Security forces keep up fight with cartel gunmen a day after the Mexican military killed a drug lord

A burned vehicle blocks a road leading to Tapalpa, Mexico, on Monday, a day after the Mexican army killed Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho.”

A burned vehicle blocks a road leading to Tapalpa, Mexico, on Monday, a day after the Mexican army killed Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho.”

TAPALPA, Mexico (AP) — A day after the Mexican army killed the country’s most powerful drug lord, the picturesque town where it happened was a study in contrasts.

Tourist shops in Tapalpa were open Monday, and workers were on the job. But gunshots also rang out, and in the street was a dead man lying beside a bullet-pocked vehicle.

Meanwhile, heavily armed Mexican security forces kept up their battle with cartel gunmen following the killing that sparked a surge in violence and put the country on edge. Cartel fighters continued to block roads as smoke rose on the outskirts of the town in the state of Jalisco.

More than 70 people died in the attempt to capture Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes and the aftermath, authorities said Monday. Known as “El Mencho,” he was the notorious leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Mexico.

The body count taken by security officials included security forces, suspected cartel members and others. Officials did not offer details, and the circumstances of most of the deaths were unclear.

Oseguera Cervantes was the boss of one of the fastest-growing criminal networks in Mexico, known for trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine to the United States and staging brazen attacks against Mexican government officials. The organization responded to his death with widespread violence, including erecting more than 250 roadblocks across 20 states and setting fire to vehicles.

Oseguera Cervantes died after a shootout with the Mexican military. Mexican Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla said Monday that authorities had followed one of his romantic partners to his hideout in Tapalpa.

The cartel leader and two bodyguards fled into a wooded area where they were seriously wounded in a firefight. They were taken into custody and died on the way to Mexico City, Trevilla said.

In a different location in Jalisco, soldiers killed another high-ranking cartel member who Trevilla said was coordinating violence and offering more than $1,000 for every soldier killed.

The dead included 25 members of the Mexican National Guard who were killed in six separate attacks, Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said.

Harfuch said some 30 criminal suspects were killed in Jalisco, and four others were killed in the neighboring state of Michoacan. Also killed were a prison guard and an agent from the state prosecutor’s office.

As the threat of more violence loomed, several Mexican states canceled school Monday, while local and foreign governments warned their citizens to stay inside.

The White House confirmed that the U.S. provided intelligence support to the operation to capture the cartel leader and applauded Mexico’s army for taking down a man who was one of the most wanted criminals in both countries.

Mexico hoped the death of the world’s biggest fentanyl traffickers would ease Trump administration pressure to do more against the cartels, but many people were anxious as they waited to see the powerful cartel’s reaction.

The U.S. Embassy said via X that its personnel in eight cities and in the state of Michoacan would shelter in place and work remotely Monday. It warned U.S. citizens in many parts of Mexico to do the same.

Cars began circulating in Guadalajara before sunrise Monday with the start of the workweek, a notable change from Sunday, when Jalisco’s state capital and Mexico’s second-largest city was almost completely shut down as fearful residents stayed home.

More than 1,000 people were stuck overnight in Guadalajara’s zoo, where they slept in buses.

Luis Soto Rendón, the zoo’s director, said many had been trapped there since Sunday morning, when violence broke out in Jalisco and the surrounding states. Families concluded they could not return home in nearby states like Zacatecas and Michoacan.

“We decided to let people stay inside the zoo for their safety,” Soto said. “There are small children and senior citizens.”

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