Horror in Mexico: Chilpancingo mayor beheaded days after Sheinbaum vows to continue "hugs, not bullets" policy

The mayor of the Mexican city of Chilpancingo, Alejandro Arcos Catalán, was beheaded last Sunday afternoon on Sept. 30, just six days after taking office and one day after Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, took office.

The brutal slaying comes just one week after the newly elected Mexican president vowed to continue the so-called “hugs, not bullets” policy of her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

According to the photo of the crime scene, shared on social networks, Arcos was decapitated and his head was left on the roof of a Volkswagen Robust truck on Moctezuma Street—a tragic reminder of how prevalent violent crime has become throughout Mexico.

Mexican citizens horrified with the brutal act of violence shared footage of an interview with the mayor before he was murdered, in which he said he wanted to be remembered as a crusader for peace.

“I’ve lived here all my life … and it’s here that I want to die,” he said in the interview, adding, “but I want to die fighting for my city.”

According to local news reports, police officers were informed about the crime and approached the scene to begin an investigation at 5:00 p.m. on Oct. 6.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), to which the 43-year old official belonged, denounced the “cowardly crime” and called for justice. “Enough of violence and impunity! The people of Guerrero do not deserve to live in fear,” the PRI declared on the X social network.

Evelyn Salgado, governor of the state of Guerrero, whose capital is Chilpancingo, condemned Arcos’ murder. “I strongly condemn the murder of the municipal president of Chilpancingo, Alejandro Arcos,” she wrote on X, without giving details of his death. “His loss mourns the entire society of Guerrero and fills us with indignation.”

Condeno de manera enérgica el homicidio del Presidente Municipal de Chilpancingo, Alejandro Arcos Catalán, hecho que la Fiscalía General del Estado ha confirmado, dando inicio a las investigaciones pertinentes para su esclarecimiento y para llevar a los responsables ante la…

— Evelyn Salgado Pineda (@EvelynSalgadoP) October 7, 2024

Mexican Sen. Ricardo Anaya called Mexico’s crime spike “spine-chilling,” recalling how more than 450,000 people have been killed since 2006 when President Felipe Calderón launched a “war” against the drug cartels.

“The fact that they have decapitated the mayor of such an important city should make us shudder,” Anaya told Mexican journalists. “It is utterly unacceptable and we need to do something to ensure it stops happening.”

Arcos’ murder is the second crime against a public official in less than a week.

Francisco Tapia, the general secretary of the same city council, was killed three days prior, and Ulises Hernández Martínez, a former special forces police commander slated to become Arcos’ security chief, was gunned down on the eve of the mayor’s inauguration.

The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic issued a statement indicating that they are conducting investigations and hunting down those responsible.

President Sheinbaum told reporters, “all the necessary investigations are taking place.” The brutal slaying, however, comes just one week after the newly elected president suggested during her inauguration speech that waging a war against the cartels was not the answer.

“We will not return to Calderón’s reckless war on the narcos that did our country so much harm. It remains our conviction that security and peace are the fruits of justice,” she told an audience of thousands in Mexico City’s Zócalo Square last Tuesday.

Guerrero is one of the most violent Mexican states due to the presence of drug cartels.

More than 450,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands have disappeared in Mexico since the government deployed the Army to combat drug trafficking in 2006.