Gustavo Sanchez mayor of Tancitaro was found brutally murdered this week. Sanchez is the 11th mayor killed in 2010 in the wake of the ongoing and ever escalating brutal drug war between the Mexican cartels. Sanchez was apparently stoned to death and his body dumped in the back of a truck for public display. These gruesome tactics have become the calling card of the Mexican cartels. In a seeming continued effort to out do one another through displays of intimidation, which has led to people being hung in the streets and decapitated heads being displayed on bridges. Sanchez became the mayor of Tancitaro after the majority of its city officials resigned out of fear of the cartels. Sanchez had been a school teacher before entering a political career. He was thought to have felt that since he had no real political background and no enemies that he could do a fine job and be safe as mayor. Regrettably he was wrong in the light of the ongoing turf war between the cartels it seems everyone is a target especially politicians no matter what their background may be. This week also saw the Mexican police and army engage cartel associates in bloody shootouts in which several cartel members and a Mexican Marine were killed as a result. Also in the Mexican state of Chihuahua several heavily armed cartel members overpowered guards at a government army, they then seized dozens of assault rifle style weapons.

The continued escalation of violence in Mexico and the out right killing of public officials is a testament to the strangle hold the cartels truly have on the country. There are now almost thirty thousand dead in the past four years as direct result of the feuding cartels. At present time it is only foreseeable hat the violence and rising death toll will only continue to intensify.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/28/world/la-fg-mexico-mayor-murder-20100928