Seven of the eight bodyguards of assassinated mayor Carlos Manzo were arrested in Uruapan, Michoacán, on Friday.
The Michoacán Attorney General’s Office (FGE) said that seven public servants from Uruapan were detained “for their probable participation in the crime of aggravated homicide” against Manzo, the Uruapan mayor who was assassinated in the main square of the city during a Day of the Dead event on Nov. 1.
All of the slain mayor’s personal bodyguards were municipal police officers. Six of those detained are men, while one is a woman.
The FGE said that their alleged involvement in the homicide was due to “omission,” or negligence — in other words, they failed to adequately perform their protection duties.
On Saturday, a judge ruled that the seven bodyguards, as well as an alleged mastermind of Manzo’s assassination, must remain in preventive detention as the cases against them proceed.
Michoacán Governor Alfredo Ramírez said Saturday that one of Manzo’s bodyguards remained a “fugitive.”
He said that the National Guard personnel, who were also tasked with protecting the mayor, are also under investigation.
Ramírez highlighted that Manzo himself decided that his municipal police bodyguards would make up his “closer circle” of security, while the National Guard officers provided a “second circle” of protection. However, the mayor didn’t choose the bodyguards himself, according to investigations cited by the newspaper Milenio, which reported that the officers were recommended by Colonel José Manuel Jiménez Aranda, “one of his trusted men” and a former police commander.
During the Festival of Candles on Nov. 1, Manzo — an outspoken anti-crime crusader who had urged the federal government to ramp up the fight against criminal groups — was shot on multiple occasions by a 17-year-old assailant, according to authorities. The youth, identified as Víctor Manuel Ubaldo Vidales, was killed by one of Manzo’s bodyguards after he was detained, Ramírez said earlier this month.
Prosecutors accuse the director of the Uruapan municipal police, Demetrio “N,” of killing Ubaldo. He was one of the seven bodyguards detained on Friday.
At a hearing in a prison in Morelia on Saturday, Demetrio “N” acknowledged that he shot Ubaldo, the newspaper La Jornada reported.
He reportedly said that he attempted to take Ubaldo’s firearm from him, but as the youth was very strong, he decided to fire it.
“However,” La Jornada reported, “the FGE representative provided expert evidence revealing that the young man was killed when he was already subdued and even handcuffed, but … was still resisting.
“It was at that time that Demetrio “N” approached and fired at the hitman’s nape from 10 centimeters away, using the same weapon with which … [Ubaldo] attacked the mayor,” wrote La Jornada, citing prosecutors.
Manzo’s bodyguards allegedly prevented a paramedic from promptly providing first aid to Ubaldo after he was shot.
17-year-old meth addict identified as Uruapan mayor’s assassin
At the hearing on Saturday, prosecutors also alleged that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) offered a payment of 2 million pesos (US $108,000) for the assassination of Manzo, nicknamed “The Mexican Bukele” after El Salvador President Nayib Bukele because of his hardline stance against organized crime.
A man identified as Jorge Armando “N” allegedly coordinated the hit on the mayor via a messaging app. He was arrested last week.
Federal Security Minister Omar García Harfuch told a press conference that Jorge Armando “N” had been identified as “one of the masterminds” of Manzo’s murder as well as “one of the leaders of the criminal cell that planned the homicide.”
According to prosecutors, people close to the mayor leaked information about Manzo’s movements to the CJNG.
Another alleged mastermind of the crime is Ramón Álvarez Ayala, said to be a high-ranking leader in the CJNG, whose head honcho is Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes.
Álvarez and Oseguera are at large.
Two other men allegedly involved in the planning of the attack on Manzo were found dead on Nov. 10 on the Uruapan-Paracho highway in Michoacán, García Harfuch said last Wednesday. He said they were “apparently” killed to “impede the development of the investigations” into the assassination of Manzo.
On Monday, García Harfuch announced on social media that a man who allegedly recruited two people involved in the mayor’s murder had been arrested.
En Uruapan, como parte del Plan Michoacán por la Paz y la Justicia, elementos de @Defensamx1, @SEMAR_mx, @FGRMexico, @GN_MEXICO_ y @SSPCMexico, en coordinación con @FiscaliaMich y @SSeguridad_Mich, detuvieron a Jaciel Antonio “N”, identificado como reclutador de personas en… pic.twitter.com/1XbEfhSzXe
— Omar H Garcia Harfuch (@OHarfuch) November 24, 2025
“In Uruapan, as part of Plan Michoacán for Peace and Justice, … [federal and state authorities] arrested Jaciel Antonio “N,” identified as a recruiter of people in [drug and alcohol] rehabilitation centers to incorporate them into crime cells,” he wrote.
“Investigation work points to Jaciel Antonio “N” as being responsible for recruiting two people who participated in the homicide of Carlos Manzo,” García Harfuch wrote.
The assassination of the mayor triggered protests in Michoacán, and was a major catalyst for so-called “Generation Z” marches that occurred in cities across Mexico on Nov. 15.
The federal government developed the 57-billion-peso (US $3.1 billion) Plan Michoacán for Peace and Justice in response to the murder of Manzo and general insecurity in the state, one of Mexico’s most violent.
With reports from Milenio, López-Dóriga Digital, La Jornada and El Universal
