Mexico Braces for More Violence After Killing of Cartel Leader

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Violence erupted across Mexico after the killing of Mexico’s most notorious drug cartel leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, on Sunday. Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” was the head of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, an organization that trafficked drugs across multiple Mexican states and countries. The killing signaled an aggressive and unexpected approach from Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to confronting organized crime. As the chaos settles and shelter in place restrictions lift, the relationship between Mexico’s drug kingpins, the government and the rest of society remains unclear. We talk about what the killing means for Mexico and the United States and what could happen next. Guests: Javier Cabral, editor, L.A. Taco - independent local news and culture site; Associate producer for the Taco Chronicles on Netflix Oswaldo Zavala, professor of Latin American Literature and Culture, City University of New York - College of Staten Island; author of “Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture.”
Cecilia Farfán-Méndez, head of the North American Observatory, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:33.9	From KQED.
0:36.7	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:39.3	There's a simple way to look at the killing of Nemesio Osigeroza,
0:44.3	the nominal leader of the Cartel, Halisco Nueva Generation.
0:49.3	Here was a guy wanted by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
0:53.3	They got intelligence on where he was, and they sent in an operation to capture him,
0:57.0	which led to a battle that killed him.
1:00.0	That set members of his criminal organization to take to the streets wreaking havoc,
1:04.0	creating chaos in more than 20 Mexican states.
1:07.0	And in some sense, this is what happened over the last week.
1:11.6	But of course, there are many more forces at play.
1:14.6	In increasingly bombastic American foreign policy, including extrajudicial killings of people
1:20.1	and boats, the long-time hegemonic relationship the U.S. has played with Mexico, the complex
1:25.6	dynamics inside Mexico about who should control the drug trade
1:29.5	and the money that accompanies it, including not just drug traffickers, but politicians, the military,
1:35.2	and others. And overlaid on all of that is the massive wave of violence that has engulfed Mexico
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