Mexican mayor ‘decapitated by drug gangs’ six days into job
A MEXICAN mayor was beheaded just six days after taking office with his severed head displayed on a car roof.
The gruesome cartel assassination left the rest of his decapitated body in the motor’s passenger seat.
Chilpancingo mayor Alejandro Arcos, 43, was elected in June and had taken office only last Tuesday.
But the leader was cut down in a killing which has shocked Mexico after he had spent his short time in office working on support for hurricane recovery.
Photos posted to his Facebook only hours before the killing show him talking to locals.
But just hours later his severed and bloody head was lying on the top of a car, unverified images hours later show.
Three days earlier the secretary of the same city council was also killed.
The two murders come after Gurrero state faced 1,900 murders last year and six candidates were killed ahead of this year’s elections.
Guerrero is one of the worst affected states by cartel violence due to its location on the Pacific coast smuggling routes.
Another mayor from the same state elected in June was also killed when he was shot dead driving on a motorway.
Chilpancingo is the second-largest city of Guerrero state with 200,000 people and is about a 3 hour 30 drive south of the national capital Mexico City.
The city is also in the same state as holiday hot spot Acapulco.
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Guerrero state governor Evelyn Salgado strongly condemned the killing.
She said: “His loss has saddened all of Guerrero society and fills us with indignation.”
Alejandro Moreno, the leader of Arcos’ PRI party, said: “They had been in office for less than a week.
“They were young and honest officials who sought progress for their community. Our condolences and solidarity go out to their families.”
Moreno also called on the federal attorney general’s office to lead the investigation due to “the situation of ungovernability in Guerrero”.
The US government warns its citizens should not go anywhere in the Guerrero region and has banned all government officials from visiting Acapulco.
The UK’s Foreign Office also warns against all travel to Guerrero – with the exception of Acapulco – due to spiralling violence across the state.
Across Mexico, more than 450,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands of gone missing in cartel violence.
On the same day Arcos was elected so was the country’s new president Claudia Sheinbaum.
Sheinbaum aims to cut the numbers of murders in the country from 23.3 to 19.4 murders for every 100,000 people.
She plans to double the number of federal investigators to 8,000 and increase the National Guard from 120,000 to 150,000.
But Sheinbaum has also pledged to stick to her predecessor’s “hugs not bullets” strategy of using social policy to tackle crime at its roots.
One more photo below.
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