MEXICO MURDER ARRESTS PROMPT PRAISE, ALSO DOUBTS

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican police may have scored a rare victory with
the arrest of a well-known television personality accused of killing his
co-star in a conspiracy hatched in prison by a top drug lord.

But doubts lingered Saturday, stemming from authorities' inability in the
past to solve high-profile murders, and some questioned if Mario Bezares and
five others really took part in the June 7 hit on variety show host
Francisco "Paco" Stanley.

"Whilst in the past, probes into crimes that enraged public
opinion...remained unclarified or were carried out in an irregular manner,
the investigation of the murder of Francisco Stanley has dug up substantial
facts and quickly identified the presumed plotters," praised La Jornada
daily in an editorial.

Mexico City Attorney General Samuel del Villar said Friday that Bezares, a
hitman, Stanley's driver, an aide, a showgirl and one of the jailed "Kings
of Methamphetamine," Luis Amezcua, killed Stanley because of a drug debt.

The accusations took the lid off a caldron of drug ties and jealousies in
Mexico's showbusiness world.

Del Villar said Stanley was shot four times in the head as he sat in his car
outside a restaurant because he owed money to the Amezcua brothers, who U.S.
authorities accuse of running a speed smuggling organization.

Bezares, who had lingered in the restaurant bathroom while the murder took
place, set Stanley up in exchange for the cancellation of a debt he had with
the drug barons.

Del Villar also suggested Bezares acted out of revenge for on-screen jokes
Stanley frequently made suggesting one of Bezares' sons was actually his
illegitimate offspring.

The influential Templo Mayor column in Reforma newspaper said del Villar's
success was a blow against the violent crime and impunity that assail
Mexicans in their daily lives, sure to be a top concern in the 2000
presidential elections.

"After so many unsolved top-level assassinations, the decision of the
capital's prosecutor is a point scored against the impunity that we are
accustomed to," Reforma said.

Yet, the very rarity of the success gave reason for doubt.

Major murders, like the 1994 killing of Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI) presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio and the murder the same
year of PRI official Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu have never been
satisfactorily solved. In a public opinion survey, Uno mas Uno newspaper
found 77 percent of people questioned doubted that Bezares was guilty.

La Cronica newspaper also raised questions, noting that the connection with
the Amezcuas contradicted earlier statements from prosecutors that Stanley
was closely linked to another drug cartel, the Juarez cocaine mob.

Bezares tearfully protested his innocence as he was arrested Friday, and his
wife Brenda Yamile denied having had an affair with Stanley. "I am a clean
and pure woman," she told TV Azteca.

REUTERS