Mayor in Mexico ‘decapitated by drug gang’ just days after starting job

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Louise Thomas

Editor

The new mayor of a state capital in southern Mexico has been killed just one week after he took office, officials have confirmed.

The news comes after claims on social media that the decapitated head of Alejandro Arcos, who was sworn in last Monday as mayor of Chilpancingo, was left on a car in the street.

Chilpancingo is a city so violent that a drug gang openly staged a demonstration, hijacked a government armored car and took police hostage in 2023 to win the release of arrested suspects.

Chilpancingo is the capital of Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located.

The state prosecutors’ office issued a statement Sunday confirming Arcos had been killed, but provided no details.

The official confirmation came after photos circulated on messaging app WhatsApp depicting a severed head on top of a pick-up truck, appearing to be that of Arcos. The photos could not independently verified.

Alejandro Moreno, the national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, lamented Arcos' killing and said the newly installed secretary of the city council had also been murdered three days earlier.

“They had been in office less than a week,” Moreno wrote on his social media accounts. “They were young and honest public servants who were seeking progress for their community.”

Chilpancingo has long been the scene of bloody turf battles between two drug gangs, the Ardillos and the Tlacos. The battle has resulted in dozens of gruesome killings and some high-profile scandals.

A previous mayor was caught on video apparently holding a meeting with leaders of one of the gangs at a restaurant. She was subsequently expelled from her party.

In July 2023, federal officials said a demonstration held by hundreds of people in Chilpancingo that month had been organized by the Ardillos gang to win the release of two gang leaders arrested for drugs and weapons possession.

The demonstrators largely blocked all traffic on the highway between Mexico City and Acapulco for two days, battled security forces and commandeered a police armored truck and used it to ram down the gates of the state legislature building.

The demonstrators abducted 10 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.

President Claudia Sheinbaum will present her strategy for confronting Mexico’s dire security situation on Tuesday.

Sheinbaum, inaugurated as Mexico’s first woman president less than a week ago, is expected to unveil a policy that prioritizes reestablishing law and order in the most deadly areas plagued by violence linked to drug cartels and organized crime.

The first phase of Sheinbaum’s plan aims to reduce homicides and other serious crime in 10 areas that make up at least a quarter of homicides linked to organized crime, including the dangerous cities of Colima, Tijuana, Acapulco and Celaya, according to a member of Sheinbaum’s security cabinet who declined to be identified due to not being authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The murder of Arcos was under investigation to find out the motive and make the “corresponding arrests,” Sheinbaum said in her regular morning news conference on Monday. She added her security plan would include better coordination with state governors and attorneys general offices. Sending the National Guard to the area was a possibility, she said.

Mexico is exceptionally deadly for political candidates and officials, who are routinely targeted by organized crime. The country’s most recent elections, in which Sheinbaum won the presidency, were the bloodiest in the country’s modern history with 37 candidates assassinated leading up to the June 2 vote, several in brazen acts of public violence.

These killings, and most other homicides in Mexico, rarely result in arrests and successful prosecutions.

“There’s an issue with impunity in Mexico, and until that goes away, until those institutions are stronger, you’re just not going to be able to guarantee safety of candidates,” said Mike Ballard, director of intelligence at international security firm Global Guardian.

Mexico’s new government will need to actively arrest and prosecute more top cartel officials if it hopes to truly stem the power of these groups, Ballard said. He pointed to the U.S. mafia and how its grip on society gradually dwindled after a series of arrests, convictions and lengthy prison sentences in the 1980s and 1990s.