Recently declassified documents suggest former Mexican president was a CIA asset

Recently declassified documents published by the US National Archives reveal that former Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo, who served as the country's leader from 1976 to 1982, was allegedly an asset of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The documents, which were part of a CIA probe into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, include a memo from a meeting of CIA agents on November 29, 1976. 

According to the declassified documents published by the US National Archives, US intelligence official Bill Sturbitts reportedly informed his colleagues during a meeting that "Mexico will soon have a new president, a man who has had control of Liaison for a number of years". Although former Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo was not explicitly mentioned by name in the memo, the timing of the meeting just a few days before he assumed the presidency suggests a potential connection.

Portillo passed away in 2004

Lopez Portillo, who ran for office earlier that year as the sole candidate from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which had ruled Mexico for over seven decades from 1929 to 2000, passed away in 2004 at the age of 83. The revelation from the declassified documents raises questions about the alleged relationship between the US intelligence community and Lopez Portillo's rise to power, shedding new light on the complexities of Mexican politics during that era.

The memo in question pertained to a meeting focused on the anticipated release of papers from the CIA's investigation into Lee Harvey Oswald, who was convicted for the murder of President John F. Kennedy. Oswald had visited Mexico shortly before the tragic events that unfolded in Dallas, and as a result, US intelligence conducted extensive surveillance and phone-tapping operations in the country.

According to authorities, it was concluded that Oswald, a Marine veteran, fired shots at the president from a sixth-floor window in a nearby building as the presidential motorcade passed by. However, Oswald denied the accusations, publicly claiming to be a "patsy." Just two days after JFK's assassination, Oswald was shot and killed while in police custody by Jack Ruby. Ruby, who was subsequently sentenced to death, ultimately died of lung cancer while in prison.