Gunmen kill Mexican mayor who urged government to combat violent crime

Gunmen shot and killed the mayor of a Mexican city during a public event Saturday, authorities said, in an area plagued by violence and organized crime.

Carlos Manzo, mayor of Uruapan, in the western state of Michoacán, died in an attack in the city center, the national public security agency said in a statement.

“Two people involved in the incident were arrested and one of the attackers lost his life,” he added.

The state of Michoacán has suffered for years from violence from powerful drug cartels that operate in the agricultural region and seek to extort farmers.

Manzo was shot during an event marked the day of the dead.

Videos shared online showed people fleeing the crowded event after gunshots were heard.

Manzo took over as mayor in September 2024 and occasionally joined security patrols on the streets wearing a bulletproof vest.

In a video on his social media of one of those patrols in June, he urged the federal government to do more to address violent crime.

His murder came days after Michoacán farmers’ representative Bernardo Bravo, who often denounced extortion by criminal gangs, was also murdered. shot dead.

Mexico, plagued by drug-related violence for almost two decades, has seen the assassination of numerous local politicians in recent years.

Last month, armed assailants shot and killed the mayor of Pisaflores, in central Mexico.

In June, gunmen stormed a mayor’s office in southern Mexico, killing her and a staff member. The next day, another mayor was murdered in the west of the country along with her husband.

He previously said that were shot dead by armed men passing by on motorcycles in a central area of ​​the capital, authorities said at the time. Brugada holds the most powerful political position in Mexico after President Claudia Sheinbaum, Brugada’s predecessor as mayor, who resigned from that position to run for president.