Alejandro Arcos was sworn in last Monday as mayor of Chilpancingo, a city so violent that a drug gang openly staged a demonstration, hijacked a government armored car and took police hostage in 2023 to win the release of arrested suspects.

The mayor of a Mexican city plagued by gang violence has been murdered less than a week after taking office.Photos circulating online showed what appeared to be the severed head of Alejandro Arcos on top of a pick-up truck and the rest of his body inside a car in the Villas del Roble neighbourhood in the east of Chilpancingo.