Mexican ex-general once accused of narco ties is shot dead

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

MEXICO CITY -- A gunman has shot and killed a retired Mexican army general at a garage in Mexico City, authorities said.

Gen. Mario Acosta Chaparro was accused in 2000 of ties to the Juarez drug cartel in northern Mexico, but later exonerated. A lone gunman shot him three times in the upper body late Friday afternoon at a garage in the Anahuac district, on Mexico City’s central-west side, authorities said. Witnesses said the gunman then fled on a motorcycle, the Mexico City attorney general’s office reported.

Acosta, 70, who survived a shooting attempt in 2010, is the second retired general to be assassinated in Mexico City in the last year.

In May 2011, retired Gen. Jorge Juarez Loera was shot in Ciudad Satelite, a northwest suburb. The outspoken general had overseen Joint Operation Chihuahua, a military-led campaign targeting drug traffickers in the northern border state of Chihuahua, where Ciudad Juarez, the violence-plagued base of the Juarez cartel, is located.

Acosta Chaparro was accused in 2000 of ties to the late Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who for years led the Juarez cartel. Acosta Chaparro was sentenced by a military tribunal in 2002 to a minimum of 15 years in prison for ties to drug traffickers. The federal attorney general’s office exonerated him in 2007, and the general retired in 2008, reports said (link in Spanish).

Mexico City Atty. Gen. Jesus Rodriguez Almeida told reporters Friday evening that authorities had not yet established a motive for the killing, and that his office would continue its investigation.

RELATED:

Retired general who led campaign against drug gangs killed in Mexico

Mexico’s defense secretary acknowledges errors in drug war

Mexico military faces political risks over drug war

-- Daniel Hernandez