Four Mexican mayors are seeking protection after another mayor was brutally beheaded

Four mayors in Mexico have searched federal protection after the brutal beheading of the mayor Alejandro Arcos in the southern state of Guerrero. Arcos, who had been in office less than a week, was brutally murdered, officials said Tuesday.
The Federal Minister of Public Security, Omar Garcia Harfuch told the Associated Press that the four mayors, from the states of Guerrero and Guanajuato, both known for their high levels of violence, submitted their requests for protection on Monday, following the discovery of Arcos’ remains.
The security situation in Guanajuato has deteriorated to such an extent that at least four mayoral candidates were assassinated ahead of the country’s elections in June.
Attended a private meeting before his death
While Garcia Harfuch did not reveal the specific reasons behind the mayors’ requests for protection, he also provided limited information about the ongoing investigation into Arcos’ murder, stating only that the late mayor had left his staff to shortly before his death to attend a private meeting. .
Local reports say Alejandro Arcos, the newly elected mayor, was beheaded and his head found on a pickup truck, although authorities have not officially confirmed this.
Arcos, which had expressed its need for increased security measures to local media, has not made an official request, according to Garcia Harfuch.
Mayors can receive assistance from state and federal governments in the form of armored vehicles, additional security personnel and emergency warning systems.
Two rival drug organizations, the Ardillos and the Tlacos, control Chilpancingo, the state capital. In 2023, one of the gangs organized a protest involving hundreds of individuals, seized a government armored vehicle, blocked a major highway and held police officers hostage to secure the release of arrested suspects.
Mayors in Mexico are often targeted by gangs drug cartels as a means to enforce demands for extortion payments, secure government contracts, and guarantee the placement of their associates in the municipal police force.
The state of Guerrero, plagued by cartel violence, recorded 1,890 murders last year. Mexico as a whole has seen more than 450,000 murders since the government’s crackdown on drug cartels in 2006.