Mexico City, Mexico – A spate of killings in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero, Mexico, culminated in the killing and beheading of its mayor, Alejandro Arcos Catalán, on Sunday, marking an extreme escalation of politically motivated violence at the hands of organized crime.
In the evening hours, authorities reportedly found Catalan’s remains – his head placed on top of a white van, the rest of his body inside the vehicle. The newly elected mayor was sworn in just a few days ago, on October 1.
Catalán is said to have asked the governor of Guerrero, Evelyn Salgado Pineda, for government protection the day before his murder. He was aware that he would become a target of local criminal groups and feared for his life after a string of assassinations of officials in his short-lived administration.
The shocking nature of Catalan’s killing sheds light on the state of governance in Guerrero, where Mexico’s underworld has been able to infiltrate the highest levels of government, either through corruption or brutal violence.
What led to the mayor’s murder?
On October 3rd, Francisco Gonzalo Tapia Gutiérrez, recently elected Secretary of the City Council of Chilpancingo, was shot dead, his body left in the middle of the street face down.
The day before, on September 29, Ulises Hernández Martínez, the army captain and the next elected Chief of Security of the city, was also killed, along with four other people.
Speaking of Aztec reportssecurity consultant David Saucedo offered a possible explanation for the killings.
“Without question, this (murder) was intended to prevent the mayor from performing his duties independently. And, to subdue him in advance, they had killed the Secretary of the Municipal Council to bend his will”, he said.
Saucedo believes that one of the many criminal groups on Mexico’s west coast has been after the mayor and his administration.
“I feel that there was a rejection of a request by the mayor who was unfortunately killed and that led to this fatal outcome: his murder,” he added.
While tragic, this level of violence against state officials is not unusual in Guerrero, which has been labeled one of the most dangerous states in Mexico for public officials and politicians.
A criminal government
By the general election in June of this year, 31 political candidates for various offices had been killed across Mexico, making it the most violent election in Mexican history. Eight of the murders occurred in Guerrero.
“It’s a form of criminal governance: drug traffickers who have public officials on their payroll in Guerrero and rival groups who kill those authorities controlled by their enemies,” Saucedo explained.
During the Chilpancingo elections, Catalan’s main rival was the incumbent, Norma Otilia Hernández, from the ruling MORENA party.
Despite big wins for MORENA in June (the party won the presidency, the majority of governors and control of both houses of Congress), Otilia Hernández lost the election to Catalan after her photos appeared at a breakfast with Celso Ortega Jiménez, leader of “Los Ardillos” one of the main criminal groups in the region and active in Chilpancingo.
The killing of Catalan over the weekend may be the reaction of one of the 16 criminal groups operating in the region, which did not agree with the mayor’s mandate.
“In Guerrero, we have feudal lords and drug trafficking groups that have taken control of entire regions of the state and are the ones who manage the local authorities,” Saucedo said. “They control the economy, impose extortionate tariffs on public security corporations, participate in election processes by financing candidates, and even assassinate candidates or authorities who oppose them.”
Guerro Governor Salgado Pineda’s father, Senator Félix Salgado Macedonio, has been linked to criminal gangs, and her former father-in-law, Joaquín Alonso Piedra, was a reported associate of the Beltran Leyva cartel.
The level of integration between organized crime and Guerrero’s political class is such that any politician can become either an ally or a victim of the narco-underworld.
After his murder, a video of Catalan resurfaced on social media in which he discussed his future as mayor of his city.
“I was born in this city, I grew up here, I studied here, I lived here all my life, I never left, and I want to die here. But I also want to die fighting for my city,” he said.
