The attorney general of Michoacán announced Tuesday that an additional three people had been arrested in connection with the assassination of Uruapan mayor Carlos Manzo.
Manzo, an outspoken anti-crime crusader, was shot multiple times in the main square of Uruapan during a Day of the Dead event on Nov. 1.
Attorney General Carlos Torres Piña said that three suspects were arrested Sunday in the municipality of Tarímbaro, which adjoins Morelia, the capital of Michoacán. He said they were detained in an operation carried out by federal and state security forces.
The suspects, who were not identified, are “indirectly” related to the murder of Manzo, according to the Michoacán Attorney General’s Office. They are currently being held in a federal prison.
Torres said the three suspects have direct links to Alejandro Baruc Castellanos Villana, an alleged Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) member who was arrested in December for drugs and firearms offenses, but is also believed to have been involved in the assassination of Manzo. Castellanos was allegedly part of a CJNG cell led by Jorge Armando Gómez Sánchez, who was detained in November and was identified by federal Security Minister Omar García Harfuch as “one of the masterminds” of the mayor’s murder.
Castellanos, known as “El Caos” and “El K-OS,” was allegedly responsible for recruiting gunmen for the criminal cell led by Gómez, known as “El Licenciado” (The Graduate) and “El Contador” (The accountant). The person who shot Manzo was a 17-year-old boy who was killed by a municipal police officer after he was detained. The youth, an alleged meth addict identified as Víctor Manuel Ubaldo Vidales, was allegedly recruited by another man, Jaciel Antonio “N,” who was arrested in November.
In addition to the three suspects arrested in Tarímbaro on Sunday, more than a dozen other people have been detained in connection with the assassination of Manzo. Among them are a former Uruapan municipal official and seven of Manzo’s municipal police bodyguards, who were arrested in late November “for their probable participation in the crime of aggravated homicide.”
The principal mastermind of the crime, allegedly, is Ramón “R1” Álvarez Ayala, a high-ranking member of the CJNG. He was previously arrested in 2012, before being liberated on a judge’s order in 2022.
The brazen murder of Manzo attracted more attention than any other single murder committed in Mexico in 2025.
It shocked a nation that has been somewhat numbed by many years of relentless violence, triggering protests and precipitating the creation of a major “peace and justice” plan for Michoacán.
Manzo’s wife, Grecia Quiroz, was sworn in as mayor of Uruapan just a few days after her husband was killed.
Quiroz accuses 3 politicians of involvement in her husband’s murder
On Tuesday, Uruapan Mayor Grecia Quiroz filed a criminal complaint accusing three Morena party politicians of involvement in the assassination of her husband.
They are Senator Raul Morón, who represents Michoacán in federal Congress, federal Deputy Leonel Godoy, a former governor of Michoacán, and Ignacio Campos, who served as mayor of Uruapan before Manzo. Quiroz filed her complaint against the three men — who have denied any involvement in the crime — with the Michoacán Attorney General’s Office.
“My husband’s murder cannot be understood without considering the political context that existed in Uruapan. We cannot turn a blind eye to possible motives that go beyond the personal,” she said Tuesday.
“As a wife and as a municipal authority [figure] I have the moral and legal obligation to demand that the political line [of investigation] be deepened,” Quiroz said.
The mayor also said that her deceased husband “had a lot of political adversaries who must be investigated.”
With reports from Informador, El País, N+ and El Financiero
*Editor’s note: This story originally referred to Ramón “R1” Álvarez Ayala as being in federal custody; that is incorrect. He was freed from prison in 2022.
