Authorities arrest 7 bodyguards in connection with a Mexican mayor’s assassination

URUAPAN, Mexico (AP) — Authorities on Friday arrested seven bodyguards suspected of being involved in the assassination earlier this month of a popular mayor in west-central Mexico who they were supposed to be protecting.

The Associated Press saw at least five of the suspects arrested by state and federal authorities in Uruapan on Friday, steps away from the site where Mayor Carlos Manzo was killed during Day of the Dead festivities on Nov. 1.

Later, the Michoacan state prosecutor’s office said in a brief statement that seven public officials, who it did not identify, were arrested for “their likely participation in aggravated homicide.”

An official familiar with the operation said all seven had been bodyguards for Manzo. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it.

Soldiers, National Guard troops and state agents led the suspects out of a city building Friday beside the central plaza where a teenage gunman had shot Manzo. Attention had immediately turned toward Manzo’s large security detail that had failed to stop the lone gunman and suspicion only grew when it appeared that the gunman had been shot dead by members of the security detail after they had him on the ground.

On Wednesday, Mexican authorities announced the arrest of a man they said was involved in planning and ordering the killing. They connected the plot to the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the organized crime groups operating in Michoacan.

Manzo’s wife was sworn in as Uruapan’s mayor following his killing.

On Friday, members of Manzo’s — and now his wife’s — team recorded the arrests, some while crying as they watched colleagues hauled off. Two people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety said that among those arrested were member’s of Manzo’s inner circle.

Uruapan’s central plaza is still filled with candles in tribute to the slain politician, who had been outspoken against organized crime’s grip. Notes expressing sadness about Manzo’s slaying and demanding justice still hang around the plaza.

The mayor’s killing brought renewed pressure on President Claudia Sheinbaum to adjust her security strategy. Days later she announced Plan Michoacan, which while heavy on spending for social programs, also included having 10,000 troops spread out across the state to get control of the various criminal organizations operating there.