LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Mexican authorities say they have killed the country's most powerful drug lord. A man known as El Mencho was the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. His killing on Sunday has led to violence across large parts of Mexico. And to talk us through what's going on, NPR's Eyder Peralta is on the line from Mexico City. Good morning, Eyder.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: OK. Let's start with, who was this man?
PERALTA: Yeah. His name was Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, but he was known as El Mencho. He was 59 years old, and within the past 10 years, this man allegedly built one of the most powerful organized crime groups in the world. He started in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, but he oversaw a massive violent expansion. So they are now operating from north to south and even internationally.
The U.S. says El Mencho has trafficked billions of dollars-worth of cocaine and fentanyl into the U.S. He has been indicted several times in American courts, and the U.S. has put a 15 - had put a $15 million bounty on his head.
FADEL: So what do we know about how he was killed?
PERALTA: The Mexican military says that the U.S. provided some intelligence, which helped lead them to a small town in the state of Jalisco. There was a firefight, El Mencho was injured, and the Mexican military says he died while he was being transported by air to Mexico City. Six other members of the cartel were killed, and three Mexican troops were injured, and what followed was chaos.
Armed men set banks and gas stations run by the federal government on fire. They blocked roads with burning vehicles in at least 20 different states. We spoke to one man in Guadalajara who was trying to get home yesterday, and he said that men pointed guns at him. He called 911 and they simply told him, go home and stay indoors. We spoke to one woman near the town where El Mencho was killed.
She asked us not to use her name because she fears retribution. And she says first she heard helicopters and then the streets filled up with members of the cartels. She says they burnt a bank by her house and they sent messages saying, if the government didn't release their members, they would begin attacking civilians.
FADEL: Wow.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: And she's saying they've locked their doors, and they don't expect to come out anytime soon. The Mexican government says that it's trying to regain control of the situation, and this is coming at an important time for Mexico. Guadalajara is set to host four World Cup games this summer.
FADEL: So, Eyder, looking at the big picture here, how big of a blow is this to the drug trade in Mexico?
PERALTA: You know, I put that question to Lucia Almaraz, who studies organized crime at the UNIVA University in Guadalajara, and she says, what we know from the past is that beheading an organization does not stop the drug trade and it doesn't dismantle the organization.
LUCIA ALMARAZ: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "I'd say the opposite," she's saying. "Killing the leader usually fragments an organization and leads to internal violence."
And that's exactly what we saw in Sinaloa. A little more than a year ago, El Mayo Zambada, one of the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, was kidnapped and taken to the U.S. where he's facing charges, and that power vacuum led to an all-out war between factions of that cartel and thousands of Mexicans have been killed since.
FADEL: What is the United States saying about this?
PERALTA: The U.S. ambassador to Mexico commended the government, but President Trump has often berated the Mexican government as weak on crime. He said multiple times that Mexico is run by the cartels and that the U.S. should step in. This operation seems to undercut that argument. This is the Mexican military taking bold action, killing the biggest drug lord in Mexico.
FADEL: That's NPR's Eyder Peralta, reporting from Mexico City. Eyder, thank you.
PERALTA: Thank you, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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