Mexican State Sends 200 Officers to Uruapan After Mayor's Killing

Grecia Quiroz, the mayor of Uruapan, Mexico, moves through the city in three armored cars and two military trucks with armed bodyguards. She is escorted by 60 federally appointed guards around the clock. She took office after her partner, Carlos Alberto Manzo, was gunned down in the city's main plaza during Day of the Dead celebrations nearly a year ago.

Manzo built a reputation as a mayor who took on cartels in Michoacan state. He publicly instructed police to use lethal force on criminals who resisted arrest or attacked civilians. He directed patrols, searches and arrests himself, and posted confrontations with criminals on social media. "We're fighting to clean up this filth that's killing us all," Manzo said in one video.

Manzo was among at least 13 mayors killed across Mexico in the two years since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, according to an Associated Press tally based on official reports. The previous administration saw 23 sitting mayors killed over six years, according to civil society groups. Federal and state authorities have blamed Manzo's killing on the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, also called CJNG. Quiroz accused state officials in Sheinbaum's Morena party who had clashed with her and Manzo's political movement, along with criminal groups, of being behind the death.

State prosecutors describe a complex conspiracy that they say reached into Manzo's inner circle. Authorities have detained 34 people in connection with the killing. Those detained include seven of the mayor's bodyguards who were with him when he was attacked, members of his government accused of leaking his movements, and Manzo's godson, who prosecutors accuse of helping plan the assassination. On Thursday, prosecutors announced the detention of the city's secretary of welfare on accusations of obstruction of justice, saying she is related to two alleged CJNG members arrested in the case.

Quiroz has declined to turn over Manzo's cellphone to prosecutors. Juan Manzo, the mayor's brother and a member of Morena in the state government, has accused her of defending some of those detained. "I can't directly accuse her," Juan Manzo said. "But the reality is that she has covered for many of those responsible for the murder of her children's father. She has not been transparent during the investigation." Quiroz has denied the accusations and said her family was "betrayed" by those closest to them.

Violence has risen in Uruapan in recent weeks. Over the weekend, a masked man on a motorcycle shot two women working at a taco stand, killing one. State authorities documented 17 killings, eight gunshot injuries, four attacks on businesses and homes, and a series of robberies in October. Quiroz requested help from the federal government. "We cannot allow violence to become our new normal," she wrote Sunday on X. "Uruapan deserves to live in peace." On Tuesday, state authorities sent 200 law enforcement officers to the city.

David Vázquez, a store owner, said extortions by local mafias have mounted since Manzo's killing, forcing his family to temporarily close the business. He resented watching the fleet of state bodyguards escorting Quiroz, saying "they only protect her and her family." Others said they had not been affected by the violence and believed Quiroz was doing her best in the face of trauma.

Posters and busts honoring Manzo line the plaza where he was killed. His grave, open to the public, holds flowers, food offerings and white sombreros. "Not a single step backward," the headstone reads.