Violence engulfs Mexico after killing of notorious cartel leader

Mexico was engulfed in violence on Monday after Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera, the head of the notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was killed by the army.

Video footage from Mexico was reminiscent of a battle zone, with cities across the country seen with billowing smoke clouds and fires. 

The sharp social and economic divide in Mexico has been splashed across social media with images of American tourists in swim gear, sipping cocktails, watching from beach chairs and pools as the neighbourhoods around them are riven with violence.

Puerto Vallarta, a Pacific coast resort town popular with American retirees and tourists, was the site of heavy damage. Cars and buildings were burned, blanketing the city in black smoke. The carnage was recorded from flashy condominium balconies and beachfronts.

Mexico has been riven with gang violence for decades. Powerful cartels control vast swaths of the country and provide social services in impoverished areas where the central government does not operate.

But ritzy resort destinations have long been spared brushes with the cartels, unlike what many ordinary Mexicans might have to endure.

Puerto Vallarta is a wealthy coastal enclave. Just this month, it was featured in The New York Times as a “bucolic Pacific coast town” that once hosted Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Security experts said the Jalisco cartel’s swift response to the killing of its leader underscored Oseguera’s power.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had previously pledged a historic offensive against drug cartels in the country, but Sunday's operation was her biggest to date. Under pressure from US President Donald Trump to do more in the war against cartels, the raid was supported by US intelligence.

Mexican Defence Minister Ricardo Trevilla said a confidante of one of Oseguera’s romantic partners provided intelligence to officials a day before the raid at the cartel leader's compound.

Oseguera was wounded on Sunday in a shootout with soldiers in the town of Tapalpa, in Jalisco state, and died while being flown to Mexico City, the army said.

But despite the significant scalp for Sheinbaum, Trump wrote in a social media post on Monday: "Mexico must step up their effort on Cartels and Drugs!"

On Monday, Sheinbaum announced that most of the violence had subsided and that no active roadblocks remained across the country.

'El Mencho'

Nicknamed "El Mencho", the 59-year-old and his cartel operated with impunity in Mexico, attacking police officers and security officials.

In 2020, Oseguera ordered an unprecedented hit on the then-chief of the Mexico City Police, Omar Garcia Harfuch, wounding him and killing three others. Garcia Harfuch is now the country's head of public security. In another incident, his cartel downed a military helicopter with an RPG.

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Social media users shared a clip of the cartel’s “elite” division outfitted with weapons and armoured cars, like those deployed by police special forces.

Oseguera was considered the last of the drug lords who acted in the flashy, brutal mould of the now-imprisoned Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

The US had listed him as its most-wanted drug trafficker, offering a $15m reward for his capture.

As a young man, Oseguera emigrated to the US, where he was arrested, jailed and deported for heroin trafficking.

Upon his return to Mexico, Oseguera was caught up in cartel infighting. He took refuge in the Jalisco state, on Mexico’s southwest Pacific coast.

In 2009, with the Sinaloa cartel, he formed the Mata Zetas - "Zeta Killers" - which rose to notoriety two years later with the slaying of dozens of people with ties to that group.

Oseguera later broke away to found the CJNG. Following the extradition of Guzman and Zambada to the US, he transformed his cartel into the most powerful in Mexico, even dwarfing the famous Sinaloa cartel in terms of territory.