General
In Mexico, a Mayor Is Brutally Killed Just Days After Taking Office
The gruesome killing represents yet another challenge for the country’s new president, who faces increasing pressure to show progress in the fight against violent cartels.
The mayor of a state capital in southwestern Mexico was killed on Sunday, less than a week after he took office. The public official’s death was the second in days in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state, and echoed some of the most gruesome days of the country’s drug war.
Alejandro Arcos Catalán, 43, was sworn in last Monday as mayor of Chilpancingo. Just before he took office, the region was drenched by heavy rains and battered by the winds of Hurricane John.
On Sunday, Mr. Arcos Catalán visited some affected communities, bringing water and other supplies to residents. “We are working nonstop to reopen the roads to the communities affected,” he said on social media. “Together we will rebuild Chilpancingo.”
Hours later, his assassination was confirmed by the attorney general’s office in Guerrero and other state authorities. He had been beheaded, according to a public official with knowledge of the case who was not authorized to speak publicly. His head was left on top of a white pickup-up truck; the rest of his body was inside the vehicle, the official said.
No one has claimed responsibility for Mr. Arcos Catalán’s murder.
Days before he took office, a group of armed men gunned down his intended security minister, a former head of the special forces unit of the Guerrero police. And last Thursday, the City Council’s secretary general was shot and killed in broad daylight.