Emily Green and Lizbeth Diaz
Mexico City: A major Mexican drug lord known as “El Mencho” has been killed in a military raid, Mexican officials said on Sunday, as the country’s government has been ramping up pressure on cartels after US intervention threats.
Mexico’s Defence Ministry said a shootout in the western state of Jalisco left Nemesio Oseguera, commonly known as El Mencho, seriously injured, and he died during an air transfer to Mexico City. The ministry noted that US authorities had provided “complementary information”.
The operation set off a wave of violence, with gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states.
Criminal groups burned cars and trucks to stop traffic in different areas of Jalisco, according to local outlets Reforma and Milenio. Residents in the major regional city of Guadalajara shared videos of armed groups shooting car tyres to block intersections, and the blockades spread to other states, such as Michoacán and Guanajuato.
The US State Department issued a “shelter in place” alert for US citizens in affected areas, including Jalisco state, home to Guadalajara and the tourist hub of Puerto Vallarta. The alert also includes areas in the states of Tamaulipas, Michoacán, Guerrero and Nuevo León.
The department recommends that Americans avoid areas around law enforcement activity and crowds, keep family and friends advised of their locations, monitor local updates, and seek shelter and minimise unnecessary movements.
Jalisco governor Pablo Lemus Navarro urged people to stay at home until the situation was brought under control.
Air Canada said it had temporarily suspended operations to Puerto Vallarta, while United Airlines and American Airlines said they have cancelled flights to Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara.
Shadowy leader
An ex-police officer, Oseguera was the shadowy leader of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), an outfit named after the western state and home to one of Mexico’s biggest cities, Guadalajara.
Over a relatively short period of time, the CJNG morphed into an international criminal enterprise to rival former allies in the Sinaloa Cartel, the gang of captured kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, now in a US prison.
The military operation against Oseguera follows a pressure campaign from the Trump administration on Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government to ramp up its crackdown on drug trafficking, including US threats to intervene directly in Mexico.
“The operation for his arrest was led by the Defence Ministry, and he ended up being killed,” a government source familiar with the operation told Reuters.
US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said Oseguera’s killing was a “great development” for the US and Mexico, as well as the rest of Latin America.
The kingpin’s death notches a major victory for Mexico’s war on drug cartels that are responsible for smuggling billions of dollars in cocaine and fentanyl into the US
International organised crime expert Vanda Felbab-Brown compared Oseguera to other key drug figures taken down in recent years, Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, both of the rival Sinaloa Cartel.
“Apart from the heads of the Sinaloa Cartel, El Mencho has been the biggest prize for many, many years.”
Reuters, Bloomberg
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