Aided by U.S. intelligence, Mexican security forces killed the nation’s most wanted man, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” on Sunday. At least 70 people were killed in the raid and aftermath as armed groups retaliated in more than a dozen states.
“There’s a real sense in Mexico and beyond that governments need to show the U.S. that they are willing and able to take military action on their own, lest Washington send special forces into the country,” says Reuters correspondent Laura Gottesdiener about the raid and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s wider crackdown on organized crime. While Sunday’s operation will help Sheinbaum “stave off some of the pressure from Trump,” Latin American historian Alexander Aviña warns that “this is not going to do much in terms of stopping the flow of illicit drugs from Mexico into United States.” Instead, he says, instability within cartel leadership will likely lead to internal power struggles that spill out into local communities. “The burden of this war always falls upon the very bottom of the hierarchy within this political economy,” says Aviña.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.