ARREST MADE IN MEXICO TV HOST DEATH

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- An on-stage sidekick was arrested Friday in connection
with the murder of one of Mexico's most popular television entertainers.

Four others were also arrested in the slaying of Paco Stanley, while a
suspected drug trafficker was accused of ordering the killing.

Mario Rodriguez Bezares, who had been under house arrest since last month,
was detained at his home and taken to a Mexico City jail, city Attorney
General's Office said.

An arrest warrant was issued for suspected drug trafficker Luis Amezcua for
allegedly ordering Stanley's killing because of a drug debt, the city's
chief prosecutor, Samuel del Villar, told reporters. Amezcua is already
imprisoned in Mexico City while fighting a U.S. extradition request on
drug-smuggling charges.

Stanley, the humorous host of a popular morning variety program, was gunned
down on June 7 in a brazen midday attack along a busy Mexico City freeway.

Rodriguez Bezares, frequently the butt of Stanley's heavy-handed humor,
initially came under suspicion because he remained behind in a restaurant
bathroom while Stanley walked out to his car, where he was slain.

The city Attorney General's Office said Rodriguez Bezares' delay put Stanley
``in the exact position'' needed by the alleged gunman Erasmo Perez to kill
him. It also said Rodriguez Bezares' declaration that he had stopped to call
his wife, Brenda Jimenez, from the restaurant was contradicted by her testimony.

On Thursday, with rumors flying of his impending arrest, Rodriguez Bezares
went on television to proclaim his innocence.

About 200 of Rodriguez Bezares' supporters chanted proclamations of his
innocence as he was driven to prison Friday.

The other four suspects arrested Friday were Perez, who matched witnesses'
descriptions of one of the killers, a young female aide to Stanley, one of
the TV host's former chauffeurs and a former aide to Rodriguez Bezares.

The warrants accuse the suspects with two murders -- Stanley's and that of a
bystander who died in the gunfire -- and the attempted murder of three
people who were wounded in the shooting.

The killing of Stanley outraged many Mexicans who have watched crime soar in
recent years.

Local TV networks at first blamed opposition Mexico City Mayor Cuauhtemoc
Cardenas for his administration's failure to prevent the crime. Criticism
subsided when police revealed that cocaine was found on Stanley's body and
that he had been linked to drug traffickers in the past.

The Mexican and U.S. governments say Amezcua and his brothers operated the
world's largest methamphetamine smuggling ring, though a recent drug
prosecution against them in Mexico collapsed and they maintain they are
innocent.