Mexican mayor killed during Day of the Dead celebrations

A mayor in Mexico’s western state of Michoacán was shot dead in a plaza in front of dozens of people who had gathered for Day of the Dead festivities, authorities have said.

The mayor of the Uruapan municipality, Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, was gunned down Saturday night in the town’s historic centre. He was rushed to a hospital where he later died, according to state prosecutor Carlos Torres Piña.

A city council member and a bodyguard were also injured in the assault.

The attack on the mayor was carried out by an unidentified man who shot him seven times, the federal security secretary, Omar García Harfuch, told journalists.

The weapon was linked to two armed clashes between rival criminal groups operating in the region, he added.

“No line of investigation is being ruled out to clarify this cowardly act that took the life of the mayor,” García Harfuch added.

Michoacán is one of Mexico’s most violent states and is a battleground between various cartels and criminal groups fighting for control of territory, drug distribution routes and other illicit activities.

On Sunday, hundreds of Uruapan residents, dressed in black and holding up photographs of Manzo Rodríguez, took to the town’s streets to accompany the funeral procession. They chanted “Justice, justice. Out with Morena”, a reference to the ruling party of the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum.

In recent months, the Uruapan mayor had publicly appealed to Sheinbaum on social media for help to confront the cartels and criminal groups. He had accused Michoacán’s pro-government governor, Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, and the state police of corruption.

At the head of the procession, a man led Manzo Rodríguez’s black horse, with one of the mayor’s signature hats placed on the saddle. A group of musicians, also dressed in black, followed and played mariachi songs.

In the narrow streets of the agricultural town dozens of police and military officers guarded the area.

The attack on Manzo Rodríguez, a former Morena legislator, was captured on video and shared on social media. The footage shows dozens of residents and tourists enjoying the event before several gunshots ring out and people run for cover.

In another video, a person is seen lying on the ground as an official performs CPR.

Manzo Rodríguez had been under protection since December 2024, three months after taking office. His security was reinforced last May with municipal police and 14 national guard officers, García Harfuch said, without specifying what prompted the measure.

Manzo Rodríguez, who some nicknamed “the Mexican Bukele” in reference to the tough security policies of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, took office as mayor of Uruapan after winning that year’s midterm elections with an independent movement.

The mayor’s killing follows the death of Salvador Bastidas, mayor of the municipality of Tacámbaro, also in Michoacán. Bastidas was killed in June along with his bodyguard as he arrived at his home in the town’s Centro neighbourhood.

In October 2024, journalist Mauricio Cruz Solís was also shot in Uruapan shortly after interviewing Manzo Rodríguez.