By Robin Emmott
Monterrey, Mexico - Security forces found the body of a slain mayor on Wednesday near Mexico's richest city, days after he was abducted by hitmen in the latest attack on a public official from increasingly bold drug cartels.
President Felipe Calderon, who has staked his presidency on a faltering drug war, condemned the "cowardly assassination" of Edelmiro Cavazos, the mayor of a town on the outskirts of Monterrey, an industrial centre with close US business ties.
"The murder of Edelmiro is an outrage and forces us to redouble our efforts to fight these cowardly criminals," Calderon wrote in a Twitter update.
Cavazos, a 38-year-old, US-educated mayor from Calderon's conservative National Action Party, was found dumped on a rural road early on Wednesday outside his town of Santiago. He was blindfolded and his hands were tied.
Heavily armed soldiers swarmed the crime scene while frightened residents of the popular colonial tourist town stayed indoors, leaving normally busy streets deserted.
The attorney general in the border state of Nuevo Leon, which includes Santiago and Monterrey, which is 230km from Texas, confirmed the body discovered was Cavazos' and said drug cartels were behind the killing.
Nuevo Leon Governor Rodrigo Medina urged Calderon to send more troops to Monterrey and surrounding areas, echoing a plea published on Wednesday from Mexican business groups in a full-page statement in local newspapers.
Medina said this week that Cavazos, who took office last year, was probably targeted for his efforts to clean up Santiago's corrupt police force, part of a nationwide effort to curb endemic police graft.
Santiago, a popular weekend getaway for Monterrey residents, has also become a staging post for drug gangs smuggling narcotics north into the United States.
More than 28 000 people, mainly drug traffickers and police, have been killed in Mexico's drug war since December 2006, intensifying worries in Washington about the stability of the United States' oil-producing neighbour.
Interior Minister Francisco Blake was due in Monterrey later in the day to discuss the killing with local leaders. - Reuters