El Mencho’s fall is good news for the US

Within hours of the death of cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes — better known as “El Mencho” — Mexico descended into chaos. Cartel operatives set up more than 250 roadblocks across 20 states. Vehicles burned. Entire highways were shut down.

In Jalisco alone, 25 Mexican National Guard members were killed in six separate attacks, and at least 73 people have died in the explosive aftermath.

Though critics have pointed to this violence to argue nothing has changed — that America’s siege on drug cartels is fruitless and destructive — this large-scale retaliation reveals how powerful and dangerous these organizations become when left unchecked. The death of El Mencho creates an opportunity for sustained pressure to penetrate the cartel organization and break it down before it has a chance to reorganize itself.

Cartel leadership is what scales this activity from criminality to industrialized harm. Leadership coordinates logistics, secures precursor chemicals, enforces discipline, launders profits, and deploys violence strategically. Removing the head of such an organization disrupts its architecture and forces it to reorganize.

Leadership removals often produce short-term turbulence, but the violence we’re watching now is not proof of failure — it’s a diagnostic.

After El Mencho’s death, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel immediately responded with a coordinated show of force, signaling that it retains reach and command-and-control even after losing its top........

© The Hill