Less than a week after taking office, a mayor has been beheaded in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero.
Alejandro Arcos was found dead in a pickup truck in the municipality of Chilpancingo on Sunday afternoon.
Disturbing photos on social media showed Arco’s severed head on the vehicle.
The murder of the 43-year-old took place when Chilpancingo was still reeling from the murder of the newly appointed municipal secretary last Thursday.
“They killed our mayor of Chilpancingo, Alejandro Arcos, and just three days ago the secretary of the same municipal council, Francisco Tapia,” Alejandro Moreno, the national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Moreno said both men were “young and honest officials who sought progress for their communities.”
Alejandro Arcos, the mayor of the southwestern Mexican city of Chilpancingo, was murdered and beheaded on Sunday afternoon. Authorities had not made any arrests as of Monday afternoon
Authorities in Chilpancingo, a city in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero, locate the pickup truck where the body of slain mayor Alejandro Arcos was found murdered. The 43-year-old’s severed head was found on top of the vehicle
Just hours before his death, Arcos visited the Chilpancingo neighborhoods of Plan de Ayala and Yerbabuena and met residents whose homes were damaged by Hurricane John two weeks ago.
“Our priority is to protect people living in vulnerable areas and ensure that the necessary measures are taken,” he wrote on Facebook. ‘My commitment is clear: we will continue to work hand in hand with society to restore basic services in the affected neighborhoods. Together we will move forward.’
On Friday, Arcos appeared on Radio Formula and told veteran journalist Ciro Gómez Leyva to call on the federal government to increase the presence of security forces in Chilpancingo and expand protection of city officials after Tapia’s murder.
“We will continue to work, we will continue to fight for our community,” Arcos said. “We have always talked about a peace project, it has been our banner, our proposal and that is what we strive for. We are not people of conflict.’
The late mayor Alejandro Arcos (right) leaves behind a wife and a son. The 43-year-old politician was murdered just six days after he was sworn in as mayor of Chilpancingo, a city in the southwestern Mexican state of Guerrero.
Investigators and forensic personnel work at the crime scene where the remains of Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos were found in a vehicle on Sunday
Dr. Gustavo Alarcón, who was chosen as an alternate candidate by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, could replace Mayor Alejandro Arcos, who was assassinated on Sunday
Under Article 24 of the Law on Electoral Institutions and Procedures of the State of Guerrero, the duties of mayor will fall to Gustavo Alarcón, a surgeon, who was appointed as an alternate candidate by the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
Alarcón, who ran for mayor in 2021 under the National Action Party, has not stated whether he will accept the post.
Arcos ran under a coalition ticket that also included the Institutional Revolutionary Party, the National Action Party and the Party of Democratic Revolution and pledged not to make deals with criminal organizations, a shot at his eventual predecessor, who was filmed during an alleged meeting with Celso. Ortega, the leader of the Ardillos drug gang, who has had a falling out with his rival Tlacos.
Three videos leaked in July and August 2023 showed former Mayor Hernández sitting across from Ortega in a restaurant.
She was expelled from the ruling Morena party last month, just three weeks before her term expired.
Hours before he was killed Sunday, Mayor Alejandro Arcos visited neighborhoods in Chilpancingo affected by last month’s Hurricane John.
Also in July 2023, federal officials said a demonstration held that month by hundreds of people in Chilpancingo was organized by the Ardillos gang to secure the release of two gang leaders arrested on drug and gun charges.
Protesters blocked largely all traffic on the highway between Mexico City and Acapulco for two days, fought security forces and commandeered an armored police car and used it to ram the gates of the state legislature building.
The protesters kidnapped ten members of the state police and National Guard, as well as three state and federal officials, and held them hostage to enforce their demands before releasing them.