MEXICO CITY, Feb 23 - Mexico’s Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch announced on Monday that 25 members of the National Guard were killed in Jalisco state in a series of attacks that followed the apprehension of Jalisco New Generation cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera, known as "El Mencho." Harfuch said one official from the state attorney’s office was also killed, providing an initial toll of fatalities tied to the post-capture violence.
Authorities described the operation as relating to the capture of Oseguera on Sunday. Oseguera - who had been identified as Mexico’s most-wanted cartel leader and carried a $15 million bounty for information leading to his capture - was later reported dead. Government officials attributed the capture and subsequent information about his whereabouts to intelligence that, according to Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla, came from a romantic partner of the crime boss.
Immediate aftermath
Officials said the cartel’s operatives launched retaliatory attacks across Mexico after Oseguera’s capture and death, producing waves of violence. The fatalities among National Guard personnel and the death of a state attorney’s office official mark a severe escalation in deadly encounters tied directly to the operation that removed the cartel leader from the field.
Official statements
Security Minister Omar Garcia Harfuch provided the casualty figures at a Monday press conference. Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla commented that a romantic partner supplied information that led to Oseguera’s capture and eventual death. Beyond those statements, officials have not provided additional operational details in the material provided here.
Context and considerations
The sequence of events reported by Mexican authorities is limited to the capture on Sunday, Oseguera’s status as the most-wanted cartel leader with a $15 million reward for information, the source of information identified by Defense Minister Trevilla, and the wave of violence that followed. The information available does not provide further operational timelines, locations of each attack, or broader casualty figures beyond the numbers cited by the Security Minister.
What remains unclear
- Precise chronology and locations of all attacks that resulted in the reported fatalities.
- Operational details about how the capture was executed, beyond the attribution of the tip to a romantic partner.
- Whether additional arrests, seizures, or follow-up operations have occurred beyond the events described.
Authorities’ statements form the factual base for the account above. No further corroborating details have been presented in the material supplied, and the limits of that information are reflected here.