By Tod Robberson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, March 1, 1995; Page A01

MEXICO CITY, FEB. 28 -- Special prosecutor Pablo Chapa shocked the nation tonight with the announcement of Raul Salinas's arrest, identifying him as a key suspect in the daylight assassination of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, secretary general of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Carlos Salinas was elected president in 1988, running under the PRI banner. He left office last Dec. 1, about two months after Ruiz Massieu's Sept. 28 death.

Chapa made no comment linking Raul Salinas's arrest to actions by his brother. To date, no evidence has surfaced suggesting ex-president Salinas had knowledge of his brother's alleged actions.

{The former president told Television Azteca in a late-night interview, "I have full confidence in the innocence of my brother," the Associated Press reported.}

The arrest marked the latest in a series of events over the last 14 months that have whittled away at the image Carlos Salinas sought to portray of a stable Mexico rapidly advancing toward economic and political modernity.

Salinas used this image to win U.S. approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, but since the accord went into effect last year, Mexico has appeared anything but stable. Several high-profile assassinations and an ongoing peasant rebellion in southern Mexico followed. The upheaval prompted investors to withdraw billions of dollars from the country late last year, which in turn caused a financial crisis and devaluation of the Mexican peso on Dec. 20.

The arrest also constituted a sharp departure by Salinas's successor, President Ernesto Zedillo, from a long tradition in Mexico in which sitting presidents protect the financial and legal interests of their predecessors. The protection typically has extended to family members of ex-presidents.

A senior official said Zedillo would make no attempt to protect any political figure, "no matter how high up it goes," and added, "The president is interested only in getting to the truth" regarding the political and drug-related assassinations that have rattled Mexico since 1993 and contributed to economic crisis here.

"Nothing and nobody is above the law," Chapa said after telling reporters that Raul Salinas had been placed in a maximum-security prison outside Mexico City. Chapa described him as the "intellectual author" of the crime and said a federal judge last week ordered Raul Salinas's arrest after an exhaustive investigation that determined a key figure sought in Ruiz Massieu's killing had been given asylum in Raul Salinas's home.

Political analysts say the tradition of protection among presidents has been an integral part of Mexico's political structure and has been instrumental in keeping the PRI in the presidency for 65 years. Under Mexico's unusual political system, the standing president has the prerogative of choosing the PRI presidential candidate, which is tantamount to naming his successor. Carlos Salinas chose Zedillo following the March 23 assassination of PRI presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio.

The possible involvement of Raul Salinas in the Ruiz Massieu killing has been alleged repeatedly by opposition politicians, but until now no evidence had been made public of wrongdoing by Raul Salinas. Ruiz Massieu married but later divorced a sister of the Salinas brothers.

Chapa, speaking on behalf of Attorney General Antonio Lozano, reported that Raul Salinas, 48, had maintained a close friendship with PRI federal legislator Manuel Munoz Rocha, who is being sought by police as a planner of the Ruiz Massieu killing.

After the assassination, Chapa said, Munoz Rocha went into hiding at Salinas's home and used credit cards traced back to the president's brother while arranging his escape. Phone calls made by Munoz Rocha after his escape were traced to Salinas's house. A payment received by Munoz Rocha equal to roughly $80,000 also was traced back to Raul Salinas.

Officials in Lozano's office say Munoz Rocha also is being investigated for alleged ties to the powerful Gulf of Mexico drug cartel, based in his home state of Tamaulipas. Ruiz Massieu's brother, former deputy attorney general Mario Ruiz Massieu, had begun raids in Tamaulipas the month before that led to the arrests of several top cartel leaders.

Officials say they fear that Munoz Rocha, who has not been seen since the assassination, may have been killed or committed suicide, and an autopsy is underway on a body believed to be that of the former legislator. The actual gunman was arrested at the time and convicted.

Mexican newspaper reports have alleged previously that Raul Salinas had ties to known drug traffickers and that he managed millions of dollars' worth of business deals, including government contracts, during the administration of his brother.

Zedillo, under increasing fire for his own handling of Mexico's economic and financial crisis, has ordered Lozano -- of the opposition National Action Party -- to pursue vigorous investigation and prosecution of the Ruiz Massieu killing as well as the March 23 assassination of candidate Colosio. Political observers say a typical tactic of Mexican presidents during times of economic crisis is to distract the public with political events.

Carlos Salinas, who took office in 1988 as inflation soared at nearly 150 percent, took similar action early in his presidency with the dramatic arrest of an oil union official linked to organized crime.

Lozano issued a similar bombshell announcement only last Friday regarding the Colosio case, saying two gunmen were involved and contradicting the Salinas government's assertion that it was the act of a lone, crazed gunman. Lozano added that there was clear evidence of a coverup and accused Salinas-appointed investigators of mishandling evidence.

An official in Lozano's office said investigators are considering a possible connection between the Colosio and Ruiz Massieu killings, as well as one linking the Colosio case to the 1993 death of a Roman Catholic cardinal, shot at the airport in Guadalajara.

The Salinas government explained the killing as an accident involving cross-fire between rival drug gangs. The killers, allegedly leaders of the northwestern drug cartel run by the Arellano Felix family, escaped after boarding a commercial airliner bound for the border city of Tijuana. Upon arrival at the Tijuana international airport, they walked free.

Investigators say the killers may have received assistance in their escape from Othon Velazquez Cortes, a Tijuana airport worker arrested last Friday and accused of being the second gunman in Colosio's death.