with the more than 130 murders of women there."

Sandoval continued: "It is very irresponsible to politicize this subject. This series of insults is only demonstrating his ineptude and his stupidity. In his administration there is no order, there is no authority, there is no government."

The PRI state leader added that Barrio was "desperate" because polls indicated the PAN candidate for governor, Ramón Galindo, was trailing PRI candidate Patricio Martínez.

García, state PRI secretary, demanded that Barrio produce his facts, labeling the governor's assertions nothing more than "gossip, straight from the rumor mill."

Despite the PRI outcry, PANista state attorney general Chávez said the "first line of investigation" would be into into narcotrafficking. According to Chávez, after the April 19 attack on his life, Fernández declared "that his rival was being helped by people dedicated to illicit activities, presumably narcotrafficking."

In addition, a special report in El Diario asserted that in Balleza "there are rumors that the Municipal Police have been implicated in illicit activities." The report stated that there were only 14 police officers for Balleza's 17,000 citizens.

Fernández's widow, Moreno, said that in taking his place in the mayoral campaign, she would request protection from the Governor and the state police. The Governor's failure to answer Fernández's call helped "lead to his death," she said, in a statement to the press June 10.

Moreno also she wanted to clear "and exalt" the name of her slain husband. "All the world knew Raul was dedicated, they knew he was a good man. It was because of that reason that drugtraffickers would be bothered by him, because he was a clean man," she said. Moreno called Barrio's comments on the murder "mudslinging," and would not answer them.

The new candidate said she would dedicate herself to stopping drugtrafficking. "I don't know what consequences this will bring me...I don't have much experience in this," she said.

The state denied Moreno's request for protection on June 11. The official spokesman of the state attorney general's office (PGJE), Hugo Valles, said that the state police is an "investigative body, not a preventitive one."

In addition, Valles offered that the state has some witnesses in the investigation of Fernández's death, but "that they are afraid and do not offer any important facts. They have not served to clarify the investigation."

Valles' comments were greeted by derision and outrage by state PRI leader Sandoval. His tamest comments were that the PAN government "is loaded with indifference, incapacity, and lack of will."

In a surprising turnaround, state attorney general Chávez announced June 12 that the state, in this case, could offer personal protection to Moreno and her three children on a 24-hour basis. When asked why the PJE did not provide similar protection to Raul Fernández, the attorney general replied, "We receive hundreds of cases of threats. We don't have enough agents to take care of them."

PRI gubernatorial candidate Patricio Martínez campaigned in Balleza with Moreno on June 24.

Sources: El Diario, El Norte de Ciudad Juárez