One month after the homicide of Uruapan's mayor Carlos Manzo during the Festival de las Velas on November 1, 2025, the investigation progresses with key arrests, but citizens express skepticism about the government's response. Banners with the late leader's phrases appeared in the city, as his wife assumes the mayoralty and the Movimiento del Sombrero plans its political future. Surveys show divided opinions on the federal handling of the case.
On November 1, 2025, Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, was assassinated during the Festival de las Velas by Víctor Manuel Ubaldo Vidales, a 17-year-old linked to the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), who was killed by police that same night. Sodium rhodizonate tests confirmed he fired at least six bullets. The Fiscalía General del Estado de Michoacán (FGE) identified Jorge Armando N., alias 'El Licenciado', as the alleged mastermind, against whom legal proceedings were opened. Additionally, seven municipal police were charged with omission in the mayor's protection.
Nine days later, two alleged accomplices, one 16 years old, were found dead on the Uruapan-Paracho highway, raising the number of related executions to three. His wife, Grecia Itzel Quiroz García, assumed the role of substitute mayor with unanimous approval from the state Congress, pledging to continue the fight for security.
On December 1, 2025, banners with Manzo's phrases appeared in Uruapan, such as “A mí me podrán matar, pero se quedan con un tigre muy enfurecido que es el pueblo de Uruapan” on Bulevar Industrial, and “Uruapan, tierra del valiente que dio la vida por su pueblo” on the Uruapan-Pátzcuaro highway.
Juan Manzo, the deceased's brother and Michoacán's subsecretary of Government, noted the homicide has altered the landscape: “A society that now demands results, that demands stopping this”. He insisted on probing potential political motives. The Movimiento del Sombrero, led by Manzo, aims to consolidate; deputy Carlos Bautista Tafolla stated: “We will go for the governorship and then for the Presidency of the Republic because that's what Carlos wanted”.
An El Financiero survey from November 13 to 24, 2025, showed 49% rating the investigations under Claudia Sheinbaum's government poorly, and 71% disapproving of security handling in Michoacán. The president announced the Plan Michoacán por la Paz y la Justicia following the crime. Uruapan has a crime rate of 1,048 per 100,000 inhabitants as of July 2025, in a state with high homicide rates.
