During the arrests, the head of the security department (local police chief) of Chilpancingo German Reyes is accused of being the main person responsible for the death of mayor Alejandro Arcos, killed on October 6, six days after he took office.
During a public hearing, the prosecution also accused him of being a member of Los Ardillos, one of the local mafias that controls drug sales, kidnappings and extortion. According to the prosecution, the mayor was assassinated because he refused to appoint officials that Los Ardillos wanted to impose on the authorities, noted an AFP journalist. Alejandro Arcos died decapitated alive by “hemorrhage”, according to the prosecution.
His head had been placed on the roof of a vehicle. A former soldier, German Reyes refuted the accusations and said he never knew the mayor. He considers himself a “scapegoat” victim of a “political affair”. Between sea and mountains, between Acapulco, the drug gateway, and fields of opium and avocados in the hinterland, Guerrero is one of those Mexican territories caught in a spiral of criminal violence.
A week ago, eleven dismembered bodies were found in a car. They are part of a group of 17 people missing since October, kidnapped by Los Ardillos, according to authorities. In early November, five members of the same family were killed in a home on the outskirts of Acapulco. On October 24, fourteen people died in a clash between soldiers and suspected criminals who killed two police officers.
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