Members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as 'El Mencho,' at an undisclosed location in Michoacán state, Mexico, in July, 2021.Stringer/Reuters
Bernardo Bravo, president of the Lime Producers Association in the Mexican state of Michoacán was murdered last October after publicly denouncing drug cartels for extorting lime farmers. Mr. Bravo was found with a gunshot to the head a few miles from the small city of Apatzingán.
Among the extortionists was the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (JNGC), to whom lime farmers had to pay four pesos a kilogram, half of what the producers were paid. The cartel was headed by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” who was killed by Mexican special forces Sunday.
Mr. Bravo’s killing demonstrated that while the JNGC continues to traffic narcotics and produce synthetic drugs, the group also developed an additional business strategy: investing in legal industries that allow it to launder money while generating substantial profits. Operating in 28 out of 32 states, it is Mexico’s most powerful cartel and dislodging it will be difficult.
In Michoacán, in addition to citrus crops, JNGC has invested in avocados and mining, two industries that have grown dramatically over the past 15 to 20 years, generating tens of billions of dollars annually.
Feared Mexican cartel leader 'El Mencho' spent his final hours in a luxury villa tucked inside the exclusive Tapalpa Country Club, a gated enclave of weekend homes in the hills of Mexico's western state of Jalisco.
Reuters
Heriberto Paredes, who has long studied the JNGC, said the cartel’s involvement in avocados, an industry worth more than US$3-billion, extends even to investing in scientific research related to avocado production, funded through state institutions.
Its reach is such that experts and analysts doubt that the killing of its leader will have much of an impact.
“In terms of whether [his death] will weaken the structure, I think over time, one of the things that we have learned over two decades of experience in Mexico is that this is not going to eliminate a criminal group or weaken it at a significant level,” said Cecilia Farfán, head of the North American Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC).
Michoacán, El Mencho’s home state, was the centre of his operations. He and his ex-wife, Rosalinda González Valencia, both worked for cartels before sealing an alliance between criminal groups that later produced the JNGC.
In Mexico’s small towns and rural areas, cartel retaliation has residents on edge
The process of control of an area begins with violence – kidnappings, forced disappearances, land appropriation – to generate fear among the population.
As the cartel establishes control over an area, residents get pushed out. A report from the Human Rights Program at Universidad Iberoamericana estimated that in the past eight years more than 20,000 people have been displaced in Michoacán alone.
Mexican military kills ‘El Mencho’
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or ‘El Mencho,’ was mastermind of
the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – one of Mexico’s most
powerful drug cartels
CJNG significant presence
CJNG presence
Tijuana
Ciudad Juárez
Monterrey
BAJA
CALIF.
NUEVO
LEÓN
400km
TAMAULIPAS
Guadalajara
Mexico
City
Puerto Vallarta
Feb: 22, Tapalpa,
Jalisco state: Oseguera
Cervantes is wounded
in a clash with soldiers
and dies while being flown
to Mexico City.
QUIN-
TANA
ROO
MICHOACÁN
Acapulco
GUERRERO
graphic news, Sources: BBC; DEA; Reuters
Mexican military kills ‘El Mencho’
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or ‘El Mencho,’ was mastermind of
the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – one of Mexico’s most
powerful drug cartels
CJNG significant presence
CJNG presence
Tijuana
Ciudad Juárez
Monterrey
BAJA
CALIF.
NUEVO
LEÓN
400km
TAMAULIPAS
Guadalajara
Mexico
City
Puerto Vallarta
Feb: 22, Tapalpa,
Jalisco state: Oseguera
Cervantes is wounded
in a clash with soldiers
and dies while being flown
to Mexico City.
QUIN-
TANA
ROO
MICHOACÁN
Acapulco
GUERRERO
graphic news, Sources: BBC; DEA; Reuters
Mexican military kills ‘El Mencho’
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or ‘El Mencho,’ was mastermind of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel
(CJNG) – one of Mexico’s most powerful drug cartels
CJNG significant presence
CJNG presence
Tijuana
Ciudad Juárez
Monterrey
BAJA
CALIF.
NUEVO
LEÓN
400km
TAMAULIPAS
Guadalajara
Mexico
City
Puerto Vallarta
Feb: 22, Tapalpa,
Jalisco state: Oseguera
Cervantes is wounded
in a clash with soldiers
and dies while being flown
to Mexico City.
QUIN-
TANA
ROO
MICHOACÁN
Acapulco
GUERRERO
graphic news, Sources: BBC; DEA; Reuters
One 56-year-old woman who did not wish to be named because of fears for her life said armed men stormed her home and forcibly took her two sons, aged 28 and 37, along with two other relatives.
“They started a chainsaw to cut them up, and I asked them why they were going to cut them up, what they had done, and they said they were acting on behalf of Jalisco,” she recalled. She fled and never found out what happened to her sons and relatives.
El Mencho maintained a highly centralized control over the cartel. He did not allow independent groups, families or clients within the structure to accumulate enough power to challenge his authority, said David Mora, the senior analyst for Mexico at the International Crisis Group.
One of the unique features of the JNGC is that it does not share the structure of other cartels or operate in the same way as groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel or the Gulf Cartel, whose operations were mostly based on drug trafficking.
The Decibel: Mexico’s uneasy balance of power between cartels and government
Instead, the JNGC is structured like a franchise, allowing other groups to use its name in exchange for money, Mr. Mora said. As a result, it does not operate uniformly.
Despite having a highly visible leader in El Mencho, his leadership was, to an extent, symbolic. Some factions obeyed his decisions. But others operating under the JNGC brand functioned with significant autonomy, depending on local alliances, tensions and power dynamics, Mr. Paredes added.
El Mencho’s death is unlikely to end extortion or dismantle the operating model of a cartel whose reach has surpassed that of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Communities that have long lived under JNGC rule are more concerned about how the organization will reorder itself.
Unlike the Sinaloa Cartel, split between its leaders nicknamed El Chapo and El Mayo, there is no clear heir or successor in the JNGC. Mr. Mora said that, as a result, mid-level or prominent figures may compete to exercise the kind of centralized CEO control he held. Or a new leader could emerge without sufficient authority, creating a legitimacy crisis.
These internal realignments are likely to generate instability, which can translate into violence.
Even if the immediate violence appears to be subsiding, power struggles and shows of force within the JNGC may continue in the months ahead.