Our southern 'neighbor'...
The murder scarred a part of Mexico that was supposed to be reasonably
safe from violence and crime. Santiago is a picturesque town of
waterfalls, colonial churches and holiday homes for the rich. Its mayor,
Edelmiro Cavazos, was a blue-eyed 38-year-old educated in the U.S. But
it seems that no corner of the country is shielded from the relentless
rain of drug-related bloodshed.
The killers came for Mayor Cavazos in the early hours of Aug. 16, when
seven SUVs rolled up and men in police uniforms descended on his
palatial home. Servants stood back terrified as their boss was forced
away at gunpoint. On Aug. 18, his corpse was dumped on a nearby road.
There was a mercy of sorts in the manner of his killing — shot dead with
two bullets in the head and one in the chest, and spared the mutilation
and rape inflicted on so many other victims. The following day,
hundreds of residents wept over his coffin in Santiago's central plaza,
lining the stairs up to the church with candles and holding signs
calling for peace. (See pictures of Culiacán, the home of Mexico's drug-trafficking industry.)
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