Michoacán authorities identify Carlos Manzo’s killer as 17-year-old Víctor Manuel

The Michoacán State Attorney’s Office announced Thursday that it had identified the body of the alleged killer of Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, the mayor of the Mexican city of Uruapan. According to State Attorney General Carlos Torres Piña, Víctor Manuel Ubaldo Vidales, a 17-year-old from the neighboring municipality of Paracho, was linked to organized crime. His body was identified and claimed by relatives on Wednesday afternoon. The attacker’s family said he had been missing from home for about a week before the events.

Torres Piña reported that Víctor Manuel N. tested positive for sodium rhodizonate, a chemical compound used in forensic testing to detect the presence of lead and barium residues, confirming that he was the person who fired at least six shots at the mayor. The same tests, according to the state attorney general, also revealed that the teenager was addicted to methamphetamine, information later confirmed by his relatives.

In the midst of Day of the Dead celebrations on Saturday, with the town square packed, Manzo was shot. Ubaldo Vidales was killed immediately after shooting the mayor, and two accomplices were arrested on the spot, authorities said. The mayor was taken to Fray Juan de San Miguel Hospital, where he later died, according to the official confirmation included in the investigation.

“Progress in the investigation has allowed us to determine that more than two people participated in these events and that the homicide is related to organized crime groups,” Torres Piña said at a press conference.

The 17-year-old was reportedly connected to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). According to sources familiar with the investigation, the attack was ordered by the cartel, which had suffered a major blow in August when local police — under Manzo’s leadership — arrested its regional boss, René Belmonte, alias “Rino.”

The situation in Uruapan, one of Michoacán’s most important municipalities — with 350,000 residents and the heart of the region’s avocado industry — has deteriorated sharply in recent months. A source close to the case said El Rino oversaw the CJNG’s extortion network in the area, which mainly targeting small and medium-sized farmers who couldn’t afford private protection, unlike the region’s large producers.

Grecia Quiroz, Manzo’s widow, was sworn in before the State Congress on Wednesday to succeed her husband as mayor.

“They killed Carlos Manzo, but they couldn’t kill what he awakened,” said Quiroz, who now leads a city terrorized by organized crime.

Quiroz denounced the lack of response from the federal government to her husband’s repeated pleas for help over rising violence. Manzo had asked for federal and state support after Rino’s capture. The same day of Rino’s arrest, August 27, he posted a video on social media urging residents to stay home, warning that CJNG gunmen were preparing to enter the city.

In the following weeks, violence escalated in Uruapan, including attacks on local police. After the murder of an officer on August 14, Manzo met with state officials to seek help against organized crime.

Manzo is the seventh municipal official killed in Mexico so far this year, and the third in Michoacán, which is enduring a particularly violent period. On the same day Manzo was gunned down, Alejandro Torres Mora, nephew of slain self-defense leader Hipólito Mora, was killed along with his wife in their home; just weeks earlier, lemon producer Bernardo Bravo was also murdered.

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