Mayors Washing Hands

One of the more disturbing and noteworthy pieces of info from my past week of limited blogging was the kidnapping and murder of Edelmiro Cavazos, mayor of a Monterrey suburb, in apparent retaliation for the arrest of some Zetas in his town. While murders of mayors are thankfully rare in Mexico, intimidation of local governments by organized crime groups is far from an isolated phenomenon: according to officials involved with the recent security dialogues, 90 percent of local government efforts to confront organized crime are insufficient.