The deaths carried out by the four-letter cartel significantly exceeded those recorded by other organizations.
Since its birth, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)—previously called “Los Matazetas”—was established as a criminal group with a single objective: to eliminate its rivals.
Over the years, thanks to the constant attacks by the government against other structures and its operation through small cells, the organization of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho”, extended its presence in a large part of the Mexican territory and its violence reached a highlight during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Data included in the Mexico Peace Index 2023 study, carried out by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), indicate that the CJNG was the criminal group that caused the most deaths in 2020 and 2021.
According to the document, the information was obtained from the Conflict Data Program at Uppsala University, in Sweden. From this, the IEP determined that the CJNG was responsible for more than 28 thousand deaths due to conflicts between criminal gangs between 2020 and 2021.
“This figure clearly exceeds the almost 14 thousand that would be related to the Sinaloa Cartel in the same period.”
“In 2015, clashes involving at least one of these two groups represented 42% of all deaths due to conflicts between cartels, but by 2021 they represented 95% of those deaths,” the document reads.
Below the two largest criminal organizations in the country, the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel (CSRL), Los Zetas and the Juárez Cartel were positioned as the most lethal in armed conflicts.
When reviewing the evolution of statistics over the last two decades, a sudden increase in the number of deaths resulting from conflicts between cartels starting in 2017 is noticeable.
According to the document, this is explained by two main aspects: the expansion of the CJNG and the extradition of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to the United States.
By then, the “Mencho” cartel was no longer based only in the central area of the country, but had begun its incursion towards the north and south of the republic.
Through small cells and armed arms, the CJNG began to dispute the terrain previously dominated by the Sinaloa Cartel, La Familia Michoacana or the CSRL.
In addition to this, the capture of “Chapo” and his sending to the United States to face justice created a “power vacuum,” according to the aforementioned report, since it led to the internal dispute between Los Chapitos and the faction led by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada to take over the drug market in Mexico that the cartel controlled by 40-60% since 2012.
Source: Infobae
