The mayor of small down outside Mexico city was killed this weekend by hooded assassins

[Liberal_in_LA]

the drug wars in mexico are spinning out of control.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mayor8-2008oct08,0,2221488.story

Killing of Mexico mayor sends message

The slaying of a rising political star is ascribed to his refusal to have any contact with drug traffickers.

By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 8, 2008

MEXICO CITY -- Until he was gunned down over the weekend, Salvador Vergara Cruz was a man of some influence with a promising future in his political party. Mayor of an important resort town outside Mexico City, and a close confidant of his state's governor, Vergara apparently felt sufficiently at ease to travel without a specially assigned team of bodyguards despite receiving death threats from purported drug lords.

The 34-year-old Vergara was killed by hooded assassins armed with semiautomatic rifles as he drove with other officials toward his home city of Ixtapan de la Sal on Saturday afternoon.

Mexico Under Siege: Complete CoverageThe killing of a sitting elected official may turn out to be one of the more significant political slayings in Mexico's raging drug war, not so much because of who he was as for what his death represented.

Prosecutors in the state of Mexico say Vergara was killed because he refused to allow drug gangs to move into and operate freely in his city, along a transit route for drugs into the nation's capital.

[Tunkamerica]

1. mexico's a city now?

everything's getting smaller

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. ooops... Mexico city.

[Tunkamerica]

4. I think it's a town outside of Mexico City n/t

[arcos]

5. It's not Mexico City...

He was the mayor of Ixtapan de la Sal, a small tourist town about 55 miles from Mexico City (according to the article).

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. ooops. Let me correct again.

[Horse with no Name]

2. I went to Arizona this summer

and I opted to go the long way rather than to ride the border.
From what I understand, it will be awhile before they lift the travel advisories for El Paso.

[charlie]

9. You would've been fine in El Paso

It's crime stats consistently place it in the top tier of safest large cities in the country. Which is odd, since Juarez is the picture of a city out of control. It's a blood-soaked hellhole over there.

[Oregone]

6. Hooded Assassins?

Hm. I wonder what police station they worked at.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Ixtapa de la Sal is about hafl an hour south-south west of Mexico City

used to be a nice place to go relax...

That war is getting really bad

[bemildred]

10. Losing the drug war too?

What's that, four for four? Drugs, Terror, Iraq, Afghanistan? Did I miss any?

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. The Katrina disaster