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On the Day of the Dead last Saturday, 40-year old mayor Carlos Manzo was in the plaza of Uruapan, Michoacán, with his infant son in his arms amid candles, altars and a throng of residents, many with the traditional calavera or skull make up. This social media photo showed him in his last moments in the evening. Shortly after 8 pm, shots rang out, which some first confused for fire crackers, and panic spread through the square. Manzo was hit seven times with 9 mm bullets, including a lethal round in the thorax, and was declared dead in hospital at 8:50 pm.
The alleged attacker was subdued and killed, apparently by Manzo’s police bodyguards. State police say this assassin was 17 to 19 years old and did not carry identification. However, El Universal reported he was an operative known as El Cuate, who worked for affiliates of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Police arrested another two alleged accomplices at the scene.
Manzo had denounced in numerous interviews and speeches that he was threatened by cartels, which extort avocado growers in Uruapan and cook crystal meth in the hills. He had promised that he would stand up to the gangsters, and called on his police to take a tough line on shooting them, so media compared him to President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. He had also exchanged combative words with President Claudia Sheinbaum about tactics to fight cartels and called for more federal forces in Uruapan.
“I am not afraid to die. I am afraid to be a coward and hide the reality that our country is controlled by narcos,” he said in one video. “They can kill me, they can kidnap me, they can intimidate and threaten me. But outside there are people that demand justice,” he said in another. “They can fuck me but they will be a left with a tiger that is the angry people.”
This footage below is of the moment the shooting occurred in the plaza and was circulated on social media and soon seen by millions. Accounts posted videos and photos with Manzo alongside his valiant words, some mixed with music from bands like Molotov. For millions who have seen cartels extort and murder, he seemed to symbolize a hero who stood up.
Michoacán has a history of martyrs from Mexico’s War of Independence to the uprising by Cristeros and there is even a Martyrs’ Plaza in state capital Morelia. The Mexican cartel wars seem to be bequeathing new martyrs. Less than two weeks ago, gangsters also slew Bernardo Bravo (below), a leader of lime growers in nearby Apatzingán who made brave declarations about standing up to cartels and refusing to pay them extortion fees. The assassins kidnapped and tortured Bravo, shot him in the head and dumped his body.
The murder of Manzo inflamed an already combative political environment in Michoacán, and more broadly in Mexico. When…
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