On July 17, social media users shared a video that shows dozens of alleged members of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel ( CJNG ). In the video, the gunmen show their support to Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes aka “El Mencho,” the leader of the bloody Mexican Cartel.
After the video went viral, Security Minister Alfonso Durazo took to Twitter to comment on the matter. Durazo said authorities are analyzing the material but argued that it was obviously staged.
The video was released days after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador visited Jalisco, one of the most violent states.
Durazo also said that no criminal organization can challenge and overpower federal forces.
The infamous video lasts over two minutes; however, the date and place where it was recorded are still unknown. The gunmen who appear on the video are dressed in military gear while carrying weapons. They pose next to armored vehicles and shout “We’re Mr. Mencho’s people!.”
The armored vehicles are marked with the words: Especial Forces, Elite Group, and CJNG.
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Journalist Gabriel Guerra took to Twitter to voice his concern over the video as said it was “truly worrying.” Although authorities haven’t confirmed the authenticity of the video, it “talks about an armed capacity that is comparable with or superior to guerrillas’.” Guerra added that he sees “an enemy of the Mexican government and all of us.”
In an interview with EL UNIVERSAL, security expert Alejandro Hope explains that while the video is propaganda material, it is important to place it in its historical context.
Hope explains that this is not the first time we see tanks and that the number of gunmen and vehicles in the video are common: around 100 gunmen and 25 vehicles.
The expert reminds us that some videos register up to 60 vehicles and up to 150 gunmen. Phenomenons like these have also taken place in locations such as Villa Unión, Coahuila.
Alejandro Hope said that nothing in the video is new: the number of vehicles, gunmen, weapons, or the clothes. The Barrett rifles are nothing new either.
The expert said we should be careful and not turn this video into an act of propaganda and emphasized that the CNJG “ is not the biggest criminal group we have seen. Los Zetas were more intimidating.”
But what does the video say about the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel?
Alejandro Hope says that the recording shows the Mexican cartel’ s firepower, a large supply of high-caliber weapons, and the militarization of criminal groups. However, none of this is new.
According to Hope, the video suggests a “problem with the government’s control of the territory. He adds that the labels on the vehicles suggest “cynical impunity; they move in large convoys, saying who they are because they are not afraid of authorities.
However, the labels on the armored vehicles is not a new tactic. Criminals groups such as Los Zetas, La Familia, and Los Templarios used them too.
“The National Guard should prevent these types of things,” said Hope. The CJNG’s display shows a large logistic capacity and access to weapons and labor.
What message does the video send after the recent incidents that took place in Mexico?
Alejandro Hope says that “the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel has been going through an escalation of confrontations for several months.” He mentions the extradition of Nemesio Oseguera’s son, known as “El Menchito” and the recent attack against Mexico City’s police chief Omar García Harfuch.
In recent months, the CJNG has engaged in a turf war with the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel in Guanajuato.
The CJNG was originally known as the Zeta Killers and first appeared in 2011, with the display of the bodies of 35 alleged members of Los Zetas. Although the criminal organization is based in Jalisco, it also operates in Colima, Michoacán, the state of Mexico, Guerrero, and Guanajuato.
The Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación allegedly served as an armed group for the Sinaloa Cartel until 2013.
In 2015, the Mexican government declared CJNG one of the most dangerous cartels in the country. In October 2016, the U.S. Department of the Treasury described the group as one of the world’s “most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations.”
According to some analysts, the CJNG has operations throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
Moreover, the brutal Mexican cartel has been linked to several mass graves in southwestern Mexico and shot down an army helicopter in 2015.
In the U.S., the DEA placed billboards all over Los Angeles, California, offering a USD 10 million reward in exchange for information that leads to the arrest of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes.
In 2018, the drug trafficker was named the third most wanted criminal by the DEA.
In recent months, the drug lord’s inner circle was severely weakened after his son was extradited to the U.S. and the arrest of Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, “La Negra.” According to authorities, they were the criminal’s main financial operators.
According to the DEA, the drug trafficker has created a clandestine safety zone in the mountainous areas in Jalisco, Michoacán, and Colima. The criminal does not set foot in major cities or restaurants and lives in the mountains. This strategy is common among cartel leaders.
Although “El Mencho” joined crime in the 90s, he became an infamous cartel leader in the last 5 years and it’s now the most wanted man by the DEA
In 1994, the infamous cartel leader was sentenced to 3 years in prison for heroin trafficking in the U.S. He was later deported to Mexico, worked as a police officer in Jalisco, and then joined the now-defunct Milenio Cártel. When the cartel leader, Ignacio Coronel “El Rey del Cristal,” was murdered in 2010, the CJNG was created.
During the Peña Nieto administration, authorities spent over MXN 5 million a day to arrest “El Mencho.”