Mexican mayor killed throughout Day of the Dead celebrations

A mayor in Mexico’s western state of Michoacan was shot lifeless in a plaza in entrance of dozens of people that had gathered for Day of the Dead festivities, authorities mentioned.

Local politicians in Mexico are continuously victims of political and organised crime violence.

The mayor of the Uruapan municipality, Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodriguez, was gunned down on Saturday evening within the city’s historic centre. He was rushed to a hospital, the place he later died, based on state prosecutor Carlos Torres Pina.

A metropolis council member and a bodyguard have been additionally injured within the assault.

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

The assault on the mayor was carried out by an unidentified man who shot him seven occasions, Garcia Harfuch mentioned. The weapon was linked to 2 armed clashes between rival prison teams working within the area, he added.

“No line of investigation is being dominated out to make clear this cowardly act that took the lifetime of the mayor,” Garcia Harfuch mentioned.

Michoacan is certainly one of Mexico’s most violent states and is a battleground amongst numerous cartels and prison teams preventing for management of territory, drug distribution routes and different illicit actions.

On Sunday, lots of of Uruapan residents, wearing black and holding up pictures of Manzo Rodríguez, took to the city’s streets to accompany the funeral procession and bid farewell to the slain mayor. They chanted “Justice! Justice! Out with Morena!,” a reference to the ruling occasion of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

In current months, the Uruapan mayor had publicly appealed to Sheinbaum on social media for assist to confront the cartels and prison teams. He had accused Michoacan’s pro-government governor, Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla, and the state police of corruption.

At the pinnacle of the procession, a person led Manzo Rodriguez’s black horse, with one of many mayor’s signature hats positioned on the saddle. A bunch of musicians, additionally wearing black, adopted and performed mariachi songs.

In the slim streets of the agricultural city, the place avocados are the principle crop, dozens of police and army officers stood guard across the space.

The assault on Manzo Rodriguez, a former Morena legislator, was captured on video and shared on social media.

The footage exhibits dozens of residents and vacationers, some in costume and with painted faces, having fun with the occasion surrounded by lots of of lit candles, marigold flowers and cranium decorations. Then a number of gunshots ring out and other people run for canopy.

In one other video, an individual is seen mendacity on the bottom as an official performs CPR whereas armed law enforcement officials guard the realm.

Manzo Rodriguez had been underneath safety since December 2024, three months after taking workplace. His safety was strengthened final May with municipal police and 14 National Guard officers, Garcia Harfuch mentioned, with out specifying what prompted the measure.

Manzo Rodriguez, who some nicknamed “The Mexican Bukele” in reference to the powerful safety insurance policies of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, took workplace as mayor of Uruapan after successful that 12 months’s midterm elections with an impartial motion.

The mayor’s killing follows the demise of Salvador Bastidas, mayor of the municipality of Tacambaro, additionally in Michoacan. Bastidas was killed in June alongside together with his bodyguard as he arrived at his residence within the city’s Centro neighbourhood.

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