Mayor Grecia Quiroz navigates the streets of Uruapan with heavy security, nearly a year after her partner, Carlos Manzo, was assassinated URUAPAN, Mexico -- Three armored cars and two military trucks packed with armed bodyguards carry Mayor Grecia Quiroz through the streets of Uruapan, the Mexican city where her partner was gunned down during Day of the Dead celebrations nearly a year ago. Carlos Alberto Manzo gained a reputation as a mayor crusading against cartels, a thorn in the side of criminals and political powerbrokers. But a year later — even as Quiroz has succeeded him and vowed to continue his fight — the targeted assassination casts a pall over a region long haunted by violence.
That compares with 23 sitting mayors killed during the previous administration's six years in office, according to civil society groups. The killings present a challenge for Sheinbaum as the Trump administration presses her government to crack down on cartels and root out corruption in local governments. Political violence has long been part of Mexico’s cartel conflict, but it rarely touches the highest ranks of government.
Cartels instead target local leaders, either corrupting them or killing those who stand in their way. Such killings often silence voices that threaten or interfere with cartel profits, said Miguel Meza, a researcher at the investigative organization Narcopoliticos. In Uruapan, 250 miles (400 km) west of Mexico City, Manzo's killing has sowed fear and uncertainty within his grassroots opposition Sombrero Movement, where he's gone from leader to martyr.
The aftermath has fueled a bitter political fight dividing Mexico's central Michoacan state over who was behind his death. At the same time, the city has been marked with a recent burst of violence as some criticize Quiroz for failing to carry on her partner's fight against crime. Those close to Manzo long feared that his campaign against criminal groups would inevitably end exactly as it did: with a bullet in his chest.
In Michoacan, where cartels often wield more influence than the government, Manzo gained political notoriety for taking the fight against cartels into his own hands and also openly challenged Mexico’s ruling party, Morena, up until the week of his death. He was often criticized for heavy-handed tactics that became as central to his image as mayor as the white sombrero always perched on his head. That included publicly instructing police to use lethal force on criminals resisting arrest or attacking civilians.
He personally directed patrols, searches and arrests, urged parents to report their children's criminal activity and publicized confrontations with criminals on his social media. The public assassination of Manzo in the city’s crowded main plaza, cloaked in marigold flowers, shocked the country on a day when many criminal groups quietly set down their weapons as families honor their dead. It also triggered a political feud marked by rival factions slinging accusations at one another of exploiting Manzo’s death to profit politically ahead of local elections.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
