A mayor-elect from the Mexican state of Veracruz was kidnapped and killed along with two companions on Monday, local media reported. The reports did not link the killings to the violence sweeping Mexico as the government fights powerful drug cartels. Several mayors and other elected officials have been targeted by drug gangs in recent months.
Gregorio Barradas Miravete, the mayor-elect from the municipality of Juan Rodriguez Clara, was a member of President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party.
The three men were forced into a Hummer truck in the afternoon in the south of Veracruz and were then taken to the neighboring state of Oaxaca, local prosecutors said, according to several online newspapers.
"The truck was found with the three bodies inside," authorities said.
More than 31,000 people have been killed across Mexico since December 2006, when Calderon took office and launched his army-led crackdown against drug cartels.
(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
