The mayor of a violent Mexican city was murdered on Sunday, his dismembered body left inside a pickup truck and his severed head placed on the roof of the car.
Alejandro Arcos, 43, was killed just six days after taking office as mayor of Chilpancingo, a city of about 280,000 people in southwestern Mexico.
The city, the capital of Guerrero state, was so violent that in 2023 drug gangs publicly demonstrated to win the release of arrested suspects, hijacked government armored vehicles and took police hostage. It was intense.
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Alejandro Arcos, former mayor of Chilpancingo, takes a selfie in an unknown location. (Alejandro Arcos, via Facebook/Handout, via Reuters)
An image of what appeared to be Arcos’ severed head on top of a white pickup truck went viral on social media. Other images show his headless body partially covered by a blanket on the passenger side of the truck.
According to social media posts leading up to Arcos’ death, he was overseeing disaster relief efforts after Hurricane John caused severe flooding in the beach resort of Acapulco and surrounding towns last month. It became clear.
Mourners, including Arcos’ wife, attended the slain official’s funeral on Monday.
“His death mourns the entire Guerrero community and we are filled with outrage,” Guerrero Governor Evelyn Salgado said in a statement shared on social media.
Alejandro Moreno, national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), deplored Arcos’ killing, saying it came just three days after Francisco Tapia, secretary of the new city government, was shot dead.
“They were in office less than a week ago,” Moreno wrote on his social media account. “They were young, honest public servants who were looking to improve their communities.”


A pickup truck is transported from the scene where Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos was murdered in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico, on October 6, 2024. (Oscar Guerrero)
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Moreno called on the federal attorney general’s office to lead the investigation into the murders of Arcos and Tapia, given the “ungovernable situation in Guerrero.”
Guerrero has become one of the most dangerous states not only for journalists but also for applicants and elected officials. Ahead of Mexico’s June 2nd election, at least six candidates for public office have been murdered in the state.
A bloody turf war intensifies between two drug gangs, Ardiros and Trakos. The battle resulted in dozens of gruesome killings and several high-profile scandals.
The former mayor was caught on video holding a meeting with gang leaders at a restaurant. She was then expelled from the party.
In July 2023, federal authorities announced that a demonstration attended by hundreds of people in Chilpancingo that month was organized by the Ardiros gang to win the release of two gang leaders arrested on drug and weapons charges. did.
Protesters blocked large sections of the Mexico City-Acapulco highway for two days, engaged security forces and commandeered an armored police truck and drove it through the gates of the state capitol.


Pallbearers carry the casket of Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos, who was murdered on Sunday less than a week after taking office. (Oscar Ramirez)
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Protesters abducted 10 state police and National Guard members and three state and federal employees, held them hostage and released them to enforce their demands.
Last week, Mexican troops seized weapons belonging to local police in Culiacan, a cartel-controlled city in the country’s northwestern state of Sinaloa, which has been plagued by violence and gunfire in recent weeks. Mexico’s military is removing weapons from untrusted police forces over concerns that they may be involved in supporting cartels or that their units carry unregistered weapons, making abuse difficult to track. known to have been confiscated.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.