San Francisco Police Department
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, was deported from the United States and rose to lead the largest criminal organization in Mexico after being a state police officer. His death has now triggered a wave of violence across the country.
There are only a few names that have had a lasting impact on the history of Mexican organized crime.
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes – better known as “El Mencho” – is one of them.
Born from the rural roots of the conflict in the western state of Michoacán, its rise to the top of the one of the most feared and dangerous cartels of modern Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was meteoric. And it was conquered through aggression, ambition, brutality and cruelty.
His death was hailed as a victory in both Mexico and the United States.
Mexican and American authorities reported that U.S. intelligence services were involved in the capture of the chiefgiving the operation a character of cross-border cooperation that can benefit both governments.
For the Mexican military, the elimination of a cartel leader weakens – at least in theory, and perhaps for some time – the criminal group he commanded.
The response from El Mencho’s men was immediate.
Barriers were erected and the violence spread to the streets in up to eight different states, from Guerrero, on the Pacific coast, to Tamaulipas, in the northeast. Even the capital, Mexico City, and the neighboring state of Mexico recorded incidents.
Some of the worst violence occurred in Jalisco, with armed and masked men setting stores on fire in the state capital, Guadalajara – one of the venues for this summer’s FIFA World Cup. In the resort of Puerto Vallarta, tourists and locals are sheltering in place until the wave of violence passes.
It is a demonstration of loyalty by El Mencho’s soldiers and a demonstration of fury by the authorities to eliminate their leader.
But whether the barriers and burning cars represent anything more than a mere demonstration – that is, whether the violence will intensify or escalate – will only become clear in the coming days. The reaction of the security forces will be crucial in this regard.
It is an ancient truth about these transnational criminal groups that, even with a cartel leader as influential as Oseguera, there inevitably exist three or four well-positioned lieutenants ready to replace it.
Without a doubt, however, El Mencho was fundamental to the group’s rise.
When he moved to the USA as an undocumented immigrant in the 1980s, he already had his first contacts with crime at cultivate cannabis plantations in your home state.
They followed several arrests in the USAas he became increasingly involved in drug trafficking in California, before finally being sentenced to several years in prison in the US.
Nemesio went to Tomatlán, in the state of Jalisco, and became a state police officer, who is seen as corrupt, unlike the federal police, according to Rolling Stone magazine.
Oseguera was deported back to Mexico at age 30, where he became a state police officer in Jalisco, a force that is generally seen as corrupt, unlike the federal police. Shortly thereafter he began dedicating himself full time to cartel activities and joined the Milenio Cartel, based in his home state of Michoacán. He quickly rose in prestige and gained a reputation for being a calculating and cruel boss, earning him the nickname “Matazet”. Later, he established himself as a key figure in the structure of the Sinaloa Cartelthen led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
He was in an ideal position when the cartel fragmented and in 2009, after internal disagreements, El Mencho founded the CJNG. Through a combination of territorial expansion and agility to redirect the cartel’s activities towards new and profitable illegal businesses, he transformed the group into what it has become today – possibly the main criminal force in Mexico.
The consolidation of the cartel was also driven by the alliance with the Los Cuinis financial clan, through marriage with Rosalinda González Valenciaallowing the group to combine paramilitary capabilities with sophisticated money laundering and international drug trafficking networks.
Its leadership and its cartel benefited from the collapse of the Sinaloa Cartel following the extradition of its leader, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, to the USA. Subsequent battles between rival factions in Sinaloa eventually dismantled the group.
The New Generation Cartel was ready to absorb an important share of the fentanyl trade after the fall of El Chapo’s sons. One of them, Joaquín Guzmán López, surrendered to the US authorities and took with him his group’s biggest rival, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada. El Mencho was a clear beneficiary of the power vacuum and the dramatic sequence of events in Sinaloa. But, as so often happens in Mexican organized crime, it was not a crown that he wore for long.
The government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum will present the detention of one of the most wanted men in the country as a victory, and it will resonate in Washington. This demonstrates progress on the main issue on which US President Donald Trump demanded action from Mexico after immigration: fentanyl trafficking.
Given the apparent involvement of American intelligence, this also underscores the Sheinbaum administration’s willingness to work together with Washington in pursuit of the same goals. The president hopes that this will be enough to rule out any discussion about the need for a US unilateral military action on Mexican soil, in the form of drone strikes or ground troops – something that some in the Republican Party and the Trump administration have openly advocated.
Such discussions are yet to come. For now, Mexicans are still coming to terms with El Mencho’s death and, in his absence, are watching cartel members set fire to the streets of cities across the country.
