Anger and disgust in Mexico over beheading of newly sworn-in mayor | Mexico

Mexico’s new government has been shocked by the murder of a mayor who was attacked and beheaded just days after taking office.

Alejandro Arcos Catalán was sworn in as mayor of Chilpancingo, the capital of the southern state of Guerrero, on September 30, a day before Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, took power herself.

On Monday, less than a week into her presidency, Sheinbaum confirmed reports that the 43-year-old city leader had been killed the day before, telling reporters: “All necessary investigations are taking place.”

Photos of Arcos Catalán’s bloodied head, displayed on the roof of a white vehicle as his body lay inside, spread on social media – a terrible reminder of the violence Mexico’s crime conflict has inflicted on the Latin American country.

The mayor’s assassination came after two close allies were shot dead in the early days of his short-lived government. A secretary, Francisco Tapia, was shot on October 3, while Ulises Hernández Martínez, a former special forces police commander tipped to become Arcos Catalán’s security chief, was riddled with bullets on the eve of the mayor’s inauguration.

Shocked citizens shared footage of an interview with the mayor before his death, in which he said he wanted to be remembered as a champion of peace and happiness. “I have lived here all my life… and this is where I want to die – but I want to die fighting for my city,” Arcos Catalán said.

The killing sparked anger and disgust, with Alejandro Moreno, the president of Arcos Catalán’s party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), denouncing a grotesque “act of terror”.

Ricardo Anaya, an opposition senator, lamented the “horrifying” security situation in Mexico, where more than 450,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderón launched his doomed “war” against drug cartels in 2006.

“The fact that they beheaded the mayor of such an important city should make us shudder. It is completely unacceptable and we must do something to ensure this does not happen again,” Anaya told reporters, calling for an immediate change in security policy.

But Sheinbaum has pledged to continue the so-called “hug, no bullets” security policy of her predecessor and mentor, 70-year-old nationalist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during her six-year term.

“We will not return to Calderón’s reckless war against the narcos who have caused so much damage to our country. It remains our belief that security and peace are the fruits of justice,” she told thousands of supporters who stormed Mexico City’s Zócalo Square last Tuesday for her historic inauguration.

Although López Obrador claimed to have achieved a modest decline in Mexico’s homicide rate in the later stages of his presidency, there is consensus among security analysts that his efforts to “pacify” the country have failed. Last year, more than 30,000 murders were committed in Mexico. According to the think tank Instituto Igarapé, Mexico was home to 11 of the world’s 50 most murderous cities in 2023, up from three in 2015. Chilpancingo was one of them.

Despite that bleak reality, López Obrador, whom most Mexicans know simply as Amlo, left office with an approval rating of 70 percent, largely due to his relentless focus on fighting inequality and positioning himself as a champion of the poor.

Aware that tackling violence is one of her biggest challenges — and under pressure after the killing of Arcos Catalán — Sheinbaum said she would outline her public safety plans on Tuesday.

Another major security crisis is unfolding in the northwestern city of Culiacán, where an internal conflict within the Sinaloa cartel, sparked by the arrest of co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, has led to dozens of killings.

Sheinbaum’s security effort will be led by Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, who was her police chief when she was mayor of Mexico City. García Harfuch has first-hand experience of the dangers of organized crime: in 2020, he came close to death when hitmen ambushed his car on the capital’s most famous street, firing more than 400 times with assault rifles and grenade launchers.

The identity of the killers of Chilpancingo’s mayor remained unclear, but the city has witnessed a bloody feud in recent years between two criminal groups called Los Ardillos (the Squirrels) and Los Tlacos. As often happens in Mexico, local politicians are involved in that underworld. Arcos Catalán’s predecessor Norma Otilia Hernández was removed from office after compromising images emerged showing her talking to the Squirrel boss in a restaurant. Hernández, who was then a member of López Obrador and Sheinbaum’s Morena political movement, claimed it was a “chance” meeting but was later expelled from the party.

After his election earlier this year, Arcos Catalán reportedly said he would not make deals or negotiate with criminal groups.