Mexico’s government held a memorial service for seven soldiers whose decapitated bodies were left along a boulevard with a sign: “For every one of mine that you kill, I will kill 10.”

Mexico’s main leftist candidate plans to challenge the presidential vote tally at tens of thousands of polling places, and also will allege that attack ads by the apparently victorious conservative were illegally harsh, a top adviser said today.

Two pilots detained as they awaited a shipment of cocaine from Venezuela are employees of Mexico’s federal water commission, local media quoted officials as saying today.

Rescue workers today searched for victims of a mudslide near a volcano-ringed lake popular with tourists in Guatemala, as the death toll from flooding sparked by heavy rains climbed to 79 across the country and 65 in neighbouring El Salvador.