Slaying of Mexican mayor sparks national outcry over cartel power

MEXICO CITY — Carlos Manzo has forged a maverick path in his hometown of Uruapan in western Mexico, battling both the cartels and inadequate federal support in his fight against what he calls organized crime.

With his signature white fedora, the “Hat Man” was an irritant to the power structure in Mexico City, but he was beloved among many voters for his uncompromising stance against the brutal gangs that dominated much of the country.

“They could kill me, kidnap me, scare me or threaten me,” the outspoken Manzo said on social media in June. “But people who are tired of muggings, murders and car thefts will want justice.”

He added: “There is an angry tiger out there – the people of Uruapan.”

That anger was on dramatic display last week, as tens of thousands of people marched in the streets of Uruapan and elsewhere in the violence-torn state of Michoacán to condemn the murder of 40-year-old Manzo. Manzo was shot to death at a Day of the Dead celebration on November 1, amid a crowd of revelers, including his family, in a murder that reverberated across the country and beyond.

Assassinations of other public figures in recent years have also triggered anger and horror in the country, but Manzo’s death has unleashed something else: a divisive outcome in which many question Mexico’s ability to confront angry cartels in places like Michoacán, where organized crime maintains a strong grip on the government, economy and people’s daily lives.

“This structural control of organized crime is deeply worrying for the entire country,” said Erubiel Tirado, a security expert at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City. “It speaks to a crisis of legitimacy in terms of the government’s ability to function.”

El Universal newspaper columnist Mariana Campos wrote that Mexico was “divided into regions where criminals set the rules, administer justice, collect taxes and decide who can be mayor and who can be businessman.”

Less than two weeks before Manzo’s murder, police in Michoacán found the battered body of Bernardo Bravo, the reputed leader of regional lime growers who had resisted the cartels’ extortion demands. Authorities said Bravo was shot in the head and there were signs of torture on his body.

For months, President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government has released statistics showing declines in murders and other crimes nationwide, as well as the arrests of hundreds of organized crime figures; Among them, dozens were deported to face justice in the United States.

But polls consistently show that many Mexicans remain unconvinced. The death of Manzo, who damaged national reputation by insisting that authorities were keeping an eye on criminals, further fueled a widespread sense of vulnerability, especially in places like Michoacan.

The picturesque region of lush hillsides, pine-covered mountains and wild Pacific coastline has long been a center of cartel violence. In 2006, then-President Felipe Calderon chose Michoacán as the place to declare Mexico’s ill-fated “War on Drugs.”

This happened a few months after a particularly gruesome incident in Uruapan: Cartel gunmen threw five severed heads onto a nightclub dance floor.

During the War on Drugs, the military was deployed to fight the cartels, but the strategy backfired, significantly increasing violence across the country and raising concerns about the country’s militarization and human rights abuses.

Relatives carry the coffin of Mexican journalist Mauricio Cruz Solis on October 30, 2024, in Uruapan, Michoacan state. A local prosecutor’s office said Cruz was shot to death Oct. 29 in western Mexico, in a part of the country hard-hit by organized crime.

(Enrique Castro/AFP via Getty Images)

According to many in Uruapan and across the country, things have only gotten worse since then.

“Spread this to the world: Drug traffickers rule Mexico,” said Arturo Martínez, 61, who runs a craft shop in Uruapan, a city of more than 300,000 at the heart of Mexico’s multibillion-dollar avocado industry. “If they kill the mayor in front of his family, in front of thousands of people, what can an ordinary person expect? We are completely at the mercy of criminals.”

This is an oft-stated perspective that dovetails with President Trump’s comments that the cartels exert “total control” in Mexico. This accusation was denied by Sheinbaum, but others say the collapse in Michoacán is an example of a broader lack of control.

Uruapan “became a mirror of the country, a microcosm in which the ability to govern was derailed, [and] Fear is replacing the state, political analyst Denise Dresser told news outlet Aristegui Noticias.

Manzo, An independent organization broke away from Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena party more than a year ago and accused the central government of ignoring his calls for additional police forces and security funding to fight organized crime.

After the mayor’s murder, Sheinbaum rejected a return to the militaristic War on Drugs, which claimed tens of thousands of lives and did little to stop drug trafficking, according to Sheinbaum and other critics.

Police officers stand guard as protesters demonstrate against the killing of the mayor of Uruapan at the Government Palace in Morelia, Mexico, on November 3. The Mexican government said on November 2 that Uruapan mayor Carlos Manzo, who was killed the previous night during a public event in the western state of Michoacan, had been under official protection since December.

(Jordi Lebrija/AFP via Getty Images)

Manzo was the latest in a string of Mexican mayors and local officials assassinated in recent years as the cartels take control of turfs, smuggling routes, police departments and municipal budgets while also supporting extortion schemes and other racketeering. Manzo’s death attracted attention due to his provocative media presence, which demanded authorities beat or kill criminals into surrender.

“In many places, criminal groups control police chiefs, local treasuries and mayors,” said Víctor Manuel Sánchez, a professor at the Autonomous University of Coahuila. “And then there are mayors like Carlos Manzo who try to break this circle and they end up dying.”

Sheinbaum attacked opposition critics who blamed his lax policies for the murder. He condemned the “despicable” and “cowardly” attack on Manzo and promised that the killers would be brought to justice.

Police said the 17-year-old attacker who fatally shot Manzo was killed at the scene and two other suspects were arrested. Although authorities described the operation as a well-planned cartel attack, there is no official confirmation as to which of the many gangs operating in the area was responsible. Also, the reason is still unclear.

Following the murder of the mayor, the president announces a “Michoacán Plan” to increase security. Many are skeptical.

“This is the last of many such plans,” said Tirado of the University of Iberoamerica. “None of them worked.”

Manzo’s widow, Grecia Quiroz, took over as mayor of Uruapan and vowed to continue her husband’s fight against the cartels. Quiroz cradled her husband’s trademark white hat in her left arm as she raised her right hand to take the oath of office last week.

“This hat has unstoppable power,” the new mayor declared.

White hats were a frequent sight at demonstrations condemning Manzo’s death, and at his funeral, Manzo’s coffin was decorated with a white hat.

His widow’s well-choreographed swearing-in under extra-tight security did little to change the prevailing mood of anguish and somberness in Uruapan. Hope is a commodity in short supply for the town’s desperate and fearful residents.

“This narcos The person running things here is not the mayor or the president,” said Martínez, the shop owner. “Carlos Manzo just wanted to protect his people. And look what happened to him.”

Timestaf wRiter Kate Linthicum and special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City contributed to this report.