Mayor Reportedly Beheaded Days After Taking Office in Mexico Amid Surge in Cartel Violence

The mayor of a city in southern Mexico has been murdered less than a week after taking office, authorities said Sunday, the latest in a series of attacks on politicians in the violence-plagued Latin American country.

The killing of Chilpancingo mayor Alejandro Arcos “fills us with indignation,” Guerrero state governor Evelyn Salgado wrote on social media, without providing further details of the circumstances.

Local media reported that Arcos was decapitated {snip}

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Arcos was elected in June representing an opposition coalition that included the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which denounced his killing as a “cowardly crime” and called for justice.

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His murder came days after the killing of another city official, Francisco Tapia, according to PRI president Alejandro Moreno.

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Guerrero, one of Mexico’s poorest states, has endured years of violence linked to turf wars between cartels fighting for control of drug production and trafficking.

Last year, 1,890 murders were recorded in the state, which is home to the beachside resort city of Acapulco, a former playground of the rich and famous now blighted by crime. Guerrero is among six states in Mexico that the U.S. State Department advises Americans to completely avoid, citing crime and violence.

Across Mexico, more than 450,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands have gone missing in a spiral of violence since the government deployed the army to combat drug trafficking in 2006.

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