The mayor of a state capital in Mexico is assassinated less than a week after taking office

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The mayor of a state capital in southern Mexico has been killed just a week after taking office, officials said Sunday.

Alejandro Arcos was sworn in last Monday as mayor of Chilpancingo, a city so violent that a drug gang openly organized a demonstration, hijacked a government armored car and in 2023 took police hostage to secure the release of arrested suspects.

Chilpancingo is the capital of the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located.

The prosecutor’s office issued a statement on Sunday confirming that Arcos was killed, but provided no details.

Alejandro Moreno, the national leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), lamented the killing of Arcos, saying that the newly installed secretary of the municipal council had also been killed three days earlier.

“They had been in office for less than a week,” Moreno wrote on his social media accounts. “They were young and honest public servants who were looking for progress for their community.”

Chilpancingo has long been the scene of bloody battles between two drug gangs, the Ardillos and the Tlacos. The battle has resulted in dozens of gruesome murders and several high-profile scandals.

A previous mayor was captured on video apparently holding a meeting with leaders of one of the gangs at a restaurant. She was subsequently expelled from her party.

In July 2023, federal officials said a demonstration held that month by hundreds of people in Chilpancingo was organized by the Ardillos gang to secure the release of two gang leaders arrested on drug and gun possession charges.

Protesters blocked largely all traffic on the highway between Mexico City and Acapulco for two days, fought security forces and commandeered an armored police car and used it to ram the gates of the state legislature building.

The protesters kidnapped ten members of the state police and National Guard, as well as three state and federal officials, and held them hostage to enforce their demands before releasing them.

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