THE MURDER THAT SHOOK MEXICO

MIAMI - The public assassination was flagrant in its audacity, even by
Mexican standards.

Until Monday afternoon, Francisco "Paco" Stanley, 56, was perhaps Mexico's
most loved television host, noted for his apolitical prankishness. His
daytime variety show and late-night comedy programmes regularly drew
audiences of millions.

His murder last week - and subsequent allegations of his drug-taking and of
police ineptitude amid unchecked crime - now threaten to destabilise an
already fragile political machine.

On Friday, police said that the victim, and also his son and his television
co-host, carried credentials identifying them as government agents. Two
theories seemed possible - that the credentials had been sold illegally or
the three men had been working as government informants.

Stanley was gunned down in broad daylight by two men who sprayed his luxury
car with automatic weapons fire as he left a restaurant. He died instantly
after being shot four times in the head. The gunmen also killed a colleague
of Stanley in the car and a bystander, and injured two other bystanders.

His son, also named Francisco Stanley, quickly arrived on the scene.
Stanley's co-host, Mario Bezares, had lagged behind in the restaurant
lavatory and avoided involvement.

The circumstances of the crime have persuaded Mexico City's authorities that
it was the work of drug traffickers. They have plastered the capital with
pictures of one suspect - a tall, bald man dressed in a business suit.

"This was a perfectly premeditated murder," said Mexico City police chief
Alejandro Gertz. "They had to follow Mr Stanley to know his habits. They
attacked from behind. His own security guards said they had no idea where
they came from."

Police said they searched Stanley's van for clues to his murder and
discovered a mortar and pestle - items usually used to crush cocaine. When
they searched his clothes after the attack, they uncovered cocaine packets.
A post-mortem revealed traces of the drug in his blood.

But these findings have been ignored by the media and public, outraged by
the killing.

Stanley rose to prominence as host of a daytime variety show in the early
Nineties. He was an audacious and laddish host. He once shaved his head
while on air after losing a bet over a football match.

What seems to have shocked his audience the most is that he was even
seriously considered by his killers as a possible target. But Stanley may
well be remembered more for the political impact of his sudden death.

On Tuesday, even as several thousand weeping fans, many holding handwritten
signs saying "Goodbye Paco", filed past his coffin in a line that stretched
for three city blocks, the political tussle between Mexico's politicians had
begun.

Television networks have sought to turn the killing to the political
advantage of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Most of the
criticism has been levelled at Mexico City's Mayor, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas -
the likely candidate of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution
(PRD) in next year's presidential elections - for failing to tackle rampant
crime since taking office in 1997. The politicisation of the murder has
reinforced signs that crime will top the agenda in next year's election.

"Violence and personal security will be first and foremost at the top of the
agenda," says Professor Kevin Middlebrook, director of the Centre for
US-Mexican Studies at the University of California-San Diego. "With such a
public murder of a celebrity, any party wanting to win votes has to be seen
to be handling crime. That doesn't seem to be happening yet."

And Stanley's murder carries all the political momentum needed to sink
Cardenas's aspirations, although supporters have maintained that crime has
come down this year after having soared steadily since the peso collapsed in
1995 provoking deep recession.

"No crime is ordinary," Cardenas told reporters on Tuesday. "But this crime,
in addition, was, as far as one can determine, an execution carried out by
organised crime."

Mexico's drug cartels now wield more influence than even Colombia's crime
organisations, according to anti-drug officials. And as a constant reminder
of the country's instability, Marxist guerrillas roam the mountains of
several southern states, augmented by the Zapatista Indian rebels who
control a chunk of the southern state of Chiapas.

There have also been other recent high-profile crime victims, including the
driver of Vicente Fox - a leading opposition candidate - who was shot on Friday.

Conspiracy theories surrounding Stanley's death have already begun to take
on a life of their own in the Mexican media. Political columnist Miguel
Angel Granados Chapa wrote in the Reforma newspaper on Wednesday that
perhaps "Stanley was selected to die not because of anything he did, but in
order to upset public order and the public mood, exactly as happened."