CJNG Mexican Cartel Praise "EL Mencho" Flaunting Armored Vehicles & Tactical Gear

This is not the Mexican military or police; it is the CJNG cartel that is equipped with everything necessary including armored vehicles and radio frequency jammers. There are only a handful of names that have had a lasting impact in the history of Mexican organized crime. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes – more commonly known as "El Mencho" – is one of them.

Hailing from humble rural roots in the western state of Michoacán, his rise to the top of one of the most feared and dangerous cartels in modern Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was meteoric. And it was achieved through aggression, ambition, brutality and ruthlessness.

His killing has been heralded as a victory in both Mexico and the United States.

The Mexican authorities and the US reported that US intelligence was involved in bringing down the kingpin, lending the operation a sense of cross-border co-operation that could benefit both governments.

For the Mexican military, a cartel leader has been removed from the equation, thereby weakens – at least in theory, and maybe for a time – the criminal group he ran.

The response from El Mencho's men has been swift. Roadblocks have been erected and violence has spilt over into the streets in as many as eight different states, from Guerrero on the Pacific coast to Tamaulipas in the north-east. Even the capital, Mexico City, and the surrounding Mexico State have seen incidents.

Some of the worst violence has been in Jalisco itself, with masked gunmen setting fire to stores in the state capital, Guadalajara – one of the venues for this summer's Fifa World Cup. In the beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, tourists and locals alike are sheltering in place until the wave of violence passes.

It's a show of loyalty from El Mencho's foot-soldiers and a show of fury at the authorities for eliminating their leader.

But whether the roadblocks and burning cars are for anything more than just show – that is, whether the violence de-escalates or ramps up – will only become clear over next few days. The reaction by law enforcement will be critical in that regard.

It is a long-held truth about such transnational criminal groups that, even with a cartel head as influential as Oseguera, there are inevitably three or four well-placed lieutenants on hand to replace him.

Undoubtedly, though, El Mencho was key to the group's ascendancy.

When he moved to the US as an undocumented immigrant in the 1980s, he had already had his first brushes with criminality in cultivating the marijuana fields of his native state.

Various arrests in the US followed as he dug deeper into narcotics crime in California, before eventually being sentenced to several years in prison in the US.

#mexico #cartel #corruption

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