A Brief History
On May 24, 1993, Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, a Mexican Roman Catholic archbishop of the see of Guadalajara, was gunned down by 14 bullets while at the Guadalajara International Airport, allegedly because he was mistaken for drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán by rival drug cartel gunmen out to assassinate El Chapo.
Digging Deeper
Six other people were killed along with the Cardinal, allegedly by Mexican-American contract killers hired by the Tijuana Cartel to kill the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, Guzmán. In spite of the carnage wrought that day, nobody has ever been convicted and punished for the murders.
No high-profile murder is complete without conspiracy theories, and in this case the theory goes that the Mexican government actually had Cardinal Posadas murdered to hide a connection between corrupt Mexican officials and the drug cartels in human trafficking operations. What do you believe?
Question for students (and subscribers): Can drug cartels ever be stopped? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Lopez, Luis. Mexican Narco Diaries: Origin and Stories of Mexico’s most brutal Drug Cartels. Siki Books, 2023.
Marley, David. Mexican Cartels: An Encyclopedia of Mexico’s Crime and Drug Wars. ABC-CLIO, 2019.
The featured image in this article, a DEA photograph of El Chapo looking out of a window of an airplane, is a work of a Drug Enforcement Administration employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain in the United States.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
