MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Mexican president closest advisors killed in jet crash

Mexico's Home Secretary and other top officials have been killed after the small jet they travelling in went down in the centre of Mexico City. The first reports from the Mexican government currently in a full war against the drug barons, said there were no indications, so far, of a terrorist attack.

Juan Camilo Mourino, a close adviser to Felipe Calderon, the president, was among at least thirteen people killed and dozens injured when the plane crashed into evening rush hour traffic in the city's wealthy Lomas de Chapultepec neighbourhood on Tuesday. Luis Tellez, the secretary of transportation, confirmed that Mourino was on board the plane together with Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the former assistant attorney-general and heavily involved in the drugs war. Another top official and close advisor of President Calderon Ambassador Miguel Monterrubio, currently spokesperson for the Home Secretary was also killed. Marcelo Ebrard, the mayor of Mexico City told reporters at the scene of the crash that Mourino was on board and that there were no survivors. The force of the crash set two dozen cars ablaze and pieces of wreckage were strewn across a wide area, Tellez said, adding that at least 40 people were injured in the incident. Ebrard said five people on the ground who were seriously injured were taken to hospital and that a fire set off by the accident was under control. About 1,800 people were evacuated from the area. Civil aviation officials are investigating the cause of the accident with the help from US and British experts. Mexican radio reported an air traffic controller as saying that the government Learjet was coming in to land at Mexico City airport when it hit the ground between tall buildings in a busy business district. "When it was at approximately 4.8 kilometres from the airport they reported an emergency, they didn't say what kind of emergency, and we lost all contact with them," Angel Iturbe, the controller, said. Vasconcelos was, until recently, a key player in Mexico's army-led war on drug cartels reportedly behind the killings of more than 4,000 people this year of mainly drug traffickers but also enforcement officers. Transport and Communications minister Jose Luis Tellez has cautioned that the investigation as to the causes of the crash could take weeks. On being informed of the news President Calderon on a visit to Guadalajara immediately returned to Mexico City. Meantime the Army surrounded the airport of San Luis de Potosí from where the jet had taken off.