Harrowing moment Mexico's fearless woman mayor begged for her little girl's life before she was abducted by drug gang, tortured and executed

'I wanted to show them my wounded, mutilated, humiliated body, because I’m not ashamed of it, because it is the product of the great misfortunes that have scarred my life, that of my children and my family.'

'Despite my own safety and that of my family, what occupies my mind is my responsibility towards my people, the children, the women, the elderly and the men who break their souls every day without rest to find a piece of bread for their children.

'Freedom brings with it responsibilities and I don’t dare fall behind. My long road is not yet finished - the footprint that we leave behind in our country depends on the battle that we lose and the loyalty we put into it.'

After her ordeal she remarried and ran for a seat in Mexico's Congress of the Union, but failed to gain the backing she needed.

She remarried and dropped out of the public eye.

But it was still almost inevitable that she would eventually pay for her bravery with her life

Mexico has been torn apart by murderous drug gangs since President Felipe Calderon launched his drug offensive in 2006.

More than 50,000 people have been killed in clashes between rival drug cartels and security forces and about two dozen mayors have been murdered.

The cartels have ruled the streets with fear for years, enforcing their authority with murders, bribery and torture.

But after decades of using force to combat the gangs, it is U.S. lawmakers who are the criminals' biggest problem.

Legalisation of marijuana, as recently voted for by Colorado and Washington states, may wipe billions of dollars from the cartels’ annual profits.

And it has left politicians in Mexico with a tough question: How can they continue to justify spending money – and lives – fighting drug distribution to America when it will be legal in some states from next month?

Mexico presidential advisor Luis Videgaray said in a radio interview last week: 'Obviously, we can’t handle a product that is illegal in Mexico, trying to stop its transfer to the United States, when in the United States, at least in part of the United States, it now has a different status'

From January to September last year, 12,903 people were killed in the country in drug-related crime, ranging from gang members, Mexican military and innocent victims caught up in gun battles.

The Mexican government claim they are winning the war on drugs, but few outside – or inside – the country believe that.

So corrupt are their police that they are rarely employed in combating the cartels. Instead, the country relies on its army to tackle the gangs while it attempts to rebuild its police forces.

Public support for the drug war continues to fall as the death toll rises and the cartels’ profits rise.

The business of trafficking drugs from Mexico into the U.S. is estimated to be a business worth between $13billion (£8billion) and $49billion (£30billion), with 90 per cent of all cocaine used in America originating from the country, according to a U.S. state report.

The U.S. Justice Department considers the cartels as America’s greatest organised crime threat, while conceding that it is U.S. dollars that fund the crime ravaging Mexico.

In 2009 a military assessment predicted that if the drugs war continued for another 25 years, Mexico’s government was at serious risk of collapse and the conflict would spread into America.

A year earlier, the U.S. Joint Forces Command suggested a similar time-scale of collapse in Mexico and warned American intervention may be necessary due to the implications for homeland security.

The problem of strengthening the Mexico/U.S. border even prompted President Barack Obama to deploy 1,200 National Guard troops in 2010.

The two major cartels in Mexico are now the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas.

The Sinaloa Cartel was formed when several gangs agreed to join forces in 2006 and is now led by Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.

He is Mexico's most wanted drug trafficker and is believed to be worth $1billion. Forbes magazing even declared him the 55th most powerful man in the world in 2009.

Los Zetas were originally a mercenary outfit of former elite members of the Mexican army by the Gulf Cartel.

Consisting of Airmobile Special Forces Group and Amphibian Group of Special Forces members, they helped control parts of Mexico for the Gulf Cartel until its leader, Osiel Cardenas Guillen, was arrested.

Los Zetas took the opportunity to seize power for themselves and are now a 300-strong independent drugs and arms trafficking gang under the leadership of Heriberto Lazcano. continue reading