The murder of Carlos Manzo, the independent mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, on November 1st of last year, became one of the most significant public events of 2025 and sparked an intense debate in the country about the results of the federal government's security strategy. His direct style, constant presence on social media, and stance against organized crime made his figure transcend Michoacán politics. 'We don't want to be another murdered mayor who ends up in the statistics; we don't want more police officers to be murdered and end up in the statistics,' he said. The politician used social media to disseminate his positions, and on his Facebook account, he accumulated over a million followers, even though Uruapan is a city of less than 400,000 inhabitants. 'In Uruapan, the problem of security is the most important, and he attended to it by paying with his life,' he said in an interview with Aristegui en Vivo on November 4th. Following Carlos Manzo's murder, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the 'Michoacán Plan for Peace and Justice,' which includes the deployment of the National Guard, the reinforcement of federal forces, the creation of a special unit in the state prosecutor's office, and holding biweekly meetings with the security cabinet to monitor actions in the region. To date, nine people linked to the crime have been prosecuted, including seven of his bodyguards. Hundreds of people protested in Morelia and Uruapan, including a peaceful march on November 7th that brought together 70,000 people dressed in white and wearing hats, demanding justice and security. On November 5th, his widow, Grecia Quiroz, was named mayor of Uruapan by the local Congress, at the proposal of the city council, and has promised to continue Manzo's fight against organized crime. 'This Christmas feels so cold without you, I never imagined you would be missed one day. I always idealized the rest of my life by your side to see our children grow. Today you are not here, and you don't know the great void you have left in our family,' Quiroz wrote on her Facebook account on December 24th. 'I know you don't want to see me sad, but it's impossible not to miss you. Your essence, your presence is so missed, and the only thing I can tell you from wherever you are is that I will love you forever and honor your memory forever,' she added in her message. His brother, Juan Daniel Manzo, Michoacán's Undersecretary of Government, has asked that Carlos's courage in exercising public office be remembered. 'I believe the great legacy is that, despite the difficult circumstances, the most important problems have to be addressed.' 'I very much regret that the social conditions in their territories led them to that, because also the circumstances and the social environment in which certain ranches or municipalities live, for example, there in the Apatzingán region, have led many young people to be lost,' he said. He also referred to the parents who, in his opinion, allow impunity within their own homes. 'There are many mothers and fathers who are accomplices who cry for their children, rolling on the floor, crying over them in a coffin, but they were accomplices: they knew they were killing, they knew they were kidnapping, they allowed them to be rude, to do drugs, to do illicit things, to walk armed,' he stated. Calls to the federal government Months before his murder, Manzo made several calls to President Claudia Sheinbaum and Federal Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch to send support in the face of the growing violence of organized crime in the region. 'I am not willing to bend, nor am I willing to hand over the little or much security that is within our reach as a municipality.' His father, local activist Juan Manzo Ceja, founded the city's first art gallery. His campaign was characterized by a hard-line discourse against organized crime. Manzo won with 66.7% of the vote, equivalent to 95,381 votes, becoming the first independent mayor in the city's history. He began his professional career there; he also worked as an administrative assistant and coordinator in several companies. Trained in Political Science and Public Management at the Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESO), he worked in the public sector as an auditor for the Mexican Social Security Institute in Michoacán between 2017 and 2018. Joaquín Osorio, former coordinator of Political Science at ITESO and his professor, assured that the young Manzo had 'a very important political drive, he always wanted to be a politician.' 'Carlos worked very hard, he was not a person who was fascinated and got straight 10s, because his thing was more practice, but I think it was very important the process of understanding that it was necessary to complement this theoretical, conceptual part with the study of cases,' he pointed out during an interview on Aristegui en Vivo on November 4th. A historic victory in Uruapan He came to the mayorship of Uruapan by presenting himself as an independent candidate in the June 2024 elections, after his break with Morena, the party with which he was elected federal deputy in 2021 for Michoacán's 9th district. 'Criminal who runs into an armed one, and who resists being detained or attacks a citizen and you detect them on the street or in operations, you have to take them down,' he instructed the police, statements that caused a great stir and that he himself explained in different interviews, such as the one he gave to journalist Víctor Americano nine days before his death. 'Criminals must be taken down without any consideration when there is a threat or lethal aggression,' he clarified, assuring that he was not referring to extrajudicial executions, but to acting in accordance with the law in case of imminent danger. In that conversation, he reflected on the impact of the social environment on criminality and sent a message to the criminals. We know we are at risk. He took office on September 1, 2024. 'We have arrived with a new way of governing, we achieved a historic vote, never before registered in Uruapan, we won four to one in the elections, and this also generates resistances, right?' he said in an interview with Aristegui en Vivo on October 30, 2024, with only 60 days at the helm of the mayorship. He quickly gained public notoriety for his stance on organized crime. On Facebook, he broadcast live, informed about traffic, works, and security, among other local topics. A murder that shocked the country On November 1st of last year, during the Festival of the Candles in the Plaza Morelos in Uruapan, he was shot to death while socializing with those present, minutes after having invited the population to the event through his social networks. He received six bullet impacts, while a councilman and a bodyguard were injured. 'I always idealized the rest of my life by your side to see our children grow. Today you are not here and you don't know the great void you have left in our family,' Quiroz wrote on her Facebook account on December 24th. 'I know you don't want to see me sad, but it's impossible not to miss you. Your essence, your presence is so missed, and the only thing I can tell you from wherever you are is that I will love you forever and honor your memory forever,' she added in her message. Investigations point to the attack being ordered by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), although the motive is still unknown and many questions remain unanswered. The attacker, a minor, was killed at the scene. His death caused enormous commotion, both in Michoacán and the rest of the country and even had international reach.
