The mayor of the capital of the violence-plagued Mexican state of Guerrero was killed on Sunday less than a week after taking office, the state’s governor confirmed.
Alejandro Arcos was killed just six days after taking office as mayor of Chilpancingo, a city of about 280,000 people in southwestern Mexico.
Hours before his death, Alejandro Arcos was touring communities in the suburbs of Chilpancingo that had been affected by heavy rains from the hurricane.
Official confirmation came after photos circulated on the messaging app WhatsApp showing Arcos’ severed head on top of a pickup truck. Arcos’ death came just three days after Francisco Tapia, secretary of the new city government, was shot dead. Meanwhile, senator Alejandro Moreno wrote on social media:
They were young and honest officials who sought progress for their community.
Moreno, who is head of Mexico’s PRI political party, also called on the federal attorney general’s office to lead the investigation into the murders of Arcos and Tapia given the “situation of ungovernability in Guerrero.”
The capital of Guerrero, one of Mexico’s poorest states, deepens a spiral of violence and social decay that is spreading across much of the state, engulfed by thousands of battles between criminal gangs for control of territory.
Ahead of June elections for presidential and parliamentary posts, six candidates have been killed in Guerrero alone.
Organised criminal networks and drug cartels have been largely responsible for the security crisis Mexico has been experiencing for years. In 2022, the country recorded 30,968 intentional homicides. According to Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography, the country recorded 15,082 homicides in the first six months of 2023.
