Months before his assassination, the independent mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, made an urgent call to President Claudia Sheinbaum and the Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch, for support amid the growing violence from organized crime gangs in the region.
“The obligation on these issues lies with the federal government. Not one step back!”, he exclaimed to the applause of those present. The president went to Uruapan for the votes… and never came back. This was denounced by Mayor Carlos Manzo, who was assassinated tonight.
To Secretary Omar García Harfuch, Secretary of National Security: “We don't want to be another murdered mayor who ends up in the statistics; we don't want more police officers murdered who end up in the statistics,” he said.
Manzo, a political scientist and the son of local activist Juan Manzo Ceja, came to power by running as an independent candidate in the June 2024 elections, after serving as a federal deputy for Morena from 2021 to 2024.
“I ask you to urgently make your presence felt in Uruapan. We, with great pleasure, will continue to support, but those of us who are exposed, those of us who are facing this, are our municipal police, this government; all of us, including my own life as mayor, are exposed,” he warned in a video message shared on his social media in September of this year.
The mayor, who was shot and killed this Saturday by two unknowns while heading the Festival of the Velas for the Day of the Dead, insisted at the time that he was not willing to yield to violence or compromise the security of the municipality.
“I am not willing to bow down, nor am I willing to hand over the little or much security that is within our reach as a municipality. We want them alive or we want them dead, but we want them already, Mr. Governor, Mr. Attorney General, Mrs. President of Mexico. We will not rest, even if it costs us our lives, even if it costs us time, even if it costs us power. And since she asked for the vote in Uruapan, she has not returned as President of the Republic. Uruapan voted for you, Madam President, voted for this independent movement, and we ask you to reconsider and listen, to attend to us,” he said.
He urged finding “solutions to this problem that is killing us, which is not much different from what happens in other municipalities in the state and the country.”
At that time, the mayor asked for “respect” and “justice” for the people of Uruapan, as well as the presence of the federal government and the full force of the law for the killers.
“We demand punishment for the guilty. The full force of the law for these killers. Know the complicated situations we live in in Michoacán and that it is required that you assume the responsibility you have to attend to these federal crimes, these criminal gangs of organized crime, that commit illicit acts, commit intimidations [sic], homicides with weapons exclusive to the army,” he added.
“We are in the best disposition to support, to continue working as we are doing, but if you do not send the support that the citizens of Uruapan require from the Presidency of Mexico, the only thing you will leave us with is to be all exposed to these types of criminal groups that are more aggressive every day”.
In another video, which he described as a “call for help” and an “alert,” Manzo took a similar stance.
“This positioning that we have made to be heard, to send a message of help, of alert, with many of the ones I have made since I arrived as mayor, and that I have had to assume a role in fighting crimes that do not correspond to me 100%, but that we are forced to because we cannot leave Uruapan abandoned, we cannot leave it at risk,” he said.
“We demand and ask the federal government and the state government, but mainly the federal government, headed by our president Claudia Sheinbaum, to assume their responsibility in the crimes of the federal order,” he pointed out then.
The mayor indicated that the Attorney General's Office of the Republic should investigate and clarify the violent events within its jurisdiction.
He insisted that the criminal gangs are “heavily armed, commit kidnappings, extortions, homicides, clashes,” so their combat must be through the Army and the National Guard.
He pointed out that previous administrations allowed the penetration of organized crime into Uruapan and weakened municipal security, even establishing pacts with criminals.
“Unfortunately, our municipality has been suffering this vacuum in security for about 25 years and this is because it has been generated, because there have been governments that have come to make deals with crime, that have come to be accomplices of crime,” he accused.
This, he said, has prevented strengthening public security “to protect citizens.”
He also noted that his government had to rebuild the local police, which faced a lack of resources, low salaries, and a deteriorated morale.
“Even if it costs us our life”
In another video, shared on social media, Manzo expressed his dissatisfaction with the absence of the President of the Republic in Uruapan, noting that although she had visited Michoacán on multiple occasions, she had never returned to the municipality since she asked for the vote.
“The President of the Republic visited Morelia, has visited Michoacán countless times. We know we are at risk. And she was right: on May 2, 2024, 👇 Claudia Sheinbaum led another propaganda event, talked about roads and the elderly, and after that she never came back…
