A prominent attorney and former presidential candidate was kidnapped in central Mexico, the federal attorney general's office said on the weekend, dpa reported.
The Justice Department said that Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, 69, was abducted late Friday.
His car was found abandoned on a ranch in the state of Queretaro with bloodstains and other signs of violence, state Attorney General Arsenio Duran Becerra said.
President Felipe Calderon described the victim as "an outstanding Mexican in all aspects of public life, former presidential candidate and legislator of the National Action Party, and a key political figure in the country's democratic transition."
Fernandez de Cevallos, a controversial attorney often accused of influence peddling to favour his clients, is a close ally of Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont.