MEXICO: Investigators say plane crash that killed Mexico's Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino appears accidental

Record ID: 302178

  • Title: MEXICO: Investigators say plane crash that killed Mexico's Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino appears accidental
  • Date: 6th November 2008
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MOURINO WHEN HE WAS APPOINTED INTERIOR MINISTER (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 21st November 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7AI3FKRKN2JWR6XLYJXN69HDF
  • Story Text: Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, President Felipe Calderon's right-hand man and the No. 2 in his government, dies when a small government plane crashes in Mexico City, killing all eight aboard and narrowly missing high-rise office buildings full of workers.
    Calderon praises Mourino in televised speech.
    Investigators probing a plane crash that killed Mexico's interior minister have found no indication that it was caused by sabotage or foul play, the Communications Ministry said on Wednesday (November 05).
    Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino, President Felipe Calderon's right-hand man and the No. 2 in his government, died on Tuesday when a small government plane crashed in Mexico City, killing all eight aboard and narrowly missing high-rise office buildings full of workers.
    Five people on the ground were also killed.
    The Communications Ministry said there was no evidence of a mid-air explosion and there were no emergency calls from the pilot flying the Learjet plane.
    Calderon, who is waging a high-stakes war on Mexico's powerful drug cartels, mourned the loss of a close aide and friend who had worked with him for years.
    "Today, when he was returning from a visit to the state of San Luis Potosi, the Interior Minister Juan Camilo Mourino died," Calderon said in a televised speech.
    "I want to specially refer to Juan Camilo Mourino, who, as you know was one of my closest collaborators and one of my best and most intimate friends. With his death, Mexico lost a great Mexican, intelligent, loyal and committed to his ideals and to his country. An honest and hard working man," he added saying his government would carry out investigations into the accident.
    "The federal government, under my charge, in coordination with the relevant institutions, will carry out all necessary investigations in order to check in depth what caused this tragedy."
    A replacement for Mourino has yet to be announced.
    "At the right moment, I will let Mexicans know about the corresponding government decisions we'll take," Calderon said.
    Mourino, a U.S.-trained economist and a skilled former lawmaker, was appointed interior minister in January, taking charge of internal security a year into Calderon's bloody, army-led battle against powerful drug cartels.
    Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the deputy attorney general until recently and a key figure in the drug war under Calderon and previous administrations, also died in the crash.
    The Learjet smashed into evening rush-hour traffic between office buildings in an upscale business district, setting a row of cars ablaze.
    Office workers said they heard the plane plummet past them and slam into the ground.
    A plane crash expert said at the scene on Tuesday it seemed something happened to the plane in the air and it nosedived into the ground, given minimal damage to nearby buildings.
    Small plane crashes are relatively common in Mexico and Central America. In 2006, a helicopter crashed in almost exactly the same spot as Tuesday's accident.
    El Universal daily cited air traffic controllers as saying Mourino's plane was flying too close to a Boeing 767 and turbulence from its wake could have caused the accident.
    Mexico has been tense ever since drug gangs appeared to take their feud with the government to a new level in September when a grenade was lobbed into a crowd celebrating a national holiday in Calderon's home city. Authorities have charged three men with carrying out the attack for the Gulf cartel.
    More than 4,000 people have been killed this year, mainly drug traffickers but also police and soldiers, by drug gang hitmen lashing back at the army and fighting turf wars.
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