Morelia.— In the last four years, the violent incursion of Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) has grown mainly in three states: Michoacán, Zacatecas and Guanajuato.
Although the overall goal would be enlargement criminal group to establish their routes for transfer drugs in the United States, in each entity the reasons for which they were present were different and in recent years the levels of violence in those places have increased.
In Michoacán, for example, according to various sources, the offensive is due to the leader of the organization, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, seeks to seize his homeland.
In Zacatecas, geographical location and connectivity have made the state one of its goals, as it is the mandatory route linking the Pacific Ocean to the main border areas in the north of the country and with the United States; But in the last decade, Zacatecas has suffered from the establishment of at least five cartels, mainly due to the sale of fentanyl, which has become popular in the US and is cheaper, stronger and more lethal than cocaine and heroin.
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In Guanajuato, since October 2017, their presence was more visible when José Antonio Yépez Ortiz, El Marro, leader al Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (CSRL) He openly declared war on them to control fuel theft in the so-called Huachicol triangle in the municipalities of Apaseo el Grande, Salamanca, León, Irapuato and Celaya.
Dominate your land
Michoacán was one of the first states in the country where the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel began its military expansion in 2014 and, according to residents and authorities in the regions where it attacked, it all stemmed from a “whim” of its criminal leader. .
Sources consulted explain that Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes’ goal is to conquer his homeland: Aguililla.
However, at the end of 2019, the CJNG offensive to enter Michoacán intensified; The first case was on August 30, 2019 in Tepalcatepec, which cost Mencho the death of nine of his killers and 11 others who were injured, after the population and local police responded to the attack.
“Before the attacks, we had threats by phone, messages and emissaries that the CJNG wanted to enter, as they were at the time. Knights Templar“Explained José Luis, a businessman who lives in Tierra Caliente.
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The farmer reported that the residents participated in preventing the entry of criminals, because on that occasion they notified the authorities about the threats and ignored them. “I didn’t understand why the Jalisco Cartel wanted to take over our cities, but now we know it’s pure ego, let’s say they have control over their home state and they want to go back and retreat here,” he said.
On October 14, 2019, another CJNG command ambushed the state police Aguililla, which left 14 officers dead and two more injured in the city of El Aguaje, in addition to the fact that they had previously committed several massacres in the municipality of Uruapan.
During 2020, the attacks of that criminal organization did not stop in the region Hot earth and, on the contrary, they spread to other municipalities such as Los Reyes, Tocumbo, Tingüindín, Peribán and Zamora.
In December last year, in just three days, CJNG cells carried out attacks in 10 different municipalities in Michoacán, most on the border with Jalisco.
CJNG has had a presence in Michoacán since 2014, when self-defense groups extinguished the Los Caballeros Templarios cartel.
Oseguera has spread its cells through various municipalities in Michoacán, especially in Tierra Caliente, Sierra and Sierra-Costa.
Read also: They report clashes in Aguililla, Michoacán, between federal forces and CJNG members
The split of the cartel in 2018 also caused a break among his lieutenants, who were exiled from Michoacán for The Los Viagras cartel. El Mencho’s obsession with returning to his homeland, Aguililla, made him confront the surviving armed civilian groups, which he has attacked with greater intensity since 2019.
In addition, Oseguera Cervantes is facing a fight with Érick Valencia Salazar, El 85, his former founding partner of the CJNG. Valencia Salazar has already snatched several municipalities from Michoacán and Jalisco, but has also formed a criminal bloc with the Sierra Santana brothers in Los Viagras.