A Strategy Emerges in Mexico

President Claudia Sheinbaum did something that eluded several of her predecessors. The killing on Sunday of the head of one of Mexico’s most wanted cartel leaders, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” is a serious challenge to the octopus that has long strangled Mexico. President Trump’s pressure helped Ms. Sheinbaum take a step that could become a blueprint for a joint battle to save Mexico from the lethal cartels.For Mr. Trump, a Mexican attempt at wresting control away from crime syndicates is a promising turn of events, despite the scare for tourists at Puerto Vallarta, a top destination for Americans. The violence there is typical of cartel decapitation. Mexicans are familiar with the drill. Once a major crime boss is arrested or killed, would-be heirs launch street violence, and many innocents get hurt. So it is now in the tequila-producing Jalisco state and environs. For decades Mexican leaders feared stirring such hornet’s nests. Instead, they allowed the crime syndicates to grow. Ms. Shenbaum’s immediate predecessor and lefty mentor, known as AMLO, crystalized his cartel appeasement policy with the slogan “Abrazos no Balazos, or” hugs not bullets. His was a reaction to his predecessor, Enrique Peña Nieto, who waged a war on crime that was extremely violent, but aimless. Will it be better now?Mexico’s ineffective approach to crime gave rise to syndicates like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Known as CJNG, it grew into a top exporter of fentanyl and other drugs to El Norte. Its leader, El Mencho, became a mythical, elusive folk hero in some Mexican quarters. For years, rumors swirled about his whereabouts and even his existence. His death Sunday helped to bust the mythology and undo the halo. El Mencho hid in plain sight at a small Jalisco resort town, Tapalpa, with a dozen body guards. The architect of the short battle that led to his death is Ms. Sheinbaum’s secretary of Security and Civilian Protection, Omar Garcia Harfuch. Known as Mexico’s “Batman,” he was chief of police at Mexico City when Ms. Sheinbaum was mayor. He declared a war on the cartels after narrowly escaping an attempt on his life there in 2020. America helps Mexico’s new war with intelligence and perhaps even boots on the ground. Mr. Trump is clear that “narcoterrorists are forced to face the wrath of justice they have long deserved,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says. Washington recently designated several cartels, including El Mencho’s CJNG, as foreign terrorist organizations. The goal is “total elimination,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told underlings in a recent memo.Is that feasible? Senator Ted Cruz warned Mexican officials recently against easing the war, saying that “if they didn’t get serious, President Trump was going to,” he told Fox News. That kind of pressure, as well as Ms. Sheinbaum’s newly-found ambitions led to Sunday’s operation. Similar cooperation between the Obama and Peña Nieto administrations led to the capture in 2016 and extradition of the Sinaloa cartel boss, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Today’s street fights in several Mexican states may yet crown an heir to El Mencho. Combining Mr. Trump’s war on killer drugs and Ms. Sheinbaum’s zeal to end the cartels that strangle Mexico seems promising. For political reasons, the Mexican president is downplaying America’s involvement in her latest coup. Cooperation, though, could yet prove to be a source of pride, rather than shame, on both sides of the border.

A Strategy Emerges in Mexico

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