On October 6, just days into his tenure, Alejandro Acosta, the newly elected mayor of Chilpancingo in Guerrero state, Mexico, was brutally murdered. Reports from Reuters indicate that Acosta’s decapitated body was found in the back of a pickup truck, with his head ominously placed atop the vehicle. Alongside his remains, authorities discovered his voter ID.

A member of Mexico’s prominent opposition party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Acosta had only assumed office on September 30. His death came just three days after the recent shooting of Francisco Tapia, the new Secretary of the City Government.

Alejandro Moreno, the PRI leader, took to social media to express his condolences for both men, remarking, “They had been in office for less than a week. They were young and honest public servants dedicated to promoting progress in their community.”

Chilpancingo has faced a longstanding history of violence, much of it related to the fierce competition among drug trafficking organizations. In a striking example of this turmoil, criminal groups staged a protest in 2023 that involved the kidnapping of ten local police and National Guard members, along with three state and federal officials, demanding the release of two gang leaders arrested on drug and weapons charges.