Mexico Anti Narco Protests – President Sheinbaum Blames the Right and Refuses to Tackle the Cartels
Mexicans are done. They want their country back. A massive protest was organized on the 15th of November, triggered by the cartel assassination of Carlos Manzo, the mayor of Uruapan and an outspoken opponent of the narco traffickers.
Manzo, who wore a signature white cowboy hat and displayed a sheriff’s star on his body armor, would get on helicopters and order his police to shoot at cartel members, taking a hardline “shoot first and ask questions later” approach.
On November 1, during a Day of the Dead event, he was shot dead in the middle of his town in front of a large crowd.
His killing immediately sparked demonstrations in Michoacán that quickly spread nationwide. In Mexico’s Michoacán State, seven mayors have been killed and one kidnapped since 2021.
Uruapan’s Carlos Manzo was the third mayor assassinated in the state this year and the eleventh nationwide over the past year.
Many Mexicans see him as a hero, compared by some influencers to Charlie Kirk, for the hope he brought to people who believed the cartels could be defeated.
As one Mexican influencer wrote on Instagram, “He wanted a brighter future for Mexico, a future without corruption. Assassinated. Broad daylight.”
A group calling itself “Generation Z Mexico” circulated a manifesto online claiming to be non-partisan and representing young people fed up with insecurity, corruption, violence, and abuse of power.
The demonstrations took place in more than 50 cities across Mexico, as well as in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany. About 17,000 people reportedly attended the Mexico City march.
Whether the protest was truly a “Gen Z” movement remains heavily disputed, as demonstrators came from all age groups, from retirees to young people, from wealthy residents to working-class families.
High-profile conservative figures, including former president Vicente Fox and billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, endorsed the protests, while President Sheinbaum accused right-wing parties and foreign actors of infiltrating the movement and promoting it with bots, insisting that only a small number of young people were actually present.
Chanting “Sheinbaum is a narco-president,” demonstrators demanded that the authorities finally confront the drug cartels and corruption within the government.
Protesters accused the administration of colluding with cartels and allowing a “narco-state” to flourish. They called for the president’s resignation and demanded a tougher stance against the cartels.