General Ricardo Cesar Nino Villarreal, the man appointed in May to quell violence in northern Mexico’s restive region of Nuevo Leon, has been shot dead by armed assailants along with his wife.

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Local officials said the two were ambushed on Saturday as they drove on the road linking the cities of Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo, south of the Texan border, but their two-door car and the bodies were found only on Sunday.

More than 100 high-caliber bullet casings lay at the scene of the shooting.

Nino Villarreal was one of four military officers who were deployed by the federal government in the spring to stem a surge of violence in the border state of Tamaulipas.

The general was in charge of a northern zone that includes Nuevo Laredo, just across the border from the Texan city of Laredo.

The area has been the scene of bloody turf wars between the Zetas and Gulf cartels, which are fighting over control of the lucrative drug trafficking route into the US.

"The government of Tamaulipas condemns and deeply laments the death of General Ricardo Cesar Nino Villarreal and his wife," the state's security coordination group said in a statement.

Nuevo Leon's chief prosecutor, Adrian de la Garza, said earlier that authorities were checking whether the general was indeed one of the victims.

De la Garza said the general usually travelled in an armored vehicle with a security detail, but the victims were unarmed and in a civilian car.

Nino Villareal survived a previous attack on October 9 when unidentified gunmen shot at his armored vehicle.

Twitter murder

The military took full control of security in Tamaulipas in May after scores of people died in a series of gunfights between warring cartels as well as clashes between gangs and security forces.

Despite the efforts to beef up security, the state has seen continued violence in recent months.

On Monday, residents clad in white and led by white-robed priests marched through Ciudad Victoria, the state’s capital, carrying photos of people who have disappeared due to kidnappings and drug gang violence.

The protesters estimated that at least 750 people have been killed or disappeared in the area over the last four years.

Last week, officials in the city of Matamoros found the bodies of three American siblings, all in their 20s, and of a Mexican man believed to be the boyfriend of one of the slain Americans.

Prosecutors have questioned nine members of a special police unit, known as the Hercules Group, over allegations that they had kidnapped the four victims.

And in mid-October, the country was shocked by the disappearance and presumed murder of a doctor who used Twitter to report violence in Tamaulipas.

Authorities said they were investigating whether Maria del Rosario Fuentes was killed after disturbing pictures of her were posted on her account.

Before the hacked account was taken down, someone using Fuentes Rubio's mobile phone posted a photo of her apparently lifeless, bloody face and the words “today my life has reached its end.''

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)



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