Mexican mayor assassinated, severed head positioned atop pick-up truck 6 days after taking workplace

The mayor of a violence-plagued metropolis in Mexico was killed on Sunday together with his decapitated physique left in a pickup truck and his severed head positioned atop the automobile’s roof. 

Alejandro Arcos, 43, was killed simply six days after he took workplace as mayor of town of Chilpancingo, a metropolis of round 280,000 folks in southwestern Mexico. 

Town, the capital of Guerrero state, is so violent {that a} drug gang overtly staged an indication, hijacked a authorities armored automobile and took police hostage in 2023 to win the discharge of arrested suspects. 

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Alejandro Arcos, the previous Mayor of Chilpancingo, poses for a selfie picture at an unknown location. (Alejandro Arcos by way of Fb/Handout by way of Reuters)

Pictures of what gave the impression to be Arcos’ severed head atop a white pick-up truck have been circulating on social media. In different photos, his headless physique partially coated with a blanket may be seen within the passenger aspect of the truck.

Arcos’ social media posts main as much as his loss of life confirmed him supervising catastrophe reduction efforts following the affect of Hurricane John final month, which brought on extreme flooding in seashore resort Acapulco and surrounding cities.

Mourners, together with Arcos’ spouse, attended a funeral for the slain official on Monday.

“His loss mourns all the Guerrero society and fills us with indignation,” Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado mentioned in a press release shared on social media.

Alejandro Moreno, the nationwide chief of the Institutional Revolutionary Celebration, or PRI, lamented Arcos’ killing and mentioned it got here simply three days after the brand new metropolis authorities’s secretary, Francisco Tapia, was shot to loss of life. 

“They’d been in workplace lower than per week,” Moreno wrote on his social media accounts. “They had been younger and sincere public servants who had been looking for progress for his or her group.”

A pick-up truck is transported from the scene the place Alejandro Arcos, the mayor of Chilpancingo, was killed, in Chilpancingo, Guerrero state, Mexico on Oct. 6, 2024.  (Oscar Guerrero)

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Moreno known as on the federal legal professional common’s workplace to steer the investigation into Arcos and Tapia’s murders, given “the scenario of ungovernability in Guerrero.”

Guerrero has develop into one of many deadliest states for aspiring and elected public officers, in addition to for journalists. A minimum of six candidates for public workplace had been killed within the state within the run-up to Mexico’s June 2 elections.

Bloody turf battles have raged between two drug gangs, the Ardillos and the Tlacos. The battle has resulted in dozens of ugly killings and a few high-profile scandals.

A earlier mayor was caught on video apparently holding a gathering with leaders of one of many gangs at a restaurant. She was subsequently expelled from her celebration.

In July 2023, federal officers mentioned an indication held by a whole lot of individuals in Chilpancingo that month had been organized by the Ardillos gang to win the discharge of two gang leaders arrested for medication and weapons possession.

The demonstrators largely blocked all site visitors on the freeway between Mexico Metropolis and Acapulco for 2 days, battled safety forces and commandeered a police armored truck and used it to ram down the gates of the state legislature constructing.

Pallbearers carry the casket of Alejandro Arcos, the mayor of Chilpancingo, who was killed on Sunday lower than per week after taking workplace (Oscar Ramirez)

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The demonstrators kidnapped 10 members of the state police and Nationwide Guard, in addition to three state and federal officers, and held them hostage to implement their calls for earlier than releasing them.

Final week, the Mexican military seized the weapons of native police within the cartel-dominated metropolis of Culiacan within the nation’s northwest Sinaloa state, as violence and gunfights have ravaged that metropolis in latest weeks additionally. The Mexican military has been identified to grab weapons from distrusted police forces it suspects of both being concerned in aiding the cartel, or over issues the items had been carrying unregistered arms that made abuses tougher to hint. 

Reuters and The Related Press contributed to this report.