U.S. citizens in Mexico for business or pleasure are being told to shelter in place after the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel was killed by the Mexican military over the weekend, sparking a wave of cartel violence across the country.
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho", was wounded during the military raid on his compound in Jalisco, and died en route to a hospital. In response, the cartel he led unleashed attacks in more than a dozen Mexican states, including tourist-rich cities like Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta.
Violence spread quickly along the west coast, reaching up to the US border with California. At least 30 people have been declared dead, with more feared.
In Puerto Vallarta, just south of the border, US citizens were issued a stay-in-place order, as narco gangs unleashed their bloody rampage on the resort town.
Terrifying footage from across Mexico shows torched buildings and vehicles, while panicked lines of tourists are seen trying to flee the country at multiple airports.
The Mexican military was able to target Cervantes thanks to the help of U.S. intelligence, and it's conceivable that the cartel could engage in retaliatory action here in the United States as well as south of the border, though so far the cartel has kept its reprisals confined to Mexico.
Security analyst David Saucedo said that if relatives of Oseguera Cervantes take control of the cartel, the violence seen Sunday could continue. If others take power, they could be more willing to turn the page and continue operations.
The greatest fear would be that the cartel turns to indiscriminate violence. They could decide to “launch narcoterrorism attacks ... and generate a scenario similar to what Colombia lived in the 1990s,” a full-on attack against the government “car bombs, assassinations and attacks on aircraft.”
Either way, the attacks have once again revealed just how idiotic Mexico's gun laws are. The country makes it nearly impossible for average citizens to legally own firearms for self-defense, though several states have seen the rise of community self-defense groups who are arming themselves with illegally obtained guns, including AR-15s and other semiautomatic rifles.
The Jalisco New Generation cartel, meanwhile, has been using explosive-laded drones, anti-personnel mines, and other military weaponry to target rival cartels, politicians, police, and the military.
The self-defense groups created to defend communities from cartel violence are likely to be busy in the coming days, and though I don't expect the U.S. to pressure Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to push for major reforms to the country's strict gun control laws, the idea of community self-defense is more important than ever.
Many local police departments have been co-opted by the cartels. In fact, Cervantes himself was a former police officer. The Mexican military simply isn't big enough to provide security to every town and village in the country, and it remains to be seen how effective it will be at combatting cartel violence in big cities like Guadalajara.
I doubt we'll see anything here in the United States that resembles the wave of terror unleashed in Mexico, in part because there are tens of millions of Americans who are lawfully bearing arms in defense of themselves and others. Unlike in Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation cartel would not only be dealing with a functional law enforcement presence, but far more armed citizens ready and willing to defend their communities than what they're dealing with in Mexico and the limited number of self-defense groups that have sprung up in recent years.
Mexico's gun laws have been an abject failure in preventing cartel violence. Civilian self-defense groups may be the only thing standing between the Jalisco New Generation cartel and residents in cartel-controlled portions of the country, and Sheinbaum should be making it easier for average citizens to defend their families, their neighbors, and the communities they call home.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and turn the United States into Mexico as far as our gun laws are concerned.
Help us continue to report on and expose the Democrats’ gun control policies and schemes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member