By Lucy Adautin
A city Mayor in southern Mexico has been murdered less than a week after assuming office, officials announced, adding to the growing list of attacks on politicians in the violence-ridden country.
Guerrero State Governor, Evelyn Salgado, expressed outrage over the killing of Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos, saying it ‘fills us with indignation,’ though no further details about the incident were shared.
While local media claimed that Arcos had been decapitated, there has been no official confirmation.
Arcos, who was elected in June, represented an opposition coalition that included the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which condemned the killing as a ‘cowardly crime’ and demanded justice.”
“Enough of violence and impunity! The people of Guerrero do not deserve to live in fear,” the PRI stated on X.
His murder came just days after the killing of another city official, Francisco Tapia, according to PRI President Alejandro Moreno.
“They had been in office for less than a week. Young and honest officials who sought progress for their community,” Moreno said on X.
Guerrero, one of the most impoverished regions in Mexico, has suffered years of violence as cartels battle for dominance in drug production and trafficking.
In the past year, the state recorded 1,890 homicides, including the once-luxurious resort city of Acapulco, now marred by rampant crime.
Nationwide, over 450,000 people have been killed, with tens of thousands missing, in the wave of violence that has swept the country since the government began deploying military forces to fight drug cartels in 2006.
Local politicians are often caught in the crossfire, becoming victims of the violence linked to corruption and the lucrative drug trade.
Confronting cartel violence, which has made murder and abduction a daily occurrence in Mexico, is one of the toughest challenges for Claudia Sheinbaum, the country’s first female president.
Sheinbaum, who served as Mexico City’s Mayor, took office on October 1 and has vowed to follow her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s ‘hugs not bullets’ approach, using social programs to address the root causes of crime.
Her security strategy is expected to be unveiled on Tuesday.
According to official reports, at least 24 politicians were killed during a particularly violent election cycle leading up to the June vote, which resulted in a landslide victory for a major figure in the ruling party.
