Mexico top Cabinet Secy dies in crash

Mexico top Cabinet Secy dies in crash

Mexico's top Cabinet secretary, Francisco Blake Mora, a key figure in the Mexico's battle with drug cartels, has died in a helicopter crash along with seven others, including the pilot.

The Presidency spokeswoman, Alejandra Sota, said authorities located the bodies of the secretary and seven others. They included Interior Undersecretary Felipe Zamora, said agency spokesman Jose Alfredo Garcia.

Calderon appointed Blake Mora as interior secretary in July 2010.

Blake Mora was travelling to a prosecutors' meeting in the neighboring state of Morelos when the helicopter went down in a mountainous area of Mexico state southeast of Mexico City. Officials said they did not immediately know the cause of the crash.

The secretary of the interior is the country's top official after the president, overseeing internal political affairs and security, making him a key figure in directing the battle against drug cartels, as well as negotiating with opposition political parties and with the legislature.

President Felipe Calderon lost Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino in the crash of a Learjet in Mexico City on November 4, 2008.

Despite widespread speculation that that accident, which killed 14, was caused by sabotage, investigators eventually ruled that out and blamed pilot error.

One of Blake's last postings on his Twitter account commemorated the loss of Mourino.

"Today we remember Juan Camilo Mourino three years after his death, a person who was working to build a better Mexico," Blake tweeted on November 4.