Security forces found the body of a slain mayor on Wednesday near Mexico's richest city, days after he was abducted by hitmen in the latest attack on a public official from increasingly bold drug cartels. 

Edelmiro Cavazos, mayor of the tourist town of Santiago, in a May 2010 photo.[Xinhua]

President Felipe Calderon, who has staked his presidency on a faltering drug war, condemned the "cowardly assassination" of Edelmiro Cavazos, the mayor of a town on the outskirts of Monterrey, an industrial center with close US business ties. 

"The murder of Edelmiro is an outrage and forces us to redouble our efforts to fight these cowardly criminals," Calderon wrote in a Twitter update.

Cavazos, a 38-year-old, US-educated mayor from Calderon's conservative National Action Party, was found dumped on a rural road early on Wednesday outside his town of Santiago. He was blindfolded and his hands were tied.

Heavily armed soldiers swarmed the crime scene while frightened residents of the popular colonial tourist town stayed indoors, leaving normally busy streets deserted.

The attorney general in the border state of Nuevo Leon, which includes Santiago and Monterrey, which is 140 miles from Texas, confirmed the body discovered was Cavazos' and said drug cartels were behind the killing.