Mexican Mayor Assassinated During Day of the Dead Celebration After Defying Drug Cartels

A tragic scene unfolded in Mexico on Saturday night when Carlos Manzo, the outspoken mayor of Uruapan, was shot dead in front of his family during a Day of the Dead celebration.

Footage from the event showed a crowd gathered outside a church in Uruapan, candles in hand, when sudden gunfire erupted. Panic swept through the crowd as Manzo—who had long warned of threats to his life—was struck down.

Manzo, 40, was elected mayor in September 2024 as an independent candidate after defecting from President Claudia Sheinbaum’s party. Since taking office, he had earned a reputation as one of the few local officials willing to openly confront cartel influence in Michoacán, one of Mexico’s deadliest regions for organized crime.

The slain mayor had often been seen wearing a bulletproof vest in public and had repeatedly pleaded with Mexico’s federal government for stronger protection. In a September interview, he issued a chilling warning that now reads like a prophecy:

“I don’t want to be just another mayor on the list of those executed, those whose lives have been taken from them. How many mayors haven’t they killed because they refused to make pacts with organized crime?”

Manzo had specifically appealed to Mexico’s Secretary of Security, Omar Harfuch, urging him to extend protection for public officials across the country. Following the assassination, Harfuch confirmed that Manzo had been under state protection, guarded by 14 National Guard officers who conducted regular security sweeps.

“The aggressors took advantage of the vulnerability of a public event,” Harfuch said at a press conference Sunday. “Be certain that there will be no impunity.”

Uruapan, the second-largest city in Michoacán, has long been a flashpoint in the nation’s brutal cartel wars, as rival groups battle over drug trafficking routes and extortion rackets. Manzo’s killing marks the second political assassination in Mexico in just two weeks. On October 20, Pisaflores mayor Miguel Bahena Solórzano was also gunned down.

The murder has sparked international condemnation, including from Washington. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau called the assassination “a cowardly attack on democracy,” vowing that the U.S. is ready to “deepen security cooperation with Mexico to wipe out organized crime on both sides of the border.”

As Mexico reels from another high-profile killing, residents of Uruapan gathered Sunday night to light candles for the man who had promised to stand up to the cartels — and paid for it with his life.