Erosión del estado local y violencia política: Asesinatos de alcaldes en Michoacán en el contexto nacional, 2000–2025

Abstract

This article analyzes municipal political violence in Mexico between 2000 and 2025, with an emphasis on the state of Michoacán, in order to explain how the assassination of mayors reflects the erosion of the local state and the criminal capture of municipal power. Based on the case of Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, mayor of Uruapan, the study examines the transition from a specific event to a structural and media phenomenon. The research adopts an empirical, descriptive-analytical, and ethnographic methodology, supported by fieldwork, participant observation, and the review of academic, journalistic, and digital sources. It also proposes a comparison between the assassinations of Luis Donaldo Colosio and Carlos Manzo as expressions of an unfinished truth in Mexican political history. The study concludes that municipal political violence in Michoacán reveals a crisis of local governance, persistent impunity, and the digital mediatization of violence.