ON SUNDAY, IN the wake of a military operation to kill one of the country’s most infamous drug traffickers, clashes broke out across the Mexico, leaving dozens dead and producing shocking images of roadblocks, armed men in the streets, and panicked civilians ducking for cover.
Within hours of the operation in which troops killed cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” in a rural hideout outside Guadalajara, gunmen loyal to his Jalisco New Generation Cartel group poured into the streets of several cities, burning buses and firing automatic weapons.
“The city was completely emptied,” said David Mora, an International Crisis Group analyst who happened to be in Guadalajara on Sunday, of the aftermath of the violence. “I mean it was a ghost town — there was no one on the streets yesterday.”
The fighting left at least 70 people dead, including 25 members of Mexico’s National Guard, which carried out the mission guided by intelligence from counterparts in U.S. military and law enforcement, according to President Claudia Sheinbaum.
I’ve re-read your response a few times and it may be lack of sleep, but I’m struggling to mentally register what you were trying to saying.
My interpretation of what they were saying wasn’t in defence of the cartel, but that a different course of action would be more impactful. Fight them by targeting their revenue stream.
It’s always good to remove the head of a cartel, but you could argue the way it was carried out had no thought behind the immediate repercussions on civilians.