After four days of searching, the Michoacán State Attorney’s Office reported Thursday that it had found Alejandro Correo, former municipal president of Zinapécuaro, alive. The man who was mayor of the municipality between 2018 and 2021 was reported missing last Monday, when he got lost in Ciudad Hidalgo in the midst of a security crisis in Michoacán after the murder of the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo, and the leader of the lemon producers, Bernardo Bravo. At the moment the authorities have not provided further details on Correa’s physical condition or where he was found.
Several residents of the Zinapécuaro community and surrounding areas joined the city’s search teams organized to find Correa. The former mayor, 41 years old, disappeared last Sunday morning, when he was seen around 2pm. in Tierras Coloradas, in the municipality of Hidalgo, two hours east of Morelia, in an area with a high presence of several organized criminal groups that contest the management of huachicol, the clandestine extraction of petrol from the Pemex pipelines that cross the land and which causes clashes between local groups.
His friends and family gathered in several groups at the Francisco Villa gas station, the last place where his location was recorded, according to data from the Prosecutor’s Office. From there they searched pastures, roads and vacant lots in the surrounding area. The organization Michoacán en Movimiento, which Correa participated in to promote Senator Raúl Morón Orozco in his campaign for the 2027 elections, had asked for help in disseminating the search sheet and gathering information to help the authorities in tracing. “A great human being, a friend, a pillar of our movement; comrade Alejandro Correa, we continue to look for you with great hope”, they published on social networks. “Those of us who know Alex know that he is an excellent human being. We want him to return safely,” one neighbor wrote.
The discovery by the Prosecutor’s Office put an end to several days of tension in the municipality, in an area of influence of organized crime and already affected by the latest high-impact murders which have aggravated the security crisis that has afflicted Michoacán for decades. “We inform you that the former municipal president of Zinapécuaro, Alejandro Correa Gómez, reported missing on November 2, has been found alive”, summarized the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the short statement on the progress of the Correa case.
