Mencho's Death Prompts U.S. State Department Alert and Boosts Mexico's Security Strategy
Mexican authorities, with intelligence support from the United States, carried out an operation in the sierra of the State of Jalisco that ended with the death of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as Mencho. The development, dated Feb. 23, 2026, has triggered a U. S. State Department security alert for Americans in Mexico and is being framed as a defining achievement for the security team led by Omar García Harfuch.
Operativo en la sierra de Jalisco
The operation in the sierra of the State of Jalisco was executed by Mexican authorities with U. S. intelligence support and concluded with the killing of Mencho, the longtime head of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación. Authorities had faced a complex security ring around the capo; his death is being described as caza mayor, the culmination of an extended effort to capture or neutralize a leader who had evaded security forces for decades.
Mencho: Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación
Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias Mencho, was the undisputed leader of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). The CJNG is characterized in law-enforcement accounts as the most powerful criminal organization in Mexico, with presence across almost the entire national territory and tentacles in more than 40 countries. That growth followed an aggressive expansion over the last decade and was amplified by a civil war inside the Sinaloa cartel that weakened that rival. The U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration defines the CJNG as one of the criminal organizations “most powerful, influential and ruthless. ”
Omar García Harfuch and the new security strategy
Mexican officials present the operation as the biggest achievement in just over a year for the security cabinet led by Omar García Harfuch under President Claudia Sheinbaum. The campaign marks a clear break from the previous administration’s mantra of “Abrazos, no balazos, ” associated with Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and emphasizes action, intelligence and confrontation with leaderships of organized crime.
Claudia Sheinbaum has said her approach keeps a focus on addressing the causes of violence but adds intelligence and investigation to those efforts, mirroring the strategy she pursued as head of the Government of Mexico City from 2019 to 2023, a period when García Harfuch also served as a security chief. The administration notes the shift is already translating into record figures of drug seizures and detentions; García Harfuch states that, in this sexenio, more than 40, 000 people have been detained for high-impact crimes.
Reactions in Washington: U. S. State Department alert and Government of Trump congratulations
On Feb. 23, 2026, the U. S. State Department issued a security alert for Americans in Mexico. The Government of Trump conveyed congratulations to its Mexican counterparts for the success of the operation that resulted in Mencho’s death. Analysts and officials see the dual movements—operational cooperation and diplomatic acknowledgment—as evidence of close working ties between the two countries this year.
Past captures, expert commentary and international signaling
Observers place the Mencho operation alongside a string of high-profile actions in recent years that included the captures of figures such as Ovidio Guzmán, El Ratón, Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, El Nini 09 and Caro Quintero. Erubiel Tirado, coordinator of the Program of National Security and Democracy at the Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México, says the defining difference in the current approach is action: attacking leaderships of organized crime rather than pursuing nonconfrontational measures. Tirado summarized the change with the phrase “no abrazos, pero sí balazos, ” and described the operation as both a domestic and international triumph that sends a signal Mexico can exert control over its security as the inauguration of the 2026 World Cup approaches.
Experts also note the bilateral effect: intelligence cooperation with the United States contributed to the operation, and many believe the outcome will favor bilateral relations. An additional sentence in the original account of these developments is unclear in the provided context.
