The murder of the mayor of Chilpancingo has caused consternation in Mexico. Just last Thursday, Alejandro Arcos Catalán lamented the murder of Francisco Gonzalo Tapia, his right-hand man and general secretary of the City Council. On Friday, the municipal president demanded greater security to carry out his duties and requested support from the Government of Guerrero to guarantee governability in the State. “We are not people of conflict,” he said in a radio interview. On Sunday it was announced that he was beheaded by members of organized crime, less than a week after taking office. After a week of barbarism, the president, Claudia Sheinbaum, indicated this Monday that the possibility of the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic attracting investigations into the case is being analyzed and the opposition described the crime as a “terrorist act”, while indignation increases. because the help that Arcos Catalán requested did not arrive in time to avoid the tragedy.
“This surpassed all limits, we need to guarantee security,” said Alejandro Alito Moreno, leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in an interview with Gabriela Warkentin on W Radio. The murder of Arcos Catalán was reported after law enforcement forces received a report of the discovery of a head placed on a white van around five in the afternoon, according to the first reports. Inside the vehicle, parked outside a hotel near the highway between Chilpancingo and Tixtla, the mayor’s body was found covered with a sheet. Secretary Tapia was shot dead three days earlier by a hitman, while walking in the heart of the state capital. “It seems that in Guerrero, as in other federal entities, if they do not agree with organized crime, they will no longer let them govern,” lamented Moreno, who confirmed hours later the death of the 43-year-old opposition politician. “He and his people did not accept it.”
Governor Evelyn Salgado “strongly” condemned the murder and pledged to bring those responsible to justice. He also ordered the Secretary of Security to increase surveillance operations in the state capital, where fears have skyrocketed among its more than 300,000 inhabitants, seeing that not even the authorities are safe from the wave of violence that is hitting the entity. The State Prosecutor’s Office limited itself to confirming the facts in a brief statement, which did not mention the name or position of the victim. “About the unfortunate event of the municipal president, necessary investigations are being carried out to find out what the motive was and what the motive was and of course to make the corresponding arrests,” Sheinbaum said in La Mañanera.
The drug trafficker had already tightened its grip on the newly elected authorities in the elections last June. Ulises Hernández, who was an active Army captain and was considered the next head of Chilpancingo Security, was shot dead on September 27. An armed commando reached his vehicle, which was also traveling on the highway to Tixtla, when he opened fire on Hernández and his companion, a 35-year-old woman who was shot to death. That weekend, at least 16 murders were recorded in Guerrero. “I ask for it and that of my work team. We are going to continue working, we are going to continue fighting for our community,” said Arcos Catalán, when questioned by journalist Ciro Gómez Leyva about whether he needed support for his safety. It was on that same highway where the state police shot dead the Yanqui Kothan normal student last March, who was protesting the disappearance of the 43 Ayotzinapa students in 2014.
One day after the murder of Captain Hernández, the municipal president decided to cancel public events for his protest, on September 30, due to the ravages of Hurricane John, which left at least 270,000 affected and 23 dead in Guerrero, one of the poorest states in the country. “We are going through adverse times,” Arcos Catalán explained in a statement. “I ask you to join this renovation project, that together we build a Chilpancingo of peace, that it is the home that our children deserve,” commented the mayor after taking office.
The attention to the affected communities was the focus of his latest posts on social networks, although he also dedicated words to Tapia, called to be his main operator during his Administration. “This act of violence deprives us of a great friend and an honorable public servant, a man of firm convictions and unwavering values,” said the municipal president and demanded that the crime not go unpunished. At least 17 candidates and politicians from Guerrero were murdered during the electoral process in Guerrero, according to the consulting firm Laboratorio Electoral. Only Chiapas, with 26, had more political homicides.
“Why didn’t they provide security to the mayor when days before they had murdered his City Council secretary?” questioned former opposition presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez. The national president of the National Action Party (PAN), Marko Cortés, commented that the murder of Arcos Catalán is a reflection of the failure of the security strategy of the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the new Sheinbaum Administration. “It is clear that the Government of Mexico is overcome by crime. Leaving a decapitated body in the middle of the city is terrorism,” said the leader. The PRI described the beheading as a “cowardly crime” and Moreno announced that he was going to formalize the request for federal authorities to take charge of the case. “Unfortunately, he was unable to have communication and the help he requested never arrived,” Alito lamented. “That the authorities, the people who are going to take command of security, are murdered over the weekend is very delicate,” he added.
The brutality of the murder left its mark on Guerrero and reached levels of violence never seen before. No sitting ruler had been executed and publicly exposed. “I join the voices that demand justice,” declared Norma Otilia Hernández, Arcos’ predecessor in office. A year ago, a video went viral in which Hernández had breakfast with the leadership of Los Ardillos, a criminal group that disputes with Los Tlacos for control of the municipalities in central Guerrero, such as Chilpancingo and Tixtla. Months later, narcomantas appeared in which Los Ardillos demanded a new breakfast from the then mayor. The official acknowledged that she met with the cartel “starting her Administration” and was expelled from Morena, the party of Sheinbaum and López Obrador, which could not maintain the Government of the capital in the last elections. Arcos referred to her as his “friend” during the protest and recognized her efforts while in power.
Gustavo Alarcón, former candidate for mayor for the PAN in 2021 and Arcos’s substitute, is called to replace him in the Municipal Presidency and has not commented on the versions circulating in the local press that he is not willing to assume the position. Another point that caused uncertainty was that the mayor’s children and wife, Sandy Solís, had not been located in the hours following the homicide. Moreno said that they had no official information in this regard. Solís, however, published an obituary early this morning, in which she remembered her husband as a man “of service” and dedicated to his community. “His legacy is a beacon of hope and unity that guides us in these moments of pain,” he said to thank the messages of support and condolences.
The bishop of Chilpancingo, José de Jesús González Hernández, famous for promoting a truce between criminal groups this year so that there is peace in the city, asked the faithful to join a day of prayer and fasting, and entrust themselves to the Virgin of Guadalupe to overcome violence. It has also been considered that the Catholic Church will once again intercede against organized crime, although there has not yet been an official statement in that regard. After a week of terror, drug traffickers impose their law in Guerrero, where more than 1,268 homicide investigation files have been opened between January and August of this year, according to official figures. No arrests have been reported following the mayor’s beheading. Impunity for homicides is around 99% in the State, according to requests for information made to the authorities.
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