‘El Mencho’ killing sparks ‘overwhelming fear’ as violence erupts in Mexico

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Mexico is on high alert following a wave of violence, after a military operation killed the leader of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel. The security minister says 25 National Guard soldiers died in attacks following the capture and subsequent death of Nemesio Oseguera, known as “El Mencho”. Al Jazeera correspondents in Mexico and the US are covering the latest developments. John Holman is in Mexico City while Julia Galiano is in Veracruz. It's a city in eastern Mexico that's home to some of the key ports used by the cartels for their drug operations and Kimberly Halkett is in Washington, DC with more on the role played by the US in the operation. Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish/ Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.news/AJEMobile #Mexico #ElMenchoKilled #CJNGLeaderDead #JaliscoCartelOperation #MexicoDrugWar2026 #TapalpaRaid #GuadalajaraViolence #PuertoVallartaChaos #USMexicoIntelCooperation #CJNG #aljazeeraenglish Transcript: Mexico is on high alert, but the president, Claudia Shinbomb, says the country is at peace. Schools are closed in several states. Travel delays have left people stranded, and it's because a military operation that killed the leader of the Halisco New Generation Cartel. It's one of the country's most powerful criminal organizations. The Messioa, also known as Elmano, was wounded in fighting with soldiers in Kalesco State. He died on Sunday while he was being flown to Mexico City. Members of the cartel have responded with violence across the country, blocking roads and setting fire to vehicles. Mexico says Sunday's operation was carried out with its own military intelligence and that was backed up by what it called complimentary information from the US. Almano had a US bounty on his head worth $15 million. Violence triggered by his death has sent fearful residents into hiding. The streets of the Kalisco state capital, Guadalara, have been almost empty. Stores,armacies, and fuel stations have shut down. The unrest has spread to the neighboring states of Oshaka as well as smaller resort towns. And travel warnings have been issued after the killing of Almano Washington has told US citizens in Mexico to remain indoors until further notice. The UK is advising against non-essential travel to parts of Mexico, including Halisco State. Mexican President Cladio Shyam is urging citizens to remain calm. We are proud of the armed forces efforts. The most important thing at this time is peace and security throughout the nation. As of today, we have more peace and tranquility. Security cabinet has been convened and there is a lot of coordination. So rest assured we are safeguarding peace and security and normaly throughout the country. We've got our correspondents in Mexico and the US covering the latest developments. We're going to start with John Hullman who's live for us in Mexico City. John, so Mexico's defense minister who was speaking after the president had been giving more details about the raid. Yes, he was. And it was um quite some information that he gave. First of all, he said how they'd actually been able to find the Messio Seeda Elmeno. He said that they'd actually located through their military intelligence a man that transported one of his sentimental partners, his romantic partners of Elmeno to this group of cabins that are in this picturesque holiday town in Halisco called Talpalpan. Uh and that there once they found out that he was taking her, the man then said that he dropped her off and that Elmena was there and he was meeting with her. Uh she then went uh he stayed on Elmano and that's when they started to plan the operation. He said first of all they sent an armed uh force by the roads and that made a circle around the area of cabins in which Elena was with his security detail. We know that he always travels pretty heavy with an escort that can protect him just in case he needs it uh from Mexican security forces. Once they got that done, they also activated an aerial force that was going to drop in uh mostly by a helicopter uh and have a sort of element of surprise. He said that they kept them out of the state of Halisco so that they could get in there and then sort of launch almost an ambush. He said that what happened is they started going in to try and capture Elmen. Uh that people uh the Elmen's people then started to fire on them quite strongly. It got really violent and after that Elmenel fled into the woods with a couple of his bodyguards. Then they tracked them down. Uh they managed to capture them. They put them he said on the helicopter to Mexico City and then Elmenel died on route. So it was quite an operation.