Mexico’s security minister says beheaded mayor asked for no protection

The Mexican government has revealed new details in the grisly murder of a mayor, Alejandro Arcos, who was found decapitated over the weekend.

Arcos’s murder came nearly a week after President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, ramping up pressure on her administration to tamp down on cartel-related violence in the country.

On Tuesday, Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch told reporters that Arcos, a prominent opposition figure, had not requested any security escorts on the day of his killing.

“The mayor was going to Petaquillas for a meeting alone,” Garcia Harfuch said, referring to a town in the coastal state of Guerrero.

“We know that he was going to a specific meeting, he was not accompanied, communication was lost in the community, and the discovery [of his body] was made hours later.”

When pressed by journalists, the minister emphasised that Arcos had approached neither the Ministry of Security nor the National Guard for assistance, despite reports that the mayor had told local media he wanted extra protection.

Garcia Harfuch also underscored that the investigation into Arcos’s death was ongoing. “There is a lot of information on this subject that we must guard for the sake of the investigation,” he said.

Arcos’s death comes less than a week after he took office on September 30 as mayor of Chilpancingo, Guerrero’s capital city.

With its isolated mountains and temperate Pacific climate, Guerrero has long been a hub for the production of opium poppies, the key ingredient in heroin.