Mexican mayor who stood up to cartels gunned down in ‘kamikaze attack’ weeks after haunting statement

A Mexican mayor who called for “brute force” against the country’s violent drug cartels was gunned down in public Saturday night during “Day of the Dead” celebrations in his hometown.

Carlos Manzo, 40, the firebrand mayor of Uruapan in Mexico’s Michoacan province, was shot dead by two gunmen in front of shocked supporters in the city’s central square, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile assassination of the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo,” Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on X. “I express my deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, as well as to the people of Uruapan, for this irreparable loss.”

Security consultant David Saucedo described the brazen assassination as a “kamikaze attack.”

Manzo gained fame as head of the city of 300,000 when he stood up to the bloody cartels that have terrorized Mexico for decades — and acknowledged the risk he was taking.

“I don’t want to be just another murdered mayor,” he said in a haunting statement last month. “But it is important not to let fear control us.”

His assassination sparked outrage in Mexico City as well as in Washington, DC.

“On this All Souls’ Day, my thoughts are with the family and friends of Carlos Manzo, mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, Mexico, who was assassinated at a public Day of the Dead celebration last night,” US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, a former ambassador to Mexico, wrote on X.

“The US stands ready to deepen security cooperation with Mexico to wipe out organized crime on both sides of the border,” he said. “Here’s Carlos holding his young son at the celebration just moments before the attack. May his soul rest in peace and may his memory inspire prompt and effective action.”

Manzo came up in Mexican politics with Sheinbaum’s Morena Party before declaring himself independent, and was critical of former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” approach to the vicious narcotraffickers in ravaging the Central American nation.

Manzo, the son of a community activist who was elected into office last year, has also called on Sheinbaum to take a harder line against the cartels.

The mayor was accompanied by national guard troops at the event, but they were unable to save him.