Uruapan mayor shot during Day of the Dead ceremony dies

Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, the mayor of Uruapan in the western Mexican state of Michoacán, was shot and later died in hospital on Saturday evening after gunmen opened fire during a candlelight Day of the Dead ceremony in the city’s historic center, officials said. The attack, which occurred shortly after 8 p.m., left the 45 year old mayor bleeding on the cobblestones and prompted immediate arrests and a federal security response.

State prosecutor Carlos Torres Piña said Manzo was rushed to a hospital where he later died. Federal Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch told journalists the mayor was shot seven times. A city council member and a bodyguard were also wounded. Authorities said two suspects were arrested at the scene and a third assailant was killed during the incident. A 9 millimeter handgun was recovered, and federal officials said the weapon was linked to two armed clashes between rival criminal groups operating in the region.

Officials have not established a motive, and García Harfuch said investigators were not ruling out any line of inquiry. Michoacán Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla confirmed the mayor’s death and federal authorities pledged to pursue those...