Mexico braced for a further wave of violence Monday following the killing of a drug kingpin known as “El Mencho,” with officials canceling school in some states and warning communities to stay inside as reports spread of cartel members blocking roads.
Security forces said they killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, 59, in an operation in Tapalpa, a town in the western Mexican state of Jalisco.
The killing of Mexico’s most powerful drug lord provoked violence in areas controlled by his Jalisco New Generation Cartel, with reports of cars burning in the streets and photos showing damage to businesses.
In an overnight statement, the U.S. Embassy issued alerts covering areas of 18 Mexican states — more than half the total. It warned Americans in eight cities, including popular tourist destinations such as Puerto Vallarta and Cancún, to shelter in place, citing dangers from blocked roads and criminal activity.
In a late night message, President Claudia Sheinbaum urged Mexicans to remain “informed and calm.”
Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, was among the cities hit hardest in Sunday’s initial wave of violence. Pablo Lemus Navarro, Jalisco’s governor, said in a video on social media that he had declared a “code red” emergency, suspending public transportation, major events and school on Monday.
Photographs taken in the immediate aftermath of Oseguera’s killing showed the burned-out wreckage of cars and buses blocking Guadalajara street junctions and entrances to businesses, with surrounding neighborhoods largely empty after residents were warned to stay inside.
In Puerto Vallarta, a vacation resort on Jalisco’s Pacific coast, footage verified by Reuters showed black smoke billowing over the city and burning vehicles blocking a highway underpass.
Oseguera was Mexico’s most powerful cartel leader, expanding the Jalisco New Generation Cartel into a major power that took control of lucrative drug routes into the United States. The cartel, which traffics large quantities of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine across the U.S.-Mexico border, eventually eclipsed the rival Sinaloa Cartel as Mexico’s most powerful group.
According to a statement from Mexico’s Defense Ministry, security forces had intended to detain Oseguera, but a shootout forced them to return fire. According to the statement, Mexican forces killed four cartel members and fatally wounded three others, one of whom was Oseguera. It said he died while being transferred by air to Mexico City.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, a U.S. defense official said Mexican forces conducted the operation with participation from a U.S.-Mexico task force. The unit, known as Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel, integrates intelligence personnel and law enforcement with the military.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, welcomed Oseguera’s killing in a post on X, describing him as “one of the bloodiest and most ruthless drug kingpins.
Previous killings and arrests of Mexican cartel leaders have led to sharp upticks in violence — including revenge attacks and inter-cartel battles over territory. In 2019, the capture of Ovidio Guzmán López, son of the notorious former Sinaloa cartel leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, triggered so much immediate violence that security officers were forced to release him to his cartel after just three hours. And when the drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was captured and arrested by U.S. authorities in 2024, the all-out battle for control of his Sinaloa cartel caused killings in the state that shares its name to spike.
Over the weekend, social media footage taken from a terminal building at Guadalajara International Airport that Reuters verified showed billowing smoke across the horizon. On Monday morning, online flight information showed widespread delays and cancellations at the airport, although some flights were still scheduled to depart.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico said on social media that while incidents had occurred in the vicinities of the Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta and Tepic airports, the airports themselves continued to operate normally.
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