The mayor of a city in Mexico State, Salvador Vergara Cruz, was executed Saturday by a team carrying high-powered assault rifles. Vergara, a political ally of Governor (and future presidential candidate) Enrique Peña Nieto, had evidently denied political protection to a group of narcomenudistas, or retail drug dealers. The group of frustrated criminals allegedly killed him in retaliation.
A couple of worries, plus one bright spot: First, narcomenudistas are typically not closely aligned to the cartels. They are not international, but rather local, much like the corner boys in the Wire. That they would be bold enough to murder a politician, not to mention one close Peña Nieto, who has as good a shot as running the country from 2012 to 2018 as anyone, is an ominous sign. Second, as far as we know, Vergara was killed for not for protecting the wrong band, but refusing protection. Further revelations may well cloud the picture, but for the moment it seems that Vergara was killed for being honest.
The silver lining: 14 people have already been arrested for the crime. If Mexico's police agencies can start dismantling the groups responsible for particularly heinous or destabilizing crimes, not merely arresting the designated patsy but taking apart the organization from top to bottom, that would be a huge step forward in making Mexico more governable.
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