Authorities on Friday arrested seven bodyguards suspected of being involved in the assassination earlier this month of a popular mayor in west-central Mexico whom they were supposed to be protecting.
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At least five of the suspects were seen being 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 November 1.
Later, the Michoacan state prosecutor’s office said in a brief statement that seven public officials, whom 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 authorised to speak publicly about it.
Soldiers, National Guard troops and state agents led the suspects out of a city building on Friday beside the central plaza where a teenage gunman had shot Manzo. Attention had immediately turned towards 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 organised crime groups operating in Michoacan.