Mayor of Mexico assassinated days after taking office

Mexico City (AFP) – The mayor of a city in southern Mexico has been killed less than a week after taking office, authorities said Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks on politicians in the violence-wracked Latin American country.

Published on: 07/10/2024 – 08:01Altered: 07/10/2024 – 08:37

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The killing of Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos “fills us with outrage,” Guerrero state Governor Evelyn Salgado wrote on social media, without providing further details on the circumstances.

Local media reported that Arcos had been beheaded, but there has been no official confirmation.

Arcos was elected in June as a representative of an opposition coalition that also included the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which denounced his killing as a “cowardly crime” and called for justice.

“Enough violence and impunity! The people of Guerrero do not deserve to live in fear,” X said.

According to PRI President Alejandro Moreno, his killing came just days after the murder of another city official, Francisco Tapia.

“They had been in office for less than a week. Young and honest civil servants who sought progress for their community,” Moreno said on X.

Guerrero, one of Mexico’s poorest states, has endured years of violence linked to wars between cartels battling for control over drug production and trafficking.

Last year, 1,890 murders were recorded in the state, home to the seaside resort of Acapulco, a former playground of the rich and famous that is now plagued by crime.

More than 450,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands have gone missing across Mexico in a spiral of violence since the government deployed the military to combat drug trafficking in 2006.

Politicians, especially at the local level, often fall victim to bloodshed linked to corruption and the multi-billion dollar drug trade.

Tackling the cartel violence that makes murder and kidnapping an everyday occurrence in Mexico is one of the biggest challenges facing Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female president.

Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City who was sworn in on October 1, has pledged to stick to her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs instead of bullets” strategy of using social policies to reduce crime. tackle the roots.

She will unveil her safety plan on Tuesday.

At least 24 politicians were killed in a particularly violent electoral process ahead of the June elections, which saw the ruling party’s main figure win in a landslide, according to official figures.