Abducted mayor’s body found in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Spiraling drug-war violence in Mexico’s wealthiest region has claimed the life of a prominent mayor – kidnapped Sunday and found dead Wednesday – and prompted demands from panicked residents for army protection.

Edelmiro Cavazos was mayor of Santiago, a picturesque tourist town near Monterrey, Mexico’s third-largest city and an industrial hub. He was grabbed from his gated home late Sunday by at least 15 gunmen wearing uniforms of a defunct police agency who arrived in a convoy of sport utility vehicles with patrol lights flashing.

Cavazos and a bodyguard apparently left the home to see what the members of the convoy wanted. Both were overpowered and bundled into the vehicles. The guard was later released.

Cavazos’ bound, blindfolded body was found dumped alongside a rural road Wednesday morning.

Cavazos, 38, represented the conservative party of President Felipe Calderon and won election last year, ending long domination of Santiago City Hall by the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Calderon condemned the “cowardly assassination” of the mayor and dispatched his top security official to the border state of Nuevo Leon, where Santiago and Monterrey are located.

State Gov. Rodrigo Medina, who arrived by helicopter at the site of the body dump, speculated that Cavazos might have been targeted because of his efforts to purge the notoriously corrupt local police, who are said to work on behalf of drug cartels.