Jorge Armando 'N', alias 'El Licenciado', accused of being the operator of the plan to assassinate the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, and the seven bodyguards who accompanied him during the attack, has been charged to trial after an 18-hour hearing. The control judge determined that there were sufficient elements to initiate a criminal trial against him for various crimes related to the homicide of the municipal president, which occurred on November 1. The proceeding was held virtually between Morelia and Uruapan, with the participation of the 'David Franco Rodríguez' penitentiary center in Michoacán and 'El Altiplano' in the State of Mexico. Throughout the hearing, the defense presented 27 elements to try to discredit the accusations and denounced that 'El Licenciado' was subjected to torture and threats after his arrest, after stating that he is not part of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. However, Judge Luis Fernando Díaz Parra ruled that the evidence presented by the Prosecutor's Office supported the hypothesis of the participation of the eight involved. According to the resolution, Jorge Armando 'N', known as 'El Licenciado', is attributed qualified intentional homicide and qualified injuries, due to his alleged direct intervention in the organization of the attack. Regarding the seven municipal police officers who served as the mayor's bodyguards, the judicial authority considered that they may have committed qualified homicide under the commission by omission modality, by preventing the aggression. In addition to the parties, Juan Manzo Rodríguez, the mayor's brother, and councilman Víctor Hugo de la Cruz, who was injured in the attack, participated as indirect victims. Both listened to the judge's decision to keep the accused under preventive detention while the process advances. The judge set a three-month deadline for complementary investigation and established that the procedure cannot exceed two years. With this, the criminal case will continue in the initial stage awaiting the integration of new evidence and the definition of responsibilities.
