A mayor in Mexico was killed less than a week after taking office: NPR

A supporter of assassinated Mayor Alejandro Arcos prays at the entrance of the municipal building a week after he took office in Chilpancingo, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024.

Alejandrino Gonzalez/AP

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Alejandrino Gonzalez/AP

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Relatives on Monday buried the mayor of a state capital in southern Mexico who was killed just a week after taking office.

Photos from the crime scene posted on social media showed that Mayor Alejandro Arcos' severed head had been left on the roof of a pickup truck. Authorities did not immediately confirm the authenticity of the images, but at his funeral there were signs that his head had been reattached by coroners or mortuary workers.

Arcos was sworn in last Monday as mayor of Chilpancingo, a city so violent that in 2023 a drug gang openly staged a demonstration, hijacked a government armored car and took police officers hostage to secure the release of arrested suspects.

Chilpancingo is the capital of the state of Guerrero, which also includes Acapulco.

Arcos had said in an interview with local media shortly before his death that he wanted additional protection, but it was not clear whether a formal request for this had been made to state officials.

Prosecutors issued a statement Sunday confirming that Arcos had been killed but gave no details.

Alejandro Moreno, the national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), deplored Arcos' assassination and said on Monday: “We will not allow his death to go unpunished.” A few days before Arcos' death, the newly installed city council secretary was also murdered been.

“You have been in office for less than a week,” Moreno wrote on his social media accounts. “They were young and honest officials who sought progress for their community.”

Chilpancingo has long been the scene of bloody turf wars between two drug gangs, the Ardillos and the Tlacos. The battle has led to dozens of gruesome murders and some high-profile scandals.

A former mayor was caught on video apparently holding a meeting with gang leaders at a restaurant. She was subsequently expelled from her party.

In July 2023, federal officials said the Ardillos gang had organized a demonstration of hundreds of people in Chilpancingo that month to seek the release of two gang leaders who had been arrested on drug and weapons possession charges.

Protesters largely blocked all traffic on the highway between Mexico City and Acapulco for two days, fought security forces, seized an armored police truck and used it to bring down the gates of the state's parliament building.

The protesters kidnapped 10 state police and National Guard members and three state and federal officials and held them hostage to press their demands before releasing them.