SPECIAL PANEL NAMED TO PROBE CARDINAL'S MURDER

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's government and the Roman Catholic church have named
a seven-man team to review a government investigation into the 1993 murder
of a cardinal during a drug shoot-out.

The panel will consist of three top church officials, three representatives
from western Jalisco state where Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo died,
and Attorney General Jorge Madrazo Cuellar.

In a news release late Thursday, the attorney general's office said both
church officials and the government have agreed the panel's finding will be
final.

President Ernesto Zedillo's administration is said to want to end the
controversy before Pope John Paul II's fourth visit to Mexico in January.
The pope appeared upset during his third visit in Mexico, a few months
after Posadas Ocampo was killed.

Posadas Ocampo and his chauffeur were shot dead in his car May 24, 1993, at
the airport in Guadalajara, the Jalisco state capital, while they waited
for the papal nuncio. Five other people also were killed in a gunfight with
assault weapons by two drug gangs.

The attorney general's office said Posadas Ocampo was accidentally caught
in the crossfire. But medical examiners concluded that was unlikely -- the
gunmen riddled Posadas Ocampo with bullets at pointblank range.

Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez, his successor, and other prelates and human
rights organizations have denounced the government's version of events.

Some have also speculated that Posadas Ocampo, who had received several
anonymous death threats before he died, was targeted because of his many
public denunciations of Mexico's drug cartels.

More than a dozen people have been arrested here and in California and are
awaiting trial in connection with drug trafficking and also for allegedly
taking part in the Guadalajara airport shootout.

The shootout was between a gang headed by the five Arellano Felix brothers,
based in the border city of Tijuana, and rival Joaquin ``El Chapo'' Guzman
Loera.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski