Calls for justice after Mexico mayor killed during Day of the Dead festival

Carlos Manzo, an outspoken critic of organised crime, was shot dead during a public festival in the city of Uruapan.

Mexicans in the western state of Michoacan have called for justice after a local mayor and outspoken critic of organised crime was shot dead while attending a Day of the Dead festival in the city of Uruapan.

Hundreds of Uruapan residents, dressed in black, took to the city’s streets on Sunday to accompany Carlos Manzo’s funeral procession and bid farewell to the slain mayor.

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They chanted “Justice! Justice! Out with Morena!”, a reference to the governing party of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

Manzo, the mayor of the Uruapan municipality, was shot dead on Saturday night in the town’s historic centre. He was rushed to a hospital, where he later died. He was 40 years old.

A city council member and a bodyguard were also wounded in the attack.

People hug each other and mourn during the funeral of Carlos Manzo in Uruapan, Mexico, November 2, 2025 [Ivan Arias/ Reuters]

The attacker was killed at the scene, Federal Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch told journalists on Sunday.

The attack was carried out by an unidentified man who shot the mayor seven times, Harfuch said. The weapon was linked to two armed clashes between rival criminal groups operating in the region, he added.

“No line of investigation is being ruled out to clarify this cowardly act that took the life of the mayor,” Harfuch said.

‘Vile’ assassination

The Mexican president promised there would be justice.

Sheinbaum called an emergency meeting of her security cabinet on Sunday morning, later condemning Manzo’s “vile” assassination in a statement on X.

“We reaffirm our commitment to deploy all the State’s efforts to achieve peace and security with zero impunity and full justice,” she wrote.

Manzo had been Uruapan’s mayor since September 2024.

Since taking office, Manzo, often seen wearing a bulletproof vest, had called on the federal government to do more to fight organised crime while expressing fears for his safety.

“I don’t want to be just another mayor on the list of those executed, those whose lives have been taken from them,” Manzo said in an interview in September with Mexican journalist Joaquin Lopez-Doriga.

Uruapan has been called Mexico’s avocado capital because it sits in the heart of Michoacan’s avocado-growing region. The industry has seen rapid growth due to booming US demand, making avocado production a target for organised criminal groups.

Multiple politicians, including other mayors, and journalists have been killed in recent months and years.

“How many mayors have they killed because they opposed making these pacts with organised crime?” Manzo asked in another September interview with Mexico’s Milenio TV. He appealed to Sheinbaum for stronger public security measures and said Uruapan’s avocado industry gave it importance ahead of a coming review of Mexico’s trade deal with the United States and Canada.

According to Harfuch, the security minister, Manzo had been under protection since December 2024, three months after taking office. His security was reinforced last May with municipal police and 14 National Guard officers, Harfuch said.

“The aggressors took advantage of the vulnerability of a public event,” Harfuch said, referring to Manzo’s murder. “Be certain that there will be no impunity.”

Officials in the United States also condemned the killing.

“The US stands ready to deepen security cooperation with Mexico to wipe out organised crime on both sides of the border,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X, sharing a photo of Manzo with his young son shortly before the mayor’s murder.

The mayor’s killing follows the death of Salvador Bastidas, mayor of the municipality of Tacambaro, also in Michoacan. Bastidas was killed in June along with his bodyguard as he arrived at his home in the town’s Centro neighbourhood.

In October 2024, journalist Mauricio Cruz Solis was also shot in Uruapan shortly after interviewing Manzo.