Wife of assassinated Mexican mayor assumes his office, vows to fight cartels

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By Lizbeth Diaz

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -The wife of a mayor brazenly assassinated during Day of the Dead celebrations in the violence-ridden Mexican state of Michoacan assumed her husband’s job on Wednesday, vowing to carry on her husband’s crusade against organized crime.

Grecia Quiroz was sworn in to replace her husband, Carlos Manzo, as mayor of Uruapan, known as Mexico’s avocado capital, after the state’s congress gave the move unanimous approval.

“Today I come with a broken heart because they took my life partner, the father of my children, but also with this courage, this fortitude with which he rose to fight,” Quiroz said during her swearing-in.

“They are not going to silence me … I am going to follow in his footsteps,” she added, holding her deceased husband’s hat as a symbol of their movement.

A hooded gunman shot and killed Manzo, 40, on Saturday night as he attended a candlelight festival in an attack that sparked national outrage, in part because of his outspoken criticism of the federal government for not doing more to fight organized crime.

Moments before the shooting, Manzo had given a speech in the city of 350,000 and carried around his young son in his arms, dressed as a skeleton.

Manzo had expressed fears for his safety while still speaking out against the powerful drug cartels that have become entrenched in the lucrative avocado and lime business. Carlos Bautista, leader of the Independent Hat Movement, to which Manzo belonged, told Reuters the new mayor will be protected by at least 14 security agents.

“This is something that should never happen again,” Bautista said of Manzo’s killing, adding that some of Manzo’s political allies have also received death threats.

The Michoacan attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the alleged death threats.

There is growing discontent in Michoacan over the violence plaguing the region, where lemon and avocado producers have for years denounced extortion, kidnappings and killings linked to cartel violence. A leader from the local avocado sector, Bernardo Bravo, was killed in October.

Manzo’s murder triggered a wave of violence in Michoacan, including from residents demanding justice. In the state capital, Morelia, protesters vandalized government buildings for two days in a row.

Authorities have arrested two people in connection with Manzo’s killing and pledged to continue investigating. Sheinbaum said she also met in person with Quiroz and Manzo’s brother.

“They are quite right to demand justice and that this investigation be carried out to the end,” Sheinbaum said.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Emily Green, Leslie Adler and Daniel Wallis)