El Mencho's Demise: Unpacking the U.S. Narrative in Mexico's Cartel Wars
Reports celebrating the alleged death of Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera Cervantes, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), in a Mexican military operation, gloss over a critical historical context. Mainstream outlets frame this as a decisive victory against drug trafficking. They largely ignore the systematic role of U.S. operations in exacerbating the very problem they now applaud
solving. The current narrative conveniently forgets the explicit U.S. support for militarized law enforcement in Mexico since the Mérida Initiative was launched in 2008. This initiative infused billions of dollars and extensive training into Mexican security forces, ostensibly to combat cartels. However, much like the U.S. involvement in Colombia's Plan Colombia, the primary outcome has been
increased violence, human rights abuses, and the fragmentation of existing cartels, which only allowed new, often more brutal, groups like the CJNG to emerge. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) admitted in 2012 that cartels controlled nearly 70% of the U.S.-Mexico border, a figure that only increased despite significant U.S. intervention. This pattern of intervention mirrors historical
precedents. Consider the CIA's Operation Condor in the 1970s, which, under the guise of anti-communism, destabilized Latin American nations and often empowered criminal elements or compliant authoritarian governments, rather than fostering genuine stability. The perceived success in targeting 'El Mencho' allows a convenient sidestepping of the U.S. role in manufacturing the conditions that allowed