Carlos Manzo assassination: 5 facts to know about Mexican mayor who called for use of ‘brute force’ against drug cartels

Carlos Manzo was killed in public during "day of the dead" celebrations in his hometown, days after he said he did not want to become “another murdered mayor.”

A Mexican mayor who called for the use of "brute force" against the country's drug cartels was gunned down in public on Saturday, November 1, during "day of the dead" celebrations in his hometown. Days before the assassination, Carlos Manzo had said he did not want to become “another murdered mayor.”

Police officers stand guard as protesters demonstrate against the assassination of Uruapan's mayor at the Government Palace in Morelia, Michoacan state, Mexico, on November 3, 2025. The Mexican government reported on November 2 that the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, who was killed the previous night during a public event in the western state of Michoacan, had been under official protection since December last year. (Photo by Jordi LEBRIJA / AFP)(AFP)

Manzo, 40, was shot dead by two gunmen in front of supporters who watched in horror in Uruapan, a city in Mexico's Michoacan province, central square, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. National guard troops accompanying the mayor at the event were unable to save him.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile assassination of the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo,” Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on X. “I express my deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, as well as to the people of Uruapan, for this irreparable loss.”

David Saucedo, a security consultant, described the murder as a “kamikaze attack.”

Here are five facts to know about Carlos Manzo

• Manzo gained fame by standing up to violent cartels that have terrorized Mexico for years.
• Manzo acknowledged the risk he was taking. “I don’t want to be just another murdered mayor,” he said in a statement last month. “But it is important not to let fear control us.”
• Manzo started his career with Sheinbaum’s Morena Party but later declared himself independent.
• Manzo criticized former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” approach to the dangerous narcotraffickers in ravaging Mexico.
• Congressman Manzo was detained by the National Guard in Uruapan in November 2023 after reporting that local non-traffic police officers had allegedly tried to extort a woman traveling in her vehicle. He said that after being detained, he was warned to "stop monitoring the police.” “They beat me and arrested me illegally because they know I have constitutional immunity granted by the people of Uruapan. They don't want us monitoring them because they are stealing from avocado pickers. We're fed up. They threatened to kill me if they saw me patrolling the streets of Uruapan again,” Manzo said at the time.