Mexican mayor who fought drug cartels is slain on Day of the Dead
MEXICO CITY — Carlos Manzo was famous for saying what few politicians in Mexico would say: that the cartels operate with impunity and must be confronted with brute force. Manzo, the mayor of a city besieged by crime and violence in an avocado-growing region, suggested authorities should beat criminals into submission or simply kill them.
It was a provocative message that resonated with parts of a country long plagued by the bloodshed of the drug war. Many here considered Manzo, with his distinctive white cowboy hat, a hero.
But his iron fist rhetoric and criticism of the federal government’s security strategy have also made him enemies. Manzo acknowledged this and said he knew he could be a target for organized crime. “I don’t want to be another murdered mayor,” he said last month. “But it’s important not to let fear control us.”
Manzo, 40, was shot and killed Saturday night while presiding over a public celebration of the Day of the Dead in the central square of Uruapan, a city of 300,000 in the western state of Michoacan. One suspected gunman was killed and two others were arrested.
The murder, recorded on video, caused great reactions in Mexico and Washington.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, with whom Manzo frequently quarreled on security issues, mourned “an irreparable loss.” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau released a photo of Manzo smiling and holding his young son just before the attack. “The United States stands ready to deepen security cooperation with Mexico to eliminate organized crime,” Landau wrote.
Manzo was part of a new wave of leaders in the Americas calling for a tough line on criminals.
It’s a club that includes El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who has imprisoned tens of thousands of people accused of gang affiliations with little or no due process, and President Trump, who has taken a more militaristic approach to fighting the cartels, saying the United States should “declare war” on drug traffickers.
The US military has killed 65 people it alleged were drug smugglers in the Caribbean and Pacific in recent months; this includes numerous attacks along the Mexican coastline. Trump administration leaders have warned of the possibility of a U.S. attack on cartel targets on Mexican soil.
Calls for a violent crackdown on organized crime are at odds with the security strategy adopted by Sheinbaum and his predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Both emphasized the need to address the root causes of violence, including poverty and social disintegration.
López Obrador, in particular, has vowed to break with the confrontational approaches of past Mexican administrations, whose military operations he said failed to weaken the cartels and only fueled violence. As López Obrador has often said, what Mexico needed were “hugs, not bullets.”
Manzo, who started politics as a member of López Obrador and Sheinbaum’s Morena party but later became an independent, has strongly criticized that mantra.
“Hugging…is for Mexicans living in extreme poverty,” Manzo said. “Criminals, assassins… they deserve beatings and the full power of the Mexican state.” He encouraged police officers in Uruapan to use lethal force against criminals resisting arrest.
The mayor has frequently criticized Sheinbaum for not doing more to combat the cartels, even though there has been a decrease in homicides and an increase in drug seizures and arrests since he took office. Sheinbaum said security in Mexico depends on strengthening the rule of law, including fair trials of suspects.
Manzo, the son of a community activist, became mayor of Uruapan in 2024. The city has been the site of some of Mexico’s worst drug war atrocities – kidnappings, bombings, bodies strung from highway overpasses – as a volatile mix of criminal groups fight for control of smuggling routes and profits from the lucrative avocado industry.
On Saturday, Manzo attended a crowded public event with his family to celebrate the Day of the Dead holiday in Uruapan’s central square. He posed for photos with fans and livestreamed the candle lighting event Open “Greetings to everyone” is sent on social media.
When a journalist asked about security at the event, Manzo responded: “There is involvement from different levels of government. We hope everything goes well, is peaceful, and you enjoy the night.”
Minutes later, gunshots were heard, followed by screams. Manzo was lying on the ground covered in blood. A white cowboy hat sat nearby.
Security consultant David Saucedo, who said Manzo was accompanied by local police and 14 Mexican national guardsmen at the event, described the killing as a “kamikaze attack” and said it was clear the shooter would be killed.
Saucedo said Manzo was “brave but reckless” in his quest to fight organized crime. “Carlos lacked the human, financial and material resources to defeat the cartels,” Saucedo said. His killing “makes clear that even with political will, defeating the cartels at the municipal level is an impossible task.”
The mayor’s murder was the latest in a series of violent incidents in Michoacan. Last month, authorities announced they had found the body of Bernardo Bravo Manríquez, president of the lime growers’ association, which has repeatedly condemned extortion demands against agricultural producers.
Cecilia Sánchez Vidal of The Times’ Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.
