A Mexican mayor was killed just days after taking office

Guerrero is a violent state in Mexico. On Sunday, less than a week after taking office, the mayor of the state’s capital city was killed, officials confirmed.

An arrest happened six days after Alejandro Arcos became mayor of Chilpancingo, a city in southwestern Mexico with about 280,000 people.
Governor of Guerrero Evelyn Salgado said in a message shared on social media, “His death makes everyone in Guerrero sad and angry.”

The office of Guerrero’s state attorney general also said it was looking into his death.

The official proof came after pictures on the messaging app WhatsApp showed what looked like Arcos’s severed head on top of a pickup truck. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm that the pictures were real.

Francisco Tapia, who was the secretary of the new city government, was shot and killed three days before Arcos.

Social media user Senator Alejandro Moreno said, “They were young, honest officials who wanted progress for their community.”

Because “Gurro is not under government control,” Moreno, who is the head of Mexico’s PRI party, asked the federal attorney general’s office to lead the investigation into the deaths of Arcos and Tapia.

Guerrero has become one of the most dangerous places for media, people who want to be politicians, and people who are already in office.

Before the June 2 elections in Mexico, at least six people running for public office were killed in the state.

Arcos’s recent posts on social media show that the mayor has been overseeing disaster relief efforts after Hurricane John hit last month and caused serious flooding in Acapulco and towns nearby.