Colosio Murrieta, Luis Donaldo

▪ 1995

      Mexican politician (b. Feb. 10, 1950, Magdalena de Kino, Sonora, Mexico—d. March 23, 1994, Tijuana, Mexico), was designated (Nov. 28, 1993) by Pres. Carlos Salinas de Gortari as his handpicked successor, making him the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate and the odds-on favourite to win the August 1994 elections. Colosio, a 1972 graduate of the Technological Institute of Higher Studies in Monterrey, joined the PRI that same year. After earning a graduate degree (1977) from the University of Pennsylvania in regional and urban development, he became a protégé of Salinas, and in 1979 he joined the Secretariat of Budget and Planning under his mentor. Colosio was elected to Congress in 1985 and in 1987 became a member of the PRI's national executive committee before winning election to the Senate in 1988. That same year he became Salinas' presidential campaign manager when the latter was named the PRI's candidate by Pres. Miguel de la Madrid. Colosio's political reputation was tarnished when Salinas emerged victorious by a narrow margin only after a suspicious malfunction of the PRI-controlled Federal Electoral Commission's computer. When he was named head of the party, however, Colosio pledged to spearhead electoral reform and attempted to distance himself from the authoritarian rule of the PRI, in power since 1929. In 1992 Colosio headed the newly created Social Development Secretariat (Sedesol), a program designed to address poverty. His promises of social reform, however, did not prevent the January 1994 uprising in the state of Chiapas, one of the chief beneficiaries of Sedesol. While campaigning as a man of the people and one dedicated to democracy, Colosio appeared without the protection of bodyguards. As a result, he proved an easy target for the assassin who gunned him down at a campaign rally.

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