From weapons to networks: 7 years after the war between the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG

In 2016, three after its creation, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) -led by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho- declared war on the Sinaloa Cartel; Since then, both organizations are responsible for the majority of confrontations and homicides related to criminal groups. To make their name and presence reach all the states of the country, both are using the social networks to generate terror and issue threats to their rivals.

According to information from Mexico Peace Index 2023In 2013, the main confrontations between criminal organizations were at the hands of the Gulf Cartel against Los Zetas and CJNG against the Knights Templar, which left 339 and 129 dead respectively.

However, for the year 2021 when the CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel They had been at war for five years, their clashes caused the deaths of 4 thousand 890 people. In its territorial expansion, the organization under the orders of the Mencho He also clashed with the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (CSRL), confrontations that left 2,025 homicides.

According to information from the United States Department of Justice, the CJNG managed to have a presence in 28 of the 32 states of Mexico thanks to its “violent expansion campaign” and the high drug demand -including fentanyl- that the Mexican cartels had to comply with.

But direct confrontations against their rivals were not the only strategy used by the CJNG to “mark”, announce and warn of their arrival in certain regions of the country; those commanded by Mencho They also used the social networks to send messages to rival groups and in the process sow terror among the population.

There are countless videos in which heavily armed and uniformed subjects with the insignia of the CJNG. One of the most recent is from last June, when images of five women subdued by alleged members of the criminal organization of the Mencho.

The objective of the video, allegedly recorded in Guanajuato, was to demonstrate that the “escort business already had an owner” and they warned that all the women who were dedicated to that activity had to “report” to them weekly to pay the “floor fee.”

This tactic has been replicated in each of the states it dominates in CJNG; while in other images it is seen how armed subjects aboard several vehicles warn: “Here entering Villagrán (Michoacán), pure people of the Lord Mencho, pure four letters, pure elite group. We are here, sons of…”, is heard in the video released in 2020.

According to Damaso López Serrano, alias El Mini Lic”, the children of Chapo Guzman They copied the strategy of Mencho to promote their organization’s man and threaten their rivals about their power and presence in conflict zones.

More recently, in the confrontation between the CJNG and the Sinaloa Cartel In Chiapas, images of a convoy entering the state, presumably those led by Ismael el Mayo Zambada and Los Chapitos; Between cheers and applause, residents of the border with Guatemala celebrated the arrival of the criminal group that would confront the also called 4-letter cartel.

It is worth remembering that this war on social networks led to the arrest in August 2022 of Ricardo Ruiz Velasco, alias “El Tripa” or “El Doble R”, identified by the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) as a lieutenant of the CJNG and “content creator” for the criminal organization.

With data from 2013 to 2023, the Mexico Peace Index warned that the CJNG is related to 81 percent of all homicides due to clashes between cartels.

However, the majority of deaths were recorded from 2017, when the crisis had already broken out. war between both cartels that began with the warning of Mencho so that he Sinaloa Cartel will not set foot in Jalisco; the same thing that “Los Chapitos” did not respect and that it cost them to be held for five days by men from the CJNGuntil – according to reports – Mayo Zambada himself, Rafael Caro Quintero and the federal government intervened to prevent bloodshed to free the children of Chapo Guzmán.