Cartels are emissaries of death, mayor murdered in office

*More than 450,000 dead and tens of thousands missing since 2006

The mayor of a city in southern Mexico has been killed less than a week after taking office, authorities said Sunday. This marked the latest in a series of attacks on politicians in the violence-plagued Latin American country.

The killing of Chilpancingo mayor Alejandro Arcos “fills us with outrage,” Guerrero state governor Evelyn Salgado wrote on social media, without providing further details about 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,” the PRI said on X.

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 officials 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, which is home to the seaside resort of Acapulco, a former playground for the rich and famous that is now plagued by crime.

More than 450,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands 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 the bloodshed associated with corruption and the multi-billion dollar drug trade.

Tackling the cartel violence that makes murder and kidnapping a daily 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 adhere to her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hug-not-bullets” strategy of using social policy to tackle crime at its roots.

– She will unveil her safety plan on Tuesday.

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

Punch/Simeon Ugbodovon

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