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Mexican army in Uruapan in Michoacan state



Dead Mexican National Guard soldiers



Plumes of smoke rising from the tourist town of Puerto Vallarta

https://x.com/cabeceramx/status/2025596463699374268

Mexican army convoy

https://x.com/FaytuksNetwork/status/2025665496121548815

What might be the sound of a fairly intense firefight in Guadalajara

https://x.com/FaytuksNetwork/status/2025669318218826107

Panic inside the Guadalajara airport as cartel gunmen started shooting

https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2025642593598468330

More video from the Guadalajara airport

https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2025638860516958625

I should point out that places like Guadalajara and Puerto Vallerta are filled with foreign tourists, many of them escaping winter in the US and Canada. Both the US and Canadian embassies are saying shelter in place and keep a low profile. United, Southwest, Delta, Alaska, and Air Canada have all cancelled flights into and out of Puerto Vallerta and Guadalajara.

Mexican reporter Oscar Ramirez reports from Tijuana in Baja California Norte, far from Jalisco, that CJNG has announced that anyone on the streets after 6 PM will be shot. So businesses all over Tijuana (a border town adjacent to San Diego) are closing early. All schools will be closed tomorrow. Everyone in Tijuana assumed that Baja was Sinaloa cartel turf and are shocked to see how powerful CJNG seems to be there.

Both Fox News and the Washington Post are reporting that the new US counter-cartel military command was involved in taking out El Mencho. This apparently consisted of passing intelligence to the Mexicans. The Mexicans are saying that all of the soldiers that attacked El Mencho's compound were Mexican, which may or may not be true. An intense gun battle broke out during the raid in which several CJNG guards were killed and El Mencho himself was seriously wounded. He reportedly died while he was being taken to a hospital.

El Mencho - his criminal career, his family and his fate does kind of remind me of the concluding scene in Sicario... the facade of loving domesticity, thinly covering the worst possible depravity.

(The eyes always give it away - this guy (and his son) are both stone cold killers.)

UNAM, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, says the National Schools of Higher Studies in Morelia (Michoacán), León (Guanajuato), and Juriquilla (Querétaro) will deliver classes in virtual mode throughout the day tomorrow.

All other academic entities of the University will maintain in-person activities as normal.

The institution requested that out-of-town students avoid traveling and remain at home until safe conditions for their mobility are restored.

I need to finally see Sicario. May watch it tonight.

(Feb 23, 2026 06:20 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: [ -> ]I need to finally see Sicario. May watch it tonight.

I recently thought I had seen it free with ads, but it's apparently just "watchlist" status now on those applicable services. Had another "coincidence" all lined up due to that, but it fell through the floor.

Lots of speculation about who takes over the CJNG cartel, now that El Mencho is dead. And about how it happens.

A reasonably authoritative take here, by an observer that closely follows this stuff

https://x.com/HEARST_BB/status/2026016081291477422

"The widespread belief that "El 03" is the successor to "El Mencho" is likely outdated and may no longer be true. In recent years, several narcocorridos have emerged that make it clear that the leadership of the CJNG would pass to Audias Flores Silva, alias "El Jardinero," instead of "El 03."

Because the lyrics of narcocorridos are approved by the criminal figures themselves, those lyrics can function as unofficial statements issued directly by the cartel.

Even more striking is that Ricardo Ruiz Velasco, alias “El RR” or “Doble R”, apparently openly challenged El Jardinero for his claims of being the successor, further fueling rumors of a rivalry between the two..."

---

Similar to the plot in Sicario, the American goal in all this might have been to:

1. Set off a succession struggle inside CJNG,

2. Force the hand of the fatally corrupt (but well paid off) Mexican government into finally acting to suppress the cartels, which effectively act as Mexico's shadow government. The government can't very well stay passive while many Mexican soldiers are dying out there doing their duty.

3. If possible, set off an armed struggle between rival cartels.

The Mexican defense ministry has released what they claim is a photograph of El Mencho's compound in Jalisco

Drone photograph



Satellite photograph of the same location, from Google Earth



The Mexican government press release. Note bullet holes in the helicopter