A 17-year-old boy who allegedly shot Uruapan mayor Carlos Manzo on Nov. 1 was killed after he was arrested, Michoacán Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said on Monday.
Manzo was shot multiple times at close range at a Day of the Dead Event in Uruapan’s main square, and subsequently died from his wounds in a local hospital.
17-year-old meth addict identified as Uruapan mayor’s assassin
The person who was shot dead by a municipal police officer after allegedly opening fire on the mayor was identified last week as Víctor Manuel Ubaldo Vidales, a 17-year-old youth from Paracho, a municipality that borders Uruapan.
Until Monday, it was not widely known that Ubaldo — a methamphetamine addict, according to authorities — was killed after he was forced to the ground in the Uruapan square and surrounded by police. Initial reports indicated that he was killed while he remained an active threat. It now appears that an extrajudicial killing may have occurred.
Ramírez told a press conference that an investigation into why the alleged gunman was killed after he was arrested is taking place.
“They detain the murderer and moments later there is a struggle and there is a single shot that kills the murderer,” he said.
“… The [state] Attorney General’s Office is investigating this whole issue,” Ramírez said.
The killing of the suspect at the scene of the crime obviously precluded investigators from interrogating him. If Ubaldo had not been killed, investigators could conceivably have extracted vital information from him, such as who ordered and planned the murder of Manzo, an outspoken anti-crime crusader who had urged President Claudia Sheinbaum to ramp up the fight against organized crime in Michoacán.
‘Who sent you?’
According to the newspaper Reforma, Ubaldo, after attacking the mayor, attempted to flee on foot but was “immediately” detained.
“Amidst blows and screams, a shot rang out and he died,” Reforma wrote.
Before he was killed, Ubaldo lay on the ground surrounded by “bodyguards,” Reforma reported, citing “a video that went viral on social media.”
According to Reforma, a person — presumably one of the municipal police officers tasked with protecting the mayor — asked Ubaldo, “Who sent you, son of a bitch?”
A short time later, the suspect was shot dead. Hours before the attack on the mayor, Ubaldo rented a room at a hotel opposite the square where the crime was committed, according to authorities.
While Ubaldo was killed in Uruapan’s central square, two other people were taken into custody in connection with the attack on Manzo, authorities said. Their identities have not been publicly disclosed.
Michoacán Attorney General Carlos Torres Piña said last Thursday that the murder of Manzo was “related to organized crime groups.”
He didn’t name any group, but the newspaper Milenio reported that it “was able to confirm with sources that investigations point toward the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.” That organization’s alleged plaza chief in Uruapan was arrested by municipal police in August.
The attack on Manzo occurred despite the mayor having a security detail made up of eight municipal police officers and 14 members of the National Guard.
Ramírez said on Monday that Manzo’s “more personal security team” — that made up of the municipal officers — was “directly chosen” by the mayor.
He said that authorities were “reviewing … what happened to distract or relax the mayor’s [first] circle of security” before he was assassinated.
State and federal authorities have pledged that “there will be no impunity” in the case. Ramírez said Monday that investigations aimed at detaining those who planned the crime against Manzo are continuing.
With reports from El Universal, Reforma, Proceso and Aristegui Noticias
