"Fearful" Mexican mayor shown with local mafia

A video uploaded on 29 September on the website YouTube purportedly showed the newly-installed mayor of Teloloapan in western Mexico promise gangsters that police would not meddle with their activities in return for a peaceful town, Proceso reported on 30 September. Ignacio de Jesús Valladares Salgado, from the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), had apparently been kidnapped; "visibly fearful and with a faltering voice" he told his captors he would appoint a "neutral" police chief "removed from the interests of any group," as promised apparently to the local head of the cartel La Familia Michoacana, dubbed El Pez (The Fish). The mayor observed however that other cartels were active in the region "and I am going to keep myself on the sidelines of everything." The captors said "that is what we want," and promised not to act against police, but vowed that if "police against us again," Teloloapan "will burn." The mayor promised to "invite" local policemen not to "become involved with problems that could cause them greater difficulties," and either dismiss agents "stepping out of line" as his interviewers said, or "hand them over to the army." Valladares was elected in the general elections of July 2012. On 30 September, authorities arrested one of the Familia Michoacana's local chiefs, sought for suspected crimes including trafficking and murder. Casimiro Nava León - El Casimiro - was arrested in Toluca, west of Mexico City; he was identified as the head or future head of the cartel in the Valle de Toluca zone, Proceso reported, citing police information. He was caught with arms, ammunition, drugs and cash.