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Mexico's Interior Secretary, A UT Grad, Dies In Plane Crash

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By JULIE WATSON

The Associated Press

Published: November 5, 2008

Updated: 11/05/2008 12:40 pm

MEXICO CITY - A plane crash that killed a University of Tampa graduate who was one of the top officials in the war against drug trafficking appears to be an accident, but foreign investigators are in Mexico to rule out an attack by cartels, the transportation secretary said today.

The government Learjet 45 plowed into rush-hour traffic in a wealthy neighborhood of Mexico City late Tuesday, killing Interior Secretary and University of Tampa graduate Juan Camilo Mouriño, former anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and at least 11 others, including four people on the ground, Mexico City prosecutor Miguel Angel Mancera told the Televisa network. He said officials were searching for more possible remains.

"The University of Tampa community mourns the untimely passing of one of its many outstanding graduates, Juan Camilo Mouriño, class of 1993," according to a statement from the university. "Mr. Mouriño had recently been interviewed in The University of Tampa alumni magazine regarding his work as Mexico's secretary of governance, and as such the University community today is especially saddened by this news."

The deaths of Mouriño and Vasconcelos are a major blow to President Felipe Calderon's already embattled government and its fight against drug trafficking.

Mouriño, 37, was Calderon's top Cabinet minister, in charge of domestic politics and security. Vasconcelos was previously in charge of prosecuting and extraditing drug traffickers and had been the target of at least one planned assassination attempt in the past.

Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez, however, told a news conference that "there are no indications that would support any hypothesis other than that this was an accident," Tellez said. "But we will investigate until all possibilities have been exhausted."

Tellez said authorities have not found any indication that the 10-year-old craft exploded or caught fire while in flight. He said a mechanical failure may have caused the crash.

U.S. experts from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board arrived today, and three experts from Britain's Civil Aviation Authority will also help investigate, Tellez said.

Mexico's fleet of government aircraft has suffered accidents in the past, and the country has long said it needs new helicopters and planes to fight drug cartels.

In 2005, a helicopter crash blamed on poor weather conditions killed Public Safety Secretary Ramon Martin Huerta, who was the head of Mexico's federal police, and seven other people.

Many Mexicans immediately suspected sabotage caused Tuesday's crash, especially because drug traffickers have increasingly attacked officials involved in Calderon's battle with violent cartels.

"It makes you suspicious, the way things are going with drug trafficking in this country. And a plane crashes with the interior secretary and the ex-drug czar on board," said Arturo Hernandez, a 39-year-old bank employee sitting at a cafe in Mexico City. "It seems like an attack."

The Sinaloa cartel is suspected of having killed acting Mexican federal police chief Edgar Millan in May, likely for his crackdown on trafficking at the airport. Just months after taking office nearly two years ago, Calderon acknowledged receiving threats.

Presidential spokesman Max Cortazar said Mouriño, Vasconcelos and a group of advisers were flying back to Mexico City after attending the inauguration of a program to welcome returning migrants in the city of San Luis Potosi.

The business jet was approaching the Mexico City airport when it suddenly slammed into the posh Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood as people were heading home from work.

Witnesses said they heard the drone of a plane's motor and then felt a powerful explosion that rocked the area of tall buildings and unleashed a fireball on Mexico City's main Reforma Avenue.

Dozens of cars caught fire and at least 40 people were injured, while officials evacuated about 1,200 people from area offices.

Hundreds of police, firefighters and soldiers swarmed the scene, which was littered with the charred hulks of vehicles and the remains of bodies, many burned beyond recognition.

U.S. Ambassador Antonio Garza praised Mouriño and Vasconcelos as leaders in the fight against organized crime, while Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called Mouriño "a courageous and strong partner in the fight against dangerous criminal groups."

"He believed in the rule of law and worked very hard to increase coordination among security officials and law enforcement on both sides of the border," Chertoff said in a statement today.

A saddened Calderon called Mouriño "a great Mexican, intelligent, loyal and committed to his ideals and his country."

Mouriño came under criticism when he joined Calderon's Cabinet in January because his family had private contracts with Mexico's state-owned oil company just as Calderon was making a controversial effort to reform laws to allow more private contracts.

Mouriño was born in Spain, and some rivals argued a foreign-born person shouldn't be able to hold the Cabinet post.

He moved to Mexico as a teenager, served as a federal legislator and went on to become Calderon's closest adviser as head of the Office of the Presidency. He was one of the youngest men to have held the politically sensitive post of interior secretary.

"I have a lot of good memories about my university," Mouriño said in a spring interview with the school's alumni magazine. "I don't have any doubt that everything I am is because of the process of my education. An important part of that process belongs to my years in Florida and at UT."

TIMELINE

1971: Juan Camilo Mouriño is born in Spain, though he is a Mexican national because his mother was born in Mexico City

1989-93: Mouriño enrolls at the University of Tampa and graduates with an economics degree

1997: He is elected to the legislature in Campeche, Mexico

2000: He is elected to Mexico's federal congress

2006: Serves as head coordinator of Felipe Calderon's presidential campaign, and after Calderon's victory, he eventually becomes chief of the president's office

January: He is selected to serve as secretary of governance

Tuesday: Dies in a plane crash in Mexico City

Sources: University of Tampa, The Associated Press

Reporter Josh Poltilove contributed to this report.

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