He's the mayor. The soft-spoken year-old teacher distributes school supplies, organizes a job fair and works on improving the library.
He also tries to avoid ending up like his predecessor, who authorities say was kidnapped and shot to death last month by his own police officers, linked to the Zetas drug gang. Three other small-town mayors in northeastern Mexico have been killed in the last month β the latest on Thursday β and at least seven have been killed in border states this year.
On Friday, suspected drug hitmen shot and critically wounded the mayor-elect of Gran Morelos. Ricardo Solis was shot several times in the head and immediately taken to hospital, Mexican media said. Mexican drug cartels have increasingly targeted such officials as they fight the government and each other, seeking control of drug markets and routes to the United States.
They use isolated, lightly patrolled towns to hide and to stash kidnap victims, weapons and drugs. They must co-opt or eliminate authority figures like mayors to assert control over both residents and police. Santiago, a scenic town of 40, nestled against the Sierra Madre mountains, is in the state of Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas. It sits on an older, less-traveled highway that drug gangs use to reach Tamaulipas, another violence-wracked state on the U.
Authorities said Montalvo's predecessor, year-old Edelmiro Cavazos, was killed by his own security guard and other police in retaliation for his attempts to oust corrupt officers. And now there is fear. People are afraid. Hidalgo Mayor Marco Antonio Leal Garcia was gunned down in August while driving with his year-old daughter, who was wounded. San Luis Potosi Gov. Fernando Torazo said the mayor had asked for help cleaning out corrupt police officers. Most popular More than 28, people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched his war on drug cartels in late In northeast Mexico, where the most recent mayor killings happened, violence surged this year after the Zetas broke ranks with their former employer, the Gulf cartel.
