In the latest incident of drug-related violence in Mexico, a city mayor in the troubled north-central state of San Luis Potosi was shot dead on Wednesday.
Masked gunmen burst into the office of El Naranjo Mayor Alexander Lopez and opened fire in the presence of visitors, reports quoting police said.
President Felipe Calderon's office issued a statement condemning the killing, as well as rejecting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comparison of the country with "Colombia of 20 years ago."
She made the comments while speaking on U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday.
Many of the Latin American policy-makers in the U.S. view Colombia as the United States' most trusted ally in the region. Under former President Alvaro Uribe, Colombia applied Washington's blueprint for fighting a war on the narco-traffickers, who control certain parts of the country.
Lopez is the third Mexican mayor slain within a month by drug-gangs, all in neighboring states. Mayor of Santiago, a town in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, was found killed on August 18, two days after he was kidnapped. Mayor of the small town of Hidalgo in the troubled north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, was shot dead on August 29.
It was the second incident that shocked the Mexican state bordering Texas, U.S., within a week. On August 24, the dumped bodies of 72 people were found at a ranch in San Fernando following a shootout between marines and suspected members of a drug cartel.
Seven suspects of the incident were arrested in recent days.
Drug-related violence was rising in the country despite real progress made by defense and police forces in tackling the drug mafia.
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