The killing of Mexico’s biggest cartel boss isn’t necessarily good news
US and Mexican leadership refuse to learn from the Drug War’s bloody history.
The Big News Breakdown. Unpacking this week’s most important news.
El Chapo captured Hollywood’s imagination but, as of late, it seemed like Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes—a more discrete criminal kingpin known as El Mencho—had captured Mexican crime.
The 59-year-old head of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) turned a drug cartel born in Western Mexico into a country-spanning criminal enterprise. And, as powerful organisations under El Chapo and El Mayo Zambada waned, it became clear that CJNG would either have to be taken on by the Mexican government or it would take over Mexico.
Yesterday, the Sheinbaum administration struck. A military deployment sought to surround and detain the cartel’s top boss. In the ensuing firefight, El Mencho was hit and died of his wounds in a military aircraft after having been captured by Mexico’s armed forces.
Top US government officials immediately cheered the killing of the cartel boss with a $15 million dollar bounty on his head. The media proclaimed it “a victory” for the Mexican government.
The Mexican government has kept far more quiet. It is suggestive that it knows this is just the beginning, and that things could get bad in the coming days and weeks.
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