Cartel Leader Dead After Army Raid, Mexican League Matches Postponed
Mexican authorities killed a top cartel figure this weekend, and with the cartel leader dead four high-level soccer matches were postponed Sunday, an action that has left leagues and fans scrambling for answers ahead of several major fixtures.
Cartel Leader Dead and Mexico’s weekend soccer cancellations
League officials canceled two top-tier matches — Queretaro vs. Juarez FC in the men's tournament and Chivas vs. America in the women's league — as well as two second-division games, all called off Sunday after forces engaged the cartel leader near Guadalajara.
Which matches were postponed
The decisions to postpone Queretaro vs. Juarez FC and Chivas vs. America came as organizers assessed safety around stadiums; two unnamed second-division matches were also called off Sunday, depriving fans of scheduled regional fixtures and leaving club calendars temporarily in flux.
Wounded in Tapalpa, died en route to Mexico City
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, nicknamed El Mencho and the head of Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, was wounded in Tapalpa, Jalisco — about a two-hour drive southwest of Guadalajara — and died while being flown to Mexico City.
Burning cars and roadblocks across nearly a dozen states
Following El Mencho's death, cartel members burned cars and blocked roads in nearly a dozen Mexican states, disrupting travel and prompting security responses in multiple regions while authorities monitored major highways and urban arteries.
World Cup sites, a friendly and the Mexican Open remain under watch
Guadalajara is scheduled to host four World Cup games in June, including two involving South Korea; co-host Mexico, Spain, Uruguay and Colombia are also set to play there. The inter-confederation playoff for two remaining World Cup spots is scheduled in Guadalajara and Monterrey in March, and world soccer's governing body requested a status report on security from the Mexican federation on Monday. Mexico's national team has a friendly against Iceland scheduled for Wednesday at the Corregidora stadium in Queretaro, and the federation has not moved to postpone it; the national team trained on Monday ahead of the match. The Mexican Open, an ATP tennis tournament, will begin Monday at the GNP Arena in Acapulco, Guerrero, with organizers saying the tournament's operation continues as normal. A national news site also displayed a "Your browser is not supported" message urging readers to download a modern browser for the best online experience, a technical note that ran alongside coverage of the events.
How large the cartel is and what officials have said
The Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación is considered the most powerful cartel in Mexico, with an estimated 19, 000 members and operations spanning 21 of the country's 32 states; the group was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration, a fact officials have cited in assessing the scale of the threat to public events.
For now, the next confirmed fixtures and events remain on the calendar: the national team's friendly against Iceland at the Corregidora stadium on Wednesday and the Mexican Open at the GNP Arena beginning Monday, while federations and tournament organizers respond to the security requests and the weekend's disruptions.
