MEXICO CITY — On Tuesday, officials arrested a former prosecutor and police officer in relation to the brutal decapitation of a mayor that occurred on October 6.
Authorities in Guerrero confirmed that Germán Reyes was taken into custody on homicide charges for the death of Alejandro Arcos, who had been in office for just a week as mayor of Chilpancingo, the state capital.
The arrest comes as a shocking turn of events, considering that prior reports had attributed the murder to a local drug and extortion gang. Reyes formerly held the position of special prosecutor in Guerrero, which is a significant role, raising concerns about his potential involvement with organized crime.
The allegations imply that Reyes, who is also a former military officer with the rank of captain in the military justice system according to his credentials, may have colluded with the gang.
This situation raises serious questions about the influence that at least one of the two rival gangs battling for dominance in Chilpancingo has over local officials.
A conviction of Reyes would serve as a major blow to the strategy employed by cities across Mexico to appoint retired military personnel to crucial local police positions, based on the belief that such individuals would be less likely to engage in corruption.
Furthermore, it was notable that state detectives required the intervention of federal forces, including soldiers and the National Guard, to carry out the arrest, indicating a lack of trust in local law enforcement to execute such operations.
The specific role that Reyes played within the Chilpancingo municipal security force remains unclear, along with whether he served under Arcos or the interim mayor who succeeded him after the assassination.
Omar García Harfuch, Mexico’s leading federal security official, stated earlier that Arcos’ body was discovered in a pickup truck, with his head placed atop the vehicle. He indicated that the same gang believed to be responsible for Arcos’ death was implicated in the recent killings of eleven market vendors, including four minors.
These vendors were abducted late last month as they traveled to sell their products, with their bodies later found in a pickup truck on a Chilpancingo avenue last week.
While neither Harfuch nor local prosecutors disclosed the name of the gang involved, a regional human rights advocate claimed that the Ardillos gang was responsible for the murders of the vendors.
The advocate, who requested anonymity due to safety concerns, asserted that the Ardillos controlled significant portions of Guerrero and had various state legislators and officials in their pocket.
The Ardillos have been engaged in an ongoing contest for power in Chilpancingo against a rival gang known as the Tlacos. This conflict has resulted in numerous mutilated bodies appearing in the city over the past several years.
As violence in Guerrero escalated to unprecedented levels in 2023, the situation became so dire that Roman Catholic bishops intervened to negotiate a truce between feuding drug cartels in a different area of the state.
At this time, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador — who consistently refused to confront the cartels directly — expressed support for such discussions.
“Members of all churches have been involved and have helped bring peace to the country. I think this is very positive,” remarked López Obrador, who concluded his term on September 30.