A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
In Mexico, the mayor of a major city was murdered six days after he was sworn in. The murder on Sunday underscores the security challenges facing the country's new president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Emily Green reports. And a warning - some will find the details in this report distressing.
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ALEJANDRO ARCOS: (Speaking Spanish).
EMILY GREEN, BYLINE: Alejandro Arcos' first act as mayor of Chilpancingo, the capital of the violence-plagued state of Guerrero, was to appeal for peace. Standing in a suit and tie, his hair slicked back, he struck a somber tone.
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ARCOS: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "I ask you with my heart in hand to help me fight to create peace, a peace that we all need," he said. A week later, he was murdered. Local news reported he was decapitated, his head left on the top of a truck with his body inside. Political assassinations are hardly uncommon in Mexico. In the run-up to the recent election, nearly 40 candidates were murdered. But still, Arcos' gruesome death hit a nerve.
DAVID SAUCEDO: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: David Saucedo, a security analyst in Mexico City, says it was an act of narcoterrorism meant to generate fear among officials and the population at large. Two rival cartels have battled for control of Guerrero for years, resorting to kidnappings and murder to vanquish their rivals. But in recent years, these groups began making a play for political office.
SAUCEDO: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: "Now there isn't a single politician in Chilpancingo who doesn't have ties to criminal groups," says Saucedo, adding that the mayor's murder was undoubtedly cartel-related. The killing presents a first big test for Claudia Sheinbaum, who was sworn in as Mexico's president last week.
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PRESIDENT CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM: (Speaking Spanish).
GREEN: At her daily press conference, she said authorities are investigating to find out who was behind the mayor's murder and their motive. Sheinbaum faces a difficult balancing act. She's under pressure to address rampant cartel violence across the country, but she's also expressed a desire to avoid direct confrontations with cartel kingpins and instead address the root causes of violence.
CHRIS KYLE: We used to think of this as a drug war. It is not a drug war.
GREEN: Chris Kyle is a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who studies violence in Guerrero. Criminal groups in the region used to fight over the production and distribution of heroin. But as fentanyl replaced heroin, the groups diversified. Now, he says, the fiercest fights are for control of local governments, where they can make money off of everything from public works projects to traffic fines.
KYLE: This is a very local conflict, and the role of the United States is to supply the weaponry. That's what's changed, is the armament.
GREEN: As for who's behind the mayor's murder and why, he says that will likely become clear in future weeks when the retaliatory attacks begin.
For NPR News, I'm Emily Green in Mexico City.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLAVIO CUCCHI'S "LA CATEDRAL*: I. PRELUDIO SAUDADE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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