Mexican Police Search Ranch -- Body Of Suspect Sought; Could Aid Case Against Salinas' Brother

MEXICO CITY - Federal police have searched a ranch owned by the brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari for the body of a suspect in a political assassination.

Yesterday's search could throw new light on the case against Raul Salinas de Gortari, who has been jailed since February 1995 on charges of plotting the assassination of a political rival.

Raul Salinas is the elder brother of Carlos Salinas, the former president who left Mexico for self-imposed exile shortly after his term ended in December 1994.

In a separate development in the scandals that have tainted the Salinas family, Mexico's ruling party yesterday dissolved a congressional probe of accusations of corruption at a government agency involving Raul Salinas.

Later yesterday, a spokesman for the federal attorney general's office said police had obtained a warrant to search a Raul Salinas ranch in Cuajimalpa, a suburban district of Mexico City, for the body of Manuel Munoz Rocha.

Munoz Rocha, a federal congressman, disappeared after the September 1994 shooting death of Jose Francisco Ruiz Massieu, a top official in the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Mexican prosecutors say Raul Salinas and Munoz Rocha were close associates and conspired to murder Ruiz Massieu. Police have long believed Munoz Rocha is dead.

There was no word from police on what they found at the ranch. Mexico's Television Azteca quoted Raul Gonzalez Salas, a lawyer for Raul Salinas, as saying police had found "no evidence of any cadaver."

Raul Salinas - who maintains his innocence - also faces charges of amassing an illegal fortune while a public servant in a government food agency in his brother's administration. More than $100 million has been discovered in overseas bank accounts he held.

Though it made no accusations, the congressional commission - controlled by the ruling party, known as PRI - ended its investigation into irregularities at the agency by urging federal officials to continue investigating the case.

Opposition legislators accused the PRI of covering up a scandal that could weaken its grip on power.