The “Hat Movement”, promoted by Manzo, seeks to advance in the country

Despite the risk, the movement is strengthened

After the murder of Carlos Manzo, on November 15, demonstrations were held in Mexico City and in at least 12 states, protesting the violence in the country and to demand justice for the former mayor of Uruapan.

Members have expressed concern about insecurity. Federal representative Guadalupe Mendoza Arias points out that after Manzo’s death, the members of the Hat Movement are at risk, which is why they maintain security measures.

“We have to be cautious. They thought that by eliminating Carlos this movement was going to end and they already saw that it wasn’t,” says the legislator, who asserts that the National Guard takes care of her.

During the murder of Carlos Manzo, another of its members was injured, Víctor Hugo de la Cruz, who always accompanied the former mayor in all his activities and received a bullet in the back.

Despite the risk, the Members of ‘La Sombreriza’ evaluate converting their movement into a political partyafter the recognition it had not only nationally, but worldwide, because the news appeared in the media in Germany, the United States and Spain.

Representative Mendoza Arias explains that there are dilemmas that must be analyzed: being a political party will have benefits, such as access to public resources to carry out its activities, but there are also disadvantages, because they can lose credibility like all parties that already exist.

“We are going to talk about it later with President Grecia Quiroz, to see if she will want the El Sombrero party to be formed because of the benefits that exist for us to continue moving forward, and if not, then we will continue the same. It is not yet certain,” says the legislator.

Meanwhile, Grecia Quiroz has already called the members of the Hat Movement to speak next week, and according to them the meeting will be to determine the future of the group, since, they say, it has grown “faster” after the murder of Carlos Manzo.

“We didn’t imagine that he would grow faster after his death. The truth is that it wouldn’t have been that way, but that’s the way things are, he’s growing a lot. His death went viral. He was already well known, but those who didn’t know him are now getting to know him after he died,” says Mendoza Arias.

The leader of this group in Pátzcuaro, José Antonio Arreola, agrees with the legislator in estimating that the movement has grown in recent days and comments that Grecia Quiroz could be the next governor of Michoacán.

“The idea now is first that the municipal president manages to strengthen herself, because she is going through a duel (…) Subsequently, continue growing the movement in an organic way, as clean as possible so that this movement is not stained as Carlos wanted it and take the governorship,” he declares.

Meanwhile, this is happening, the members of ‘La Sombreriza’ are already collecting keys to make a statue of the former municipal president of Uruapan, and one of the options is to place it on the Citizen Assistance table, where seven years ago Carlos Manzo began to assist anyone who approached him for help.

With a communication radio and a bottle of water, Carlos Manzo sat from Monday to Friday from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at a white table located on the median of Paseo Lázaro Cárdenas, in front of McDonald’s, considered a strategic point that facilitates access to citizens.

“He personally went, sat down and people came there to be supported by him. There he came with issues of medication, with issues of complaints. Carlos was always there for the citizens,” says José Antonio Arreola.