On Tuesday, July 7, 2026, the First Collegiate Court in Criminal Appeals, based in the State of Mexico, ordered the immediate release of Jorge Antonio S\u00e1nchez Ortega, accused as the second shooter in the 1994 assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio. The court dismissed the arguments presented by the Federal Attorney General\u2019s Office (FGR), ruling that the criminal action against S\u00e1nchez had expired since 2015, despite the FGR reopening investigations only in 2021 and pressing charges as late as 2023.<\/p>\n
The ruling, signed by magistrates Sara Olimpia Reyes Garc\u00eda, Karla Guadalupe Pinedo Maga\u00f1a, and Josu\u00e9 Osvaldo Gardu\u00f1o S\u00e1nchez, declared that the prosecution for intentional homicide against S\u00e1nchez Ortega was time-barred. Consequently, the court revoked the formal imprisonment order issued on November 15, 2025, by the Fourth District Criminal Judge in the State of Mexico, and mandated S\u00e1nchez Ortega\u2019s immediate freedom regarding the accusation of involvement in the killing of the then-presidential candidate in the Lomas Taurinas neighborhood of Tijuana, Baja California.<\/p>\n
Key points from the court\u2019s decision include:
\n– The statute of limitations for the case expired no later than March 23, 2015, well before the FGR\u2019s 2021 recommendation, the 2022 case reopening, and the charges filed in 2023 and 2025.
\n– The FGR failed to prove S\u00e1nchez Ortega\u2019s intent or knowledge of a coordinated plan with Mario Aburto Mart\u00ednez, who was sentenced to 45 years as the material assassin.
\n– Evidence was insufficient to attribute premeditation or treachery to S\u00e1nchez Ortega, though the court did not entirely rule out his possible involvement in the homicide at this stage.
\n– Video recordings and forensic reports confirmed two shots fired from different positions during a crowded event but did not establish that S\u00e1nchez Ortega knew of or coordinated with the other shooter.
\n– The physical and temporal proximity of the shots does not prove a synchronized or prearranged attack.
\n– S\u00e1nchez Ortega, who worked in March 1994 for the then National Security Investigation Center (Cisen, now National Intelligence Center), was not shown to have known the other shooter\u2019s location, timing, or the security arrangements of the victim.<\/p>\n
This ruling highlights the challenges in prosecuting decades-old cases where evidence and procedural timing critically affect justice outcomes. For those following Mexico\u2019s complex political history, the decision underscores ongoing debates about accountability and the limits of the legal system in high-profile crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Tuesday, July 7, 2026, the First Collegiate Court in Criminal Appeals, based in the State of Mexico, ordered the immediate release of Jorge Antonio S\u00e1nchez Ortega, accused as the second shooter in the 1994 assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio. The court dismissed the arguments presented by the Federal Attorney General\u2019s Office (FGR), ruling that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nacional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2978,"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2977\/revisions\/2978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topnews.mx\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}