Nuevo Leon Governor Rodrigo Medina has called on Mexican President Felipe Calderón to send additional military troops to his state.
Mexican Governor Seeks More National Troops
The murder of a mayor by presumed drug traffickers is just the latest in the wave of carnage in northern Mexico.
Three days after Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos was kidnapped from his home in Santiago, in the northern state, Nuevo Leon, his body was found, bound and blindfolded, early Wednesday morning on a highway outside the city.
Fifteen armed men, wearing uniforms of the extinct Federal Judicial Police, abducted the mayor from his home, late Monday night.
At a news conference, Governor Rodrigo Medina expressed his indignation about the killing.
Medina says his government is joining the business community and civil society in their request to President Calderón for a significant increase in the number of military and police agents in the state.
Calderon began his war on organized crime, shortly after taking office in 2006. Since that time, more than 28,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence. The president has said repeatedly that 90 percent of the dead are criminals, but few investigations of the killings have been conducted.
Meanwhile, thousands of Mexicans have filed complaints against the army and police for human rights abuses. These allegations range from stealing and torture to rapes and kidnapping.
The American government has supported Calderón's war through Plan Mérida, a $1.4 billion assistance program that began two years ago, under the Bush administration.