By Ted Bardacke
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, September 29, 1994; Page A31

MEXICO CITY, SEPT. 28 -- The secretary general of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party was assassinated by a lone gunman here today, dealing another blow to the country's political stability.

Police and party officials said Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, the party's second-ranking official, had just stepped into his car after a breakfast meeting with newly elected congressmen when he was mortally wounded. Witnesses said the gunman drew a submachine gun from a rolled-up newspaper and fired through the car window, striking Ruiz once in the neck before the weapon jammed.

A security guard tackled the gunman, later identified by the federal attorney general's office as Joel Hector Resendiz, a native of the central state of Guerrero, where Ruiz served as governor from 1987 to 1993. A government official familiar with the investigation said it appeared Resendiz was a hired gunman, but he declined to elaborate.

Ruiz's death added a new element of confusion to an already complicated political picture here following the March 21 assassination of the ruling party's presidential candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio. Four suspects remain in custody in that case as investigators gather evidence on the possibility of a conspiracy. The party's replacement candidate, Ernesto Zedillo, easily won the presidential election last month, with exit polls indicating a clear voter preference for stability over change. The party, known by its Spanish initials as the PRI, has held Mexico's presidency for 65 unbroken years.

Earlier this year, Mexico was rattled by a peasant uprising in the southern state of Chiapas, and less than 18 months ago gunmen killed a Roman Catholic cardinal during a drug-related shootout in the central city of Guadalajara.

Mexicans said after last month's election that they were looking forward to a period of recovery and political stability, an attitude reflected by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari as recently as last week during a nationwide tour.

Zedillo has pledged to continue Salinas's program of far-reaching reforms, including ending the traditionally close ties between the PRI and government. Ruiz was a key figure in maintaining momentum for reform; just last week he was named PRI majority leader in the lower house of Congress, where he was to undertake the difficult task of putting the body on an independent footing.

Ruiz was also the PRI representative to the Federal Electoral Institute, where negotiations for political reform were beginning to gather force. He was on his way to a session at the institute when he was shot.

Zedillo is scheduled to take office Dec. 1, after his election is ratified in November by an electoral college over which Ruiz, as majority leader, was to have presided.

As governor of Guerrero, Ruiz was a tireless opponent of a flourishing drug trade there. His brother, Mario, is Mexico's deputy attorney general and is also at the forefront in the federal government's war on drug trafficking.

Witnesses said the assassin clearly intended to spray Ruiz with bullets but that his weapon locked up. He then tried to run away but was wrestled to the ground by a municipal policeman acting in conjunction with Federal Judicial Police officers assigned to protect Ruiz. Resendiz did not resist arrest or attempt to fire on the arresting officers, witnesses said.

As with the Colosio killing, figures on all political sides denounced the "abhorrent crime," in the words of President Salinas.

And, as with the previous killing, Mexico City was alive with speculation about who might be behind the assassination. Saying the killing had filled him with indignation, Zedillo demanded that all those involved be apprehended as soon as possible, echoing his as yet unfulfilled demand that the Colosio assassination be solved.

One government official said the attorney general's office is working on a "strong lead" that the killing of Ruiz was ordered by drug traffickers with the dual purpose of sending a message to Ruiz's brother Mario and to destabilize the country's political situation in the months leading up the transition of presidential power.

In the past several weeks, Mario Ruiz has presided over a number of high-profile drug-related arrests, including of members of a Tijuana-based cartel officially accused of participating in the killing of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo in Guadalajara in 1993 and members of a cartel that controlled cocaine trafficking along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

"There are some dark forces in Mexican society that wish to destabilize the country and prevent it from moving forward and doing the things that need to be done," said Antonio Sanchez, president of the country's largest business organization. "But they will not succeed."

Traders on Mexico's stock market were less optimistic. The main market index lost nearly 2 percent of its value, while the Mexican peso slipped significantly against the dollar.

Correspondent Tod Robberson in Washington contributed to this report.