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Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo

Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo (10 November 1926 – 24 May 1993) was a Mexican bishop of the Catholic Church who served as the Archbishop of the See of Guadalajara from 1987 to 1993, succeeding Jose Salazar Lopez and preceding Juan Sandoval Iniguez. Posadas was assassinated by the Tijuana Cartel in 1993 during the 1993 Guadalajara International Airport shootout, with the Tijuana gunmen allegedly mistaking him for Sinaloa Cartel drug lord El Chapo due to them driving the same car (a white Mercury Grand Marquis).

Biography[]

Posadas dead

Posadas after being shot

Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo was born in Salvatierra, Guanajuato, Mexico on 10 November 1926, and he became an ordained priest in 1950. In 1970, he was consecrated Bishop of Tijuana, and he befriended the mother of the Arellano Felix brothers, who would later become the leaders of the Tijuana Cartel. From 1982 to 1987, he served as Bishop of Cuernavaca, and he was appointed a cardinal by Pope John Paul II on 28 June 1991. Posadas was known for his crusading against drug cartels in his speeches, and he was also active in charity, donating money to churches in Chiapas. On 24 May 1993, he headed to the Guadalajara International Airport to pick up a priest who was arriving by plane for a meeting, driving a white Mercury Grand Marquis cruiser (a type of car commonly driven by drug lords). On the same day, Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin Guzman Loera was scheduled to head to the airport for a flight to Puerto Vallarta to meet with the Deputy Attorney General, and a group of Tijuana Cartel hitmen mistook Posadas' car for that of Guzman and repeatedly shot at him. Posadas was shot 14 times, killing him. It was later revealed that the shootout was intended to be a double-murder of Guzman and Posadas, masterminded by General Eugenio Blanco and the Mexican government, as Posadas' briefcase (containing proof of the government's tiees to drug cartels) was stolen after he was assassinated.

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