Source: Dallas Morning News Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com Pubdate: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 Author: Tracey Eaton ANTI-DRUG MEXICAN JOURNALIST GUNNED DOWN MEXICO CITY - Crusading journalist Luis Mario Garcia spent most days and many nights digging into the perilous underworld of drug lords and corrupt police. And that almost certainly got him killed, his colleagues say. An unknown assailant stuck a gun in Mr. Garcia's face late Thursday night and fired five times, the writer's boss said Friday. "WHO DID IT?" read the banner headline in Friday's la tarde newspaper. "He was one of my best reporters," publisher Miguel Rocha Valencia said. "He didn't just type up what was on press releases. He went into the streets and found news." Dozens of Mexican reporters have been attacked or killed in recent years. Mr. Garcia, 42, married with six children, was the first to be killed in 1998. Mr. Garcia was reportedly shot shortly after a late meeting with some of his federal police sources. Colleagues who rushed to the scene said it appeared he had five bullet wounds in the face and three or four in the torso. Mexico City's Reforma newspaper reported Friday that witnesses said eight police agents surrounded Mr. Garcia on Thursday night and roughed him up before one of them drew a gun and killed the journalist. Mexican authorities had no comment on the case Friday, and Mr. Rocha said he's not sure which version of the story to believe. Some witnesses say a sole assassin killed Mr. Garcia. Others put the number at four or more, Mr. Rocha said. "It's not our job to accuse anyone. Let the authorities investigate," he said. As of late Friday afternoon, no investigators had bothered to call la tarde or stop by and look through the newspaper's archives, Mr. Rocha said. "Our files are open," he said. "But no one has called." The newspaper, whose name means "afternoon" in Spanish, has a circulation of about 4,500. One of about 20 in Mexico City, la tarde was founded March 23, 1994, the same day that ruling party presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio was gunned down in Tijuana. Its former publisher, Simon Yamin Sesin, also headed a newspaper called Ocho Columnas, which means "eight columns" in Toluca, a city about 45 miles west of Mexico City. Mr. Yamin was slain in May in a still-unresolved case. Two suspects have been identified but not arrested, Mr. Rocha said. Mr. Garcia had been with the newspaper for less than two years. One of his most explosive stories, published in December, accused Mexico City's then newly appointed judicial police chief, Jesus Carrola Gutierrez, of being paid off by Tijuana's notorious Arellano Felix drug gang. Mr. Carrola denied any drug ties but resigned under fire shortly afterward. Another report by Mr. Garcia said the Arellano Felix gang had begun to infiltrate the upper reaches of law enforcement agencies in Mexico City, well out of its traditional Pacific Coast territory. His newspaper announced that story with a huge headline on Page 1: "Here Come the Arellano Felixes!" Still another story said that Mexican authorities were selling prosecutors' jobs to the highest bidders and that some federal attorney general's officials had received illegal gifts: baskets packed with fruit and wads of cash. After such stories appeared, Mr. Rocha said Mr. Garcia received threats. But he was used to that, having endured not only intimidation but also an assassination attempt last year. Gunmen chased him down and fired at his car as he and one of his sons were driving along a highway in northern Sonora state. One bullet struck the writer in the buttocks. Another hit his son in the head. Their car crashed and the assailants left, apparently thinking their target was dead. But the two survived, and Mr. Garcia immediately went back to writing about drug trafficking and police corruption. On Tuesday, Mr. Rocha said, an unidentified police commander with a foreign last name and an Army captain met with Mr. Garcia for four hours, insisting that he tell them where he was getting his information. He reportedly told them, "From your own personnel" and refused to say anything else about his sources. "His sources were very confidential," Mr. Rocha said. "When he'd write a story, I'd ask, 'Can you back this up?' and he'd say, 'Yes, this is true for this reason and that reason.' " Even in death, Mr. Garcia managed to get in a final word. In his last story published Friday, he said he had discovered a plaza in Mexico City where hundreds of federal agents gather each day, doing absolutely nothing as taxpayers foot the bill for their salaries and drug traffickers run free. Motorists, he wrote, are amazed to see "people armed with automatic pistols playing as if it were recess time for some public school." (c) 1998 The Dallas Morning News