On Monday evening, the Government Palace in Morelia looked more like an armored bunker than a noble colonial building. For two days it has been the epicenter of the protests sparked by the murder of Carlos Manzo, mayor of Uruapan, shot at point blank range in the town square. Five lines of fences and a giant metal structure protected the main entrance gate, where a mob stormed the building Sunday night. From inside they broke the glass and threw the furniture out of the windows. The following day, the clashes were repeated with other student protests in front of the Palace, generating a pitched clash with the police. The indignation and anger also spread to other parts of the state. In Uruapan they burned monuments and in Apatzingán, in the heart of Tierra Caliente, another group of protesters managed to enter the municipal government building and set fire inside the structures.
The murder of Manzo, very popular for his strategy of dealing with criminals inch by inch, has caused anger and pain to overflow in a state accustomed to violence. Manzo’s death caps a long-standing security crisis. Three mayors have already been assassinated in Michoacán this year. On the same day that the municipal president of Uruapan was killed, the nephew of former self-defense leader Hipólito Mora was also killed in his home. And just a few weeks earlier, lemon producer Bernardo Bravo had fallen after raising his voice against extortion against farmers in Terra Caliente.
While Morelia police officers continued to stand guard behind metal fences Monday evening, a waiter at a taqueria near Government House recalled that about “more than 100 people” arrived around four in the afternoon on Sunday. “At first they seemed peaceful, but things started to heat up,” says the 21-year-old law student. “It was strange because it took the police a while to arrive and then chaos broke out with rubber bullets and tear gas.”
The clashes were repeated the next day, this Monday, with an increased police presence. Two marches called by students from the capital’s universities gathered at the Government Palace amid slogans such as “justice now!” or “Manzo is not dead, the State killed him!”. At night there were still remains of iron, wood and stones on the ground. The riots left more than a dozen inmates. With his face still half covered, one of the students, who prefers not to reveal his name, states that “Manzo is not a martyr, but he is the reflection of what is happening in Michoacan. The city is abandoned by corrupt politicians and drug cartels.”
Morenoist governor Alfredo Ramirez accused the protesters of being part of an opposition-led operation to undermine his government. The governor was not in the capital during Sunday’s altercations. He decided to attend Manzo’s funeral in Uruapan, about a two-hour drive away. But he had to be escorted out amid shouts of “Go away, murderer!” Manzo had been in office for just over a year and had asked for help on multiple occasions, from both the federal and state governments. Governor Ramírez is one of the targets of the protests, as well as having been denounced by the federal government for his “carelessness”, according to sources consulted by this newspaper.
Five shots were heard in the main square of Uruapan on Saturday afternoon, after 8pm, at the height of the Day of the Dead celebration. Two of the alleged attackers were arrested and a third was killed by police. The investigation of the case focuses on Osvaldo Gutiérrez, “El Cuate”, accused of being part of the Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) cartel. The most powerful mafia in the country is increasingly present in Michoacán, in the midst of a dispute against other groups such as Los Viagras or Carteles Unidos. The three are in the sights of the United States, which recently included them in the controversial list of terrorist organizations.
There were also marches this Sunday in Uruapan. Hundreds of students marched dressed in white T-shirts and hats, the personal brand of Manzo, who had won the mayor’s office as an independent. “We are not just marching with indignation and anger, we are marching with a lot of fear and fear. Because raising your voice here in this state is worrying,” one of the students told the local press. In addition to the clashes with the police, the students of Morelia left a sort of altar of the dead in front of the Palace. They wrote the mayor’s name with cempasúchil, the traditional yellow flower of this holiday, and left banners with slogans like “Why do you want clean monuments in a country full of blood?” or “The legacy of the Sombrero lives on.”
