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New mayor vows to fight violence in Mexico city days after his predecessor was killed and beheaded
A new mayor was sworn in Thursday in a city in southern Mexico where his predecessor was killed and beheaded less than a week after taking office.
The new mayor, Gustavo Alarcón, a doctor, had been elected as an alternate on the same ticket as deceased Mayor Alejandro Arcos in the June election.
Arcos took office on Oct. 1 in the violence-wracked city of Chilpancingo, the capital of the southern state of Guerrero. His beheaded body was found in a pickup truck Sunday; his head had been placed on the vehicle’s roof. Two rival drug gangs are fighting to control the city.
Alarcón took the oath of office with a minimal security detail of a handful of police officers Thursday. He pledged to “work for the good of all” and fight the violence that has gripped Chilpancingo for years.
Before he was killed, Arcos had told local media he needed more protection but officials said no formal request had been received. State and federal governments can offer mayors bulletproof vehicles, additional bodyguards and emergency alert systems. It was not clear if Alarcón had been granted that kind of protection.
Alejandrino Gonzalez / AP
Arcos’ murder came days after the killing of another city official, Francisco Tapia, according to Institutional Revolutionary Party president Alejandro Moreno.
“They had been in office for less than a week. Young and honest officials who sought progress for their community,” Moreno said on X.
Chilpancingo, a city of about 300,000, is dominated by two warring drug gangs, the Ardillos and the Tlacos. One staged a demonstration of hundreds of people, hijacked a government armored car, blocked a major highway and took police hostage in 2023 to win the release of arrested suspects.
Earlier this week, federal Public Safety Secretary Omar García Harfuch said four mayors from other towns in Mexico had requested protection on Monday, a day after Arcos’ remains were found. The requests came from Guerrero and another violence-plagued state, Guanajuato.
“The war on drugs will not return”
The situation in Guanajuato is so bad that ahead of the country’s June elections, at least four mayoral candidates were killed.
In June, Acacio Flores, who represents Malinaltepec, was killed just days after the killing of Salvador Villalba Flores, another mayor from Guerrero state elected in the June 2 polls. Earlier in the month, a local councilwoman was gunned down as she was leaving her home in Guerrero.
Her murder came a few days after the mayor of a town in western Mexico and her bodyguard were killed outside of a gym, just hours after Claudia Sheinbaum won the presidency.
But violence in Guerrero reached such unprecedented levels that earlier this year, Roman Catholic bishops announced they had helped arrange a truce in another part of the state between two warring drug cartels.
At the time, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador- who refused to confront the gangs – said he approved such talks.
“Priests and pastors and members of all the churches have participated, helped in pacifying the country. I think it is very good,” said López Obrador, who left office Sept. 30.
Sheinbaum on Tuesday ruled out launching a new war against drug cartels, as she presented a national security plan aimed at reducing raging criminal violence.
Henry Romero / REUTERS
Sheinbaum, the first woman to lead the Latin American nation, said her government would prioritize tackling the root causes of crime, as well as making better use of intelligence.
“The war on drugs will not return,” the leftist president told a news conference, referring to an offensive launched in 2006 involving the military and supported by the United States.
AFP contributed to this report.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
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Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say
The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.
Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego.
According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.
The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.