overwhelmed by the assassination of presidential candidate Donald Luis Colosio at a political rally in Tijuana. If there was any doubt that Mexico was swirling down the same drainpipe as Colombia, the killing of Colosio—a reformer in the mold of Carlos Galan—should have put it to rest.

The traditional “lone deranged gunman” was arrested and he dutifully confessed, and then was hustled off stage when it became clear that nobody would go for this version.^[14] For one thing, the candidate was shot from two directions, and videotapes seemed to show at least six men working together to block Colosio’s path while deflecting his bodyguards and making way for the killers. President Salinas shipped hundreds of reinforcements to Tijuana but the pursuit of the killers went nowhere. Shortly after the assassination, the Tijuana chief of police was being interviewed by an American reporter when he discovered that his secret files on the case had vanished. The next day, he was killed. A few days later the special prosecutor was about to board a government jet to Tijuana when the police found a bomb on his plane.  He decided to re-consider the “lone-deranged-gunman” theory, and a few days later he handed Salinas his resignation along with a report concluding there was no conspiracy.^[15]  Salinas appointed another special prosecutor, and he was followed in turn by a parade of senior officials who would unsuccessfully track the braided threads of Colosio, the Cardinal, and the Tijuana cartel. One by one these top lawmen would be compromised or eliminated. By 1996 the combat life expectancy for Tijuana prosecutors was about the same as a World War II tail gunner. Sergio Armando Silva of the judicial police was cut down in February. Prosecutor Arturo Ochoa Palacios was killed while jogging at a health club in April. Prosecutor Sergio Moreno Perez was kidnapped and murdered along with his son in May. Former police commander Isaac Sanchez Perez was shot to death in July. Prosecutor Jesus Romero Magana was gunned down in front of his house in August.^[16]  At this moment Ernesto Ibarra Santes, a close friend of slain police captain Alejandro Castenada, took over as federal police