Members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of the most powerful and feared criminal organisations in Mexico, have unleashed a wave of violence across 20 Mexican states.
They torched businesses and erected burning blockades in retaliation to the killing of their leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, better known as “El Mencho”, who died in custody on Sunday shortly after being captured by Mexican special forces.
El Mencho, Mexico’s most wanted man, was seriously injured in a firefight between his bodyguards and the military commandos deployed to capture him.
He died while the military was transporting him from the town of Tapalpa, in Jalisco state, to the capital, Mexico City.
At least six of El Mencho’s security guards were also killed in the operation, while three members of the Mexican military were injured, the defence ministry said.
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As news of El Mencho’s death spread, members of his cartel launched attacks in many towns and cities where the CJGN is active.
In some towns, they blocked roads by throwing spikes and nails onto the tarmac – in others, they commandeered buses and other vehicles they then torched in the middle of the road.
Cartel members also set alight dozens of banks and local businesses such as pharmacies.
Footage recorded by locals showed plumes of smoke rising above several towns and cities, including the beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, which is popular with tourists.
In Guadalajara – one of the host cities of the forthcoming Fifa World Cup – travellers at the airport could be seen running and crouching on the floor in panic.
News site Milenio reported that the panic spread when a group came running into the airport to seek shelter after they had heard gunshots ring out from the nearby highway.
Their reporter said that he had seen a burnt-out car on the highway but rumours that shots were fired inside the terminal were dismissed by the authorities.
In many towns, streets were deserted as local authorities told residents to seek shelter in their homes.
The scenes that unfolded on Sunday reminded many of the violence that erupted in the state of Sinaloa after the capture of another notorious drug lord – Ovidio Guzmán López – in 2019.
The street battles between members of his Sinaloa cartel and the security forces were so fierce that the Mexican authorities decided to free Guzmán López, who is the son of jailed drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, to prevent further bloodshed.
While Guzmán López was re-arrested in 2023 and extradited to the US, where he has pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking charges, retaliatory attacks by cartels have since become the norm following high-profile arrests.
In Puerto Vallarta, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, tourists were told to shelter in place on Sunday.
Videos showed black smoke billowing from burning cars in several neighbourhoods, with one tourist describing the scene as looking “like a war zone”.
Around 300 visitors were stuck at the Puerto Vallarta’s airport after flights were cancelled due to the violence.
To ensure their safety, they were transferred to the city centre in a convoy with a heavy police escort.
