Mexican Mayor Beheaded, Body Found in Pickup Truck Six Days After Taking Office

The mayor of a violence-ridden city was found dead on Sunday. His body was discovered in a pickup truck, decapitated, and his severed head was placed on the roof of the vehicle.

Alejandro Arcos, 43, was killed just six days after taking office as mayor of Chilpancingo, a city of approximately 280,000 people in southwestern Mexico.

The city, the capital of Guerrero state, is known for its high levels of violence. In 2023, a drug gang openly staged a demonstration, hijacked a government armored car, and took police hostage to secure the release of arrested suspects.

Images circulating on social media show what appears to be Arcos’ severed head atop a white pickup truck. Other images show his headless body, partially covered by a blanket, in the passenger seat of the truck.

Arcos’ social media posts leading up to his death showed him overseeing disaster relief efforts following the impact of last month’s storms, which caused severe flooding in beach resort Acapulco and surrounding towns.

Mourners, including Arcos’ wife, attended a funeral for the slain official on Monday.

“His loss mourns the entire Guerrero society and fills us with indignation,” Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado said in a statement shared on social media.

Alejandro Moreno, the national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, expressed sorrow over Arcos’ killing, noting it came just three days after the new city government’s secretary, Francisco Tapia, was shot to death.

“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.”

Moreno urged the federal attorney general’s office to lead the investigation into Arcos and Tapia’s murders, citing “the situation of ungovernability in Guerrero.”

Guerrero has become one of the deadliest states for aspiring and elected public officials, as well as for journalists. At least six candidates for public office were killed in the state in the lead-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 numerous 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 stated that a demonstration held by hundreds of people in Chilpancingo that month was organized by the Ardillos gang to secure 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, clashed with security forces, and seized a police armored truck. They used the truck to ram down the gates of the 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.

Last week, the Mexican army confiscated the weapons of local police in the cartel-dominated city of Culiacan in the country’s northwest Sinaloa state, as violence and gunfights have plagued that city in recent weeks. The Mexican army has been known to seize weapons from police forces suspected of aiding the cartel or carrying unregistered arms that make abuses harder to trace.

Reuters and  

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