Grecia Quiroz García, the mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, confirmed that she will run for governor in 2027, backed by the Sombrero Movement, the same movement that brought her husband, Carlos Manzo, to power as an independent candidate before his assassination in November 2025. She made the announcement while Juan Manzo, an undersecretary in the Michoacán government and Carlos Manzo’s brother, questioned her about the lack of transparency in the investigation into his murder.
Grecia Quiroz assumed the mayoral office after her husband, Carlos Manzo, was killed on November 1, 2025, during a public event commemorating the Day of the Dead. The mayor has criticized members of the Morena party in Michoacán and federal authorities, and has received support from opposition politicians and parties.
The most recent criticism was directed at federal authorities for granting protection to the Governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, who is on leave from his position and has been accused by the United States government, along with ten other officials, of drug and arms trafficking. She questioned the lack of security afforded to Carlos Manzo during his time as mayor of Uruapan.
“Carlos, I wish they had protected you the same way. Today you would be here with your family, waking up next to our children, but because you belonged to a citizens’ movement and not a political one, they ignored you and left you alone,” Grecia Quiroz wrote on her social media on May 6.
That same week, she denounced that the former mayor of Uruapan, Ignacio Campos Equihua, the Morena party member who lost his reelection bid to Carlos Manzo and whom she has requested be investigated, failed to appear to give his statement regarding the case despite being summoned by the state prosecutor’s office.
While Juan Manzo warned that his brother’s private secretary, Sigfrido Mújica, has not appeared to testify, but “continues to collect a salary” from the mayor’s office. Juan Manzo recently accused Grecia Quiroz of trying to secure the release of bodyguards arrested in this case. He stated on social media and in various interviews that the Uruapan City Council is paying the bodyguards’ lawyers.
“I have nothing to do with the bodyguards issue. Neither I, nor the city council, nor any secretary has had anything to do with their fees,” the mayor responded to local media regarding these accusations.
Juan Manzo also revealed that Grecia Quiroz did not hand over his brother’s cell phone to the local prosecutor’s office for review, so he demanded that she allow the investigations to proceed without restrictions. The mayor denied the accusations, asserting that the cell phone is available, but requested that the prosecutor’s review be conducted in her presence to ensure it is not tampered with.
“I demand a full, complete investigation, encompassing even the political circle, the family circle, and the city council itself. And she [Grecia Quiroz] wants it to be limited to the political sphere and not explore the possibility within the city council. So there’s a difference there, very respectfully, but I believe that if we’re talking about justice, we have to put all the elements on the table to clarify things, even if they are friends of theirs or part of the [Hat] Movement,” Juan Manzo told the media last week.
In January of this year, the arrest of Samuel García, former Director of Public Relations for the Uruapan government, for his connection to the murder of Carlos Manzo revealed a betrayal within the local government. Speaking to the media, Quiroz García emphasized that the official did not belong to the Hat Movement.
“Samuel is from Mexico City. He arrived and showed his resume; I was present at the time. He previously worked in the Chamber of Deputies, as an advisor to a PRI deputy, and that’s his introduction,” Grecia Quiroz said at the time.
Furthermore, the Uruapan government has faced changes in recent days. Mayor Quiroz confirmed on May 8 that Roberto Ávila Tinoco, chief of staff to the mayor and a close collaborator of Carlos Manzo, died in a car accident on the Morelia-Uruapan highway.
Grecia Quiroz’s Political Aspirations
In an interview published by the newspaper El País last week, Mayor Grecia Quiroz stated she was ready to run for Governor of Michoacán and ruled out any alliances with other parties to support her candidacy.
“[The Hat Movement] arose from Carlos’s independent candidacy. The hat was his symbol. We want to take the movement to other states with strict filters: citizen profiles, without ties to organized crime,” she explained.
Grecia Quiroz registered the name Carlos Manzo and the name of the Independent Hat Movement with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI). Starting in early 2026, she can use both trademarks to organize meetings, provide consulting services, and support political activities.
The Independent Hat Movement launched a citizen outreach campaign in Morelia on Sunday, May 3rd, where politicians like former PRI member Paola Ceja Téllez presented a virtual application where people can register and receive information. They announced that this is a way to respond to the fake social media groups created since the murder of Carlos Manzo, which have been inviting people to join.
Since Carlos Manzo’s murder, Grecia Quiroz has distanced the Hat Movement from protests and opposition calls. In November, the Mayor clarified that she did not join the calls for anti-violence protests in various cities organized by people who identified as part of Generation Z.
On that occasion, Grecia Quiroz stated that after her husband’s murder, she gave the government of Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum a vote of confidence. Although she acknowledged that many people were determined to march and demand justice for Carlos Manzo, neither she nor the Hat Movement were leading the protests of November 15, 2025, which were attended and organized by thousands of young people, as well as politicians from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Action Party (PAN), and those with a history in the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Since then, Grecia Quiroz has stated in various interviews that politicians from the Green Party and the Citizens’ Movement approached her with proposals to work together. In April of this year, Jorge Romero, the national leader of the PAN party, stated at a press conference in Morelia that the party has an open door for the mayor to run in the 2027 election because they recognize her courage.
In response, Grecia Quiroz thanked the various parties for their support, stating that she does not rule out meeting with politicians from different political groups, but that her intention is to maintain the independence of the Hat Movement.
Grecia Quiroz’s Background
Until November 1, 2025, when Carlos Manzo was murdered after holding one of his children and spending time with his family, Grecia Quiroz held the honorary position of president of the System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF) in Uruapan. On her social media, she shared images of activities she led in support of children, women, and senior citizens.
From September 2021 to May 2024, she worked as an advisor and assistant in the Chamber of Deputies with the Morena parliamentary group, to which her husband, Carlos Manzo, belonged during that time, before registering his independent candidacy for mayor in 2023 with the organization La Sombreriza Michoacana.
Although Grecia Quiroz now insists on distancing herself from political parties, she began her political career through them. In addition to working with the Morena parliamentary group, in May 2017 she joined the Labor Party (PT) in Michoacán, to which she belonged at least until March 2018, as shown in public data on the National Transparency Platform.
Regarding her education, local and national media have reported that she holds a degree in Political Science from Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz University, but her professional license does not appear in the National Registry of Professionals of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP).
In her last asset declaration in 2024, she reported that she studied for a degree in Childcare and Development, but did not complete it. In various interviews, she has stated that she became involved in politics over the last 10 years alongside Carlos Manzo.
—What do you say to the people who claim, who criticize, that you took advantage of the moment to advance your political career? “I think that those who knew Carlos and me closely, who saw me when Carlos began this social struggle, who always stood by him and supported him at every turn, and who knew that if there was one person who always believed in him, it was me, that if there was one person who always looked after him, who was always attentive to whatever might happen to him, down to the smallest detail, like whether he ate or stayed hydrated, it was me.
I was the one who managed his schedule, I handled his affairs, I resolved his administrative issues, I liaised directly with politicians. I mean, really, and not to sound superior, but if there was anyone who truly understood the political landscape, the decisions Carlos often made, I had a lot to do with those decisions because we always discussed them, evaluated them, and analyzed them. So, I don’t feel like I’m… “I may have taken advantage of that situation because, in reality, the easiest thing for me would have been to withdraw. It’s not fair that I’m being singled out like that, that there’s such a blatant attack against me, because the truth is, they don’t know what I went through,” she responded.
According to Grecia Quiroz, Carlos Manzo insisted on more than one occasion that she get involved in politics. She was unanimously approved in November 2025 by the Michoacán Congress to assume the presidency of Uruapan and complete the term for which her husband was elected mayor in 2027. The proposal was made by Representative Carlos Alejandro Bautista Tafolla, who also came to power with the Sombrero Movement.
Source: sinembargo
