Six city police officers were arrested Aug. 20 in connection with the killing of a mayor in a suburb of Monterrey [2], Mexico. The suspects included the officer who guarded the house where Santiago Mayor Edelmiro Cavazos was seized on Aug. 15. The officer was supposedly abducted with the mayor, but later freed unharmed. The body of the 38-year-old mayor was found bound, gagged and blindfolded three days later on a road outside town. The officers confessed to involvement in the Cavazos' killing, said Nuevo León state Prosecutor General Alejandro Garza y Garza, who added that other suspects are still being sought.
Cavazos was the fifth Mexican mayor to be killed this year. Officials said he was targeted for his efforts to fight corruption within his city's police force. Mauricio Fernández, mayor of the San Pedro Garza Garcia, another town outsside Monterrey, said Cavazos had received death threats from narco gangs. Officials at the state prosecutor general's office said Cavazos had never informed authorities about any threats. Gen. Guillermo Moreno, who commands troops in Nuevo León and Tamaulipas states, said the army had never received complains from the mayor or requests for protection. (AP [3], Aug. 20; AlJAzeera [4], Aug. 18)
See our last post on Mexico's narco wars [2].
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