The beheading of the mayor shows the security task of Mexico's new president

Unidentified assailants murdered and beheaded the recently elected mayor of a major city in southwestern Mexico less than a week after he took office. This highlights the monumental task facing the country's new president in dealing with an increasingly dire public security situation.

On October 6, authorities found the severed head of Alejandro Arcos Catalán on a white vehicle on the east side of Chilpancingo, capital of the southwestern state of Guerrero. His body was left in the passenger seat.

Arcos took office on September 30 after being elected in June to represent a coalition of opposition parties that unseated the ruling Morena party. Omar García Harfuch, the public security minister appointed by President Claudia Sheinbaum, told reporters that Arcos was alone on his way to a meeting in Petaquillas, a city south of the capital where criminal groups linked to the Ardillos gang keep control.

His murder is just the latest outbreak of violence that is shaping the current political shift in the city. Gunmen shot and killed Francisco Tapia in broad daylight in the center of the city on October 3, just three days after he took office as general secretary of the city council.

SEE ALSO: Mexico's 2024 elections could trigger violent realignments in crime

Days earlier, a commando of gunmen assassinated Ulises Hernández Martínez, former director of the special forces of the Guerrero State Police. Arcos had hired him to be the community's public safety director.

Arcos' election victory had the potential to usher in a new era for the mayor's office and redefine long-standing ties between local politics and organized crime. Last year, surveillance cameras captured Norma Otilia Hernández, the former mayor deposed by Arocs, meeting with a leader of the Ardillos, one of many criminal groups with a long history in the region.

In his first public address, Arcos pledged not to make pacts with criminal groups and to ensure peace and security in Chilpancingo, which may have put him in the crosshairs of the region's rulers.

“Security requires the commitment of everyone,” he said after becoming mayor. “I call on the three levels of government, business people, civil society and the families of Chilpancingo. I ask you with my heart in hand: help me fight and build peace, the peace we all need.”

InSight crime analysis

The recent brutal murder of a local politician is the latest example since President Sheinbaum took office of the crisis she faces as Mexico's first female head of state.

“It's a terrible sign from the criminal organization that did this that they are capable of this, and they want to send a message to the person who will replace him,” said Romain Le Cour, a senior expert at the Global Initiative against transnational organized crime (GI-TOC).

Upon taking office, Sheinbaum outlined a number of key initiatives to combat insecurity in her first 100 days. Her administration's priorities included increased coordination and information sharing, combating violence in Chiapas and extortion in Michoacán, and establishing specialized interagency task forces to reduce insecurity in specific hot spots across the country.

The southern border state of Chiapas has become the main focal point of an ongoing battle between various criminal factions allied with the Sinaloa Cartel and the New Generation Jalisco Cartel (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) over criminal industries such as drug trafficking and migrant smuggling . Thousands have been displaced and hundreds killed in recent years in a once peaceful state now rocked by murderous violence between local and national interests.

Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to help contain the violence, but many residents say they too are part of the problem. On the day Sheinbaum took office in Mexico City, a group of soldiers patrolling the state near the Mexico-Guatemala border fired on a group of 33 migrants, killing six and wounding a dozen others.

Mexico's security concerns extend far beyond its southern border region. Recently, the bodies of twelve people were found in central Guanajuato, the country's most violent state. And further north in Sinaloa, warring factions of the Sinaloa Cartel have shut down nearly every major city in the state after two top U.S. politicians were arrested in late July. Local authorities have recorded hundreds of cases of enforced disappearances and killings since fighting began in September.

SEE ALSO: After El Mayo's capture, a cold war rages in the Sinaloa Cartel

Sheinbaum is now the fourth Mexican president to confront the country's crisis of violence since former President Felipe Calderón declared war on organized crime in 2006. Some estimates suggest the drug war has killed up to 430,000 people over the past two decades, and more than 100,000 have been reported missing during that period. Alliances between political elites and organized crime groups have made it impossible for previous governments that consistently relied on a militarized approach to achieve significant security gains.

“At the moment we do not see a break between AMLO (the former president) and Sheinbaum’s security strategy, but it remains to be seen how she will react and adapt,” Le Cour told InSight Crime. “The war between various criminal groups in Guerrero is fierce, but over the last month it has been somewhat invisible with everything else happening across the country.”

Featured Image: Chilpancingo Mayor Alejandro Arcos Catalán addresses the crowd as he is sworn in as mayor. Photo credit: El Financiero