Mayor kidnapped near Mexico City found dead

MEXICO CITY – The mayor of a village in central Mexico was found dead Saturday, a day after he was kidnapped, security officials said, bringing to five the number of mayors killed in the country this year.

“In the morning, we found a corpse in the town of El Pochote, and we confirmed in the afternoon that it was (Zacualpan Mayor) Jesus Eduviges Nava,” a security official from southern Guerrero state told AFP by telephone.

A report from the state security bureau indicated that Nava “was found naked, with signs of torture all over his body and blunt force trauma to his forehead, which apparently caused his death.”

The death brought to 19 the number of mayors killed in Mexico since 2010, five of them this year. Authorities say mayors may be targeted for refusing to cooperate with criminal groups.

An armed group kidnapped Nava and a colleague on Friday. One of the mayor’s personal guards was killed during the attack, and authorities in Guerrero said they were still unsure of the whereabouts of his colleague.

Zacualpan, home to 14,000 people, borders the state of Guerrero and is located in an area where organized criminal groups are rife, including the La Familia drug cartel and a break-away group, the Knights Templar.

More than 41,000 people have died in violence linked to Mexico’s organized crime gangs since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on them in December 2006.