Alejandro Arcos, mayor of the city of Chilpancingo in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, was assassinated just six days after assuming office, local authorities said.

“His loss has left all of Guerrero society in mourning and fills us with indignation,” Guerrero state governor Evelyn Salgado wrote on social media X.

Mr Arcos was elected in June as a representative of an opposition coalition that included the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Following his assassination, the PRI denounced the crime as “cowardly” and called for justice.

According to PRI president Alejandro Moreno, Mr Arcos’s murder came three days after the homicide of Francisco Tapia, secretary of Chilpancingo’s city council.

The state attorney general’s office said it had opened an investigation into Mr Arcos’ homicide.

Guerrero, one of Mexico’s poorest states, has endured years of violence related to turf wars between cartels fighting for control of drug production and trafficking.

(Xinhua/NAN)