Kidnapped Mexican Mayor Found Dead

The body of a small-town Mexican mayor was found along a roadside yesterday, two days after he had been kidnapped from his home. Edelmiro Cavazos Leal was handcuffed and blindfolded and police say there were signs of torture, CNN reports. The mayor of the Monterrey suburb of Santiago had been trying to stamp out corruption in the police force.

Leal's death comes amid a surge in violence in Monterrey, which until recently had been largely spared from the drug-related violence seen elsewhere in Mexico. "People just didn't think it was going to happen here," the state's former top security officer tells the Wall Street Journal. "Now most of our police corps have been infiltrated by organized crime." (More mayor stories.)