The reports pointed to “El Cuate” as the person allegedly responsible for the murder of the Mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo.
Mexico City, November 3 (However).- Security authorities identified this Monday Osvaldo Gutiérrez Vázquezalias “El Cuate”like responsible of the murder against him Mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguezregistered on November 1.
According to federal security sources cited by various media, Gutiérrez Vázquez was originally from the colony Miguel Hidalgoin Apatzingan, Michoacanand had ties to a man known as “The Prángana”brothers operator Ramón and Rafael Álvarez Ayalaalias “R1” y “R2”alleged members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
The murder of Carlos Manzo Rodríguez occurred during the inauguration of the Candle Festival in Uruapan. The mayor was shot twice in the abdomen and once in the arm, and was taken to a hospital in the region, where he died hours later due to the severity of his injuries.
Following the events, the Governor of Michoacán, Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla, indicated that the investigations continue, since the participation of other people involved, possibly intellectual actors linked to criminal groups, is presumed.
In addition, the state Attorney General, Carlos Torres Piña, presented progress of the investigation, in which he highlighted that “El Cuate” stayed in a hotel located in the center of the city, around 4:00 p.m. on the day of the attack, and that he acted premeditated.
According to the forensic report, the aggressor could be between 17 and 19 years old, who tested positive in toxicological tests. However, during the first hours of the investigation, he did not carry official identification, which complicated his initial recognition, so he asked the National Electoral Institute (INE) for help to identify him through a series of photographs of several tattoos of the person responsible, so that citizens could provide information that would help recognize him.
“According to the objective data that has been obtained in these investigations and intelligence work, interviews and review, especially of C5 videos, it is established that there was planning for the homicide in which at least two people were involved. One of them was the perpetrator and, as the Governor mentioned, he was killed at the same moment. The aggressor has not been identified. Some information has already been requested, from the INE, for example, so that it can give us and provide elements according to the fingerprints,” he told the It should be noted that the aggressor was a person between 17 and 19 years of age, according to the autopsy and the evaluations of the expert areas.
Torres Piña reiterated that “until this morning the aggressor had not been identified” and that “the body had not been claimed either.” “I told you a while ago that a request was sent to the INE to see if the aggressor could be reviewed or identified within these fingerprints. Officially they have not responded to us. Unofficially, because it was the weekend, they told us that there were no records,” he explained on that occasion.
🚨⚠️ With transparency and inter-institutional coordination, we advance in the investigation of the homicide of the mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzo: @CarlosTorres4T
— Attorney General’s Office of Michoacán (@FiscaliaMich) November 3, 2025
“This may establish that the aggressor may be a minor or did not have his INE credential. We are going to wait for the formal notification. And according also to the autopsy and the evaluations by the expert areas, in the age range they indicate, he was a person between 17 and 19 years old,” he mentioned during a press conference.
Likewise, the Prosecutor pointed out in the morning that sodium rhozonate tests were carried out on Manzo’s alleged murderer on both hands, which “came out positive, as well as what refers to the ingestion of some drugs, such as amphetamines and also marijuana.” “The fact that he tested positive for sodium rhozonate strengthens this hypothesis that he was the material author of these events,” he said.
On the other hand, he commented that “the perpetrator of these events stayed in a hotel located in the center of the city at approximately 4:00 p.m., there in the center of the city, in Plaza Morelos, in the main square, where he even made some purchases and also where when leaving, minutes before perpetuating this act, he put on a white hooded sweatshirt.”
To accompany the narrative, images of the aggressor’s journey to the square were shown. “It was at approximately 8:10 p.m., once this public event had concluded, that the man approached, in this case, the victim, where he fired the weapon. There you see him leaving that portal that can be seen at the bottom of the video, how he walks, he enters the main square square,” described Carlos Torres Piña.
In another clip that was shown, “you are monitored as you approach the place of the Catrina altar, where the event is, where the inauguration of this Candle Festival is.” “You can see it at the top of the video,” he said.
“There is another video, where, due to the presence of people, he could not get closer. And later he makes a tour towards the garden at the top, where there are not many people, and that is where he manages to approach the Mayor. There were some fences in that part there and he cannot get close at that moment. Then the aggressor climbs up to the garden, which is higher up in the video, which is where he manages to advance quickly and approaches the victim,” the state official continued.
“Yes, there is another video. That is where he approaches, activates the weapon, at least seven times, according to the ballistic tests. He runs and there, seconds later, he is subdued and the aggressor is also killed in the same place. This weapon that was used has been linked to other events previously, which we are going to mention right now. But, according to the autopsy that was performed on the Mayor, seven wounds can be seen in different parts of the body and one of them is the one that caused his death. which is entered through the thorax, at the level of the abdomen,” he added in his statement this morning.
In front of the media, the head of the FGE explained that “in this attack two more people were also injured, one seriously: a Civil Protection element who was being investigated. Later, with the own statements of his family member, his wife, they were at the scene of the events. They were not involved. And the other injured is Councilor Víctor Hugo [de la Cruz Saucedo]that it was only a minor injury.”
At the site, he specified, a nine-millimeter caliber firearm was seized, which is related to two other violent events recorded in recent weeks in the municipality of Uruapan: the double homicide that occurred on October 16 in the Tierra y Libertad neighborhood, and the armed attack on October 23 in a bar in the La Gran Parada neighborhood, where two workers were injured. One of them died while receiving medical attention.
Finally, Torres Piña reiterated that the State Attorney General’s Office will continue to exhaust all lines of investigation, and use every technical and scientific tool available to achieve complete clarification of this fact, in which the possible participation of organized crime is noted, without ruling out any other line.