Mexican mayor beheaded with severed head on car roof in cartel killing just six days after taking office

A Mexican mayor was beheaded with his severed head on the roof of a car six days after taking office.

The cartel’s gruesome murder left the rest of his decapitated body in the passenger seat of the motorcycle.

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Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos, 43, was elected in June and had only taken office last Tuesday.

But the leader was killed in a killing spree that has shocked Mexico after he spent his short term in office supporting hurricane recovery efforts.

Photos posted to his Facebook hours before the murder show him talking to locals.

But just hours later, his severed and bloodied head lay on the roof of a car, according to unverified footage hours later.

Three days earlier, the secretary of the same municipal council was also murdered.

The two killings come after Gurrero state suffered 1,900 murders last year and six candidates were killed ahead of this year’s elections.

Guerrero is one of the states hardest hit by cartel violence due to its location on the smuggling routes along the Pacific coast.

Another mayor from the same state who was elected in June was also killed when he was shot while driving on a highway.

Chilpancingo is the second largest city in the state of Guerrero with 200,000 inhabitants and is located approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes drive south of the national capital Mexico City.

The city is also in the same state as holiday destination Acapulco.

Guerrero state Governor Evelyn Salgado strongly condemned the killing.

She said: “His loss has saddened the entire Guerrero society and fills us with outrage.”

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 is warning its citizens not to go anywhere in the Guerrero region and has banned all government officials from visiting Acapulco.

The British Foreign Office is also warning against all travel to Guerrero – with the exception of Acapulco – due to increasing violence in the state.

Cartel violence has left more than 450,000 people dead and tens of thousands missing across Mexico.

On the same day that Arcos was elected, the country’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, was also elected.

Sheinbaum aims to reduce the country’s murder rate from 23.3 to 19.4 murders per 100,000 people.

She plans to double the number of federal investigators to 8,000 and expand the National Guard from 120,000 to 150,000.

But Sheinbaum has also pledged to stick to her predecessor’s hug-not-bullets strategy of using social policy to tackle crime at its roots.

Acapulco’s descent into hell

By Annabel Bate

The popular resort town of Acapulco is ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Acapulco once embodied the glamor of the jet age: a relaxed paradise resort beloved by Hollywood pin-ups and royalty.

But the ‘Pearl of the Pacific’ is now plagued by sickening cartel violence and is so dangerous that locals are reportedly taking guns to the beach.

About twenty criminal gangs, including El Chapo’s Sinaloa gang, are said to be waging a bloody turf war for control of the nearby poppy fields.

The once thriving tourist city is now among the most violent places in the world, with the second highest murder rate in Mexico: more than one per 1,000 residents per year.

A series of recent horrors have put the spotlight back on the idyllic party town’s descent into hell.

In July 2023, a well-known Mexican journalist was executed in his car outside a store in broad daylight.

And in January of that same year, five dismembered bodies wrapped in plastic bags were found in a village just outside Acapulco.

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