Hitmen kill Mexican mayor in drug war state

Suspected drug hitmen killed the mayor of a small town in northern Mexico on yesterday in a region where two car bombs exploded last week and the bodies of 72 murdered migrant workers were found.

Mayor Marco Antonio Leal was shot dead by gunmen in SUVs as he drove through his rural municipality of Hidalgo near the Gulf of Mexico in Tamaulipas state, the local attorney general’s office said. Leal’s four-year-old daughter was slightly wounded in the attack, a spokesman said.

The Mexican war on drugs has claimed over 28,000 lives since it began in 2006.





It was not immediately clear why Leal was targeted, but Tamaulipas has become one of Mexico’s bloodiest drug flashpoints since the start of the year as rival hitmen from the Gulf cartel and its former armed wing, the Zetas, fight over smuggling routes into the United States

President Felipe Calderon, who is facing rising calls for a change in strategy in his cartel war, condemned the attack and vowed to continue his fight against drug gangs.

“This cowardly crime and the reprehensible violent events recently in the region strengthen our commitment to continue fighting the criminal groups that seek to terrify families (in Tamaulipas),” Calderon said in a statement.

Two car bombs exploded in Tamaulipas’ state capital, Ciudad Victoria, on Friday, three days after marines found the bodies of 72 migrants gunned down at a ranch in the state.

The blasts, the second and third modest bombs planted in a vehicle this month in Ciudad Victoria and the fourth in Mexico since July, caused no casualties but damaged buildings.

In a sign of escalating violence, hitmen threw three grenades in the centre of the manufacturing city of Reynosa, also in Tamaulipas and across from McAllen, Texas on Saturday, injuring 15 people, Reynosa city hall said.

Gunmen murdered a popular candidate for Tamaulipas governor in June in Mexico’s worst political killing in 16 years.

Calderon has blamed the surge in violence in Tamaulipas on the split between the Gulf and Zetas gang but has vowed to crush the cartels.

More than 28,000 people have died in drug violence since Calderon launched his war on drugs in late 2006, prompting fears that bloodshed could undermine tourism and investment as Mexico slowly recovers from its worst recession since 1932.