Mexico captures mastermind behind mayor’s assassination

Mexico said on Thursday it captured the alleged brains behind the assassination of a beloved hard-on-crime mayor last November in a killing that ignited international outrage.

Mexico’s Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch explained that the suspect was the leader of an armed group working for the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), saying he was the mastermind behind the killing of Carlos Manzo in November 2025.

Manzo was the mayor of Uruapan, a city at the heart of a prosperous agricultural area in the violent state of Michoacan.

Assassins killed him while he was on the street with his family for the traditional Day of the Dead ceremony.

The killing shocked many Mexicans, who saw the cowboy hat-wearing mayor as a sort of Robin Hood, watching his social media videos as he accompanied police in operations against criminals as well as his speeches denouncing Mexico’s security policies.

President Claudia Sheinbaum and the state government of Michoacan, Manzo said, were responsible for failing to contain violence.

Over 130,000 people have been “disappeared” at the hands of criminals or authorities since the start of the drug war in 2006, according to official numbers.

Authorities arrested the suspect as Ramon Angel “N,” or R1, reserving his last name for judicial reasons.

“He was arrested after months of intelligence work” in an operation involving police and military special forces, Garcia Harfuch said on X.

The official said the criminal cell the suspect led is one of “the most violent tied to the CJNG,” and operates in numerous cities in Michoacan and the neighboring state of Jalisco.

“This organization is tied to extortion, homicides, and drug trafficking, directly affecting producers, businessmen, and families in the region,” Harfuch added.

His capture represents the 31st arrest in relation to the assassination of Manzo.