After capo’s slaying, Trump asks Mexican president: ‘What’s going on?’

MEXICO CITY — President Trump called his Mexican counterpart after the elimination of the cartel leader known as “El Mencho” and the ensuing violence south of the border and asked, “What’s happening in Mexico?” How are things?

Monday’s cordial conversation lasted about eight minutes, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters at her usual morning news conference on Wednesday.

The two men spoke about Sunday’s sensational raid that resulted in the death of Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, the longtime leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of two major organized crime syndicates responsible for drug trafficking into the United States.

Mexican authorities insisted, and U.S. officials agreed, that no U.S. forces were present on the ground, but Washington’s intelligence played an important role in finding and confronting the long-elusive capo, according to Mexican and U.S. accounts.

Cooperation between the two countries has gone “very well,” Sheinbaum told Trump.

Oseguera was discovered hiding in a wooded retreat in western Jalisco state after authorities found a visiting companion, the Mexican military said.

But Trump, in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, described El Mencho’s demise as uniquely an American success, saying: “We also took out one of the most sinister pillars. You saw it yesterday.”
This remark sparked thunderous applause before the joint session of the US Congress.

Trump did not mention Mexico’s central role in El Mencho’s downfall.

On social media, many Mexican commentators objected to Trump taking credit for the high-risk operation. At least 25 Mexican National Guard troops were killed, Mexican authorities said, as supporters of the slain cartel leader took to the streets and rampaged in a spasm of violence that spread across the country.

“What cynicism from Trump,” said one X commentator. “Mexican heroes are dead!” »

The 25 National Guard deaths constitute the highest number of casualties in a single day for Mexican security forces in years, if not decades.

But other commentators have credited Trump with arming Mexico to take on the cartels.

Sheinbaum, wrote opposition Mexican senator Lilly Tellez, “is proceeding not with conviction, but because of pressure from a foreign president, Trump.”

Sheinbaum ignored Trump’s version of Sunday’s raid.

“We know President Trump,” Sheinbaum said, contradicting the US leader but not attacking him. “But the information we gave is accurate.”

The Mexican president vigorously resisted Trump’s offer to deploy US military assets to help on the ground in the fight against Mexican cartels. Direct action by the United States, she insisted, would constitute a violation of Mexico’s sovereignty.

Earlier in his State of the Union address, Trump reiterated his long-standing assertion that “large parts of Mexico — very large parts of Mexico — have been controlled by murderous drug cartels.” He credited U.S. efforts in reducing illicit drug trafficking, particularly fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid that U.S. authorities say is primarily produced in Mexico and then smuggled into the United States.

The US leader made no mention of ongoing crackdown efforts in Mexico, which have resulted in large-scale seizures of illicit drugs, the destruction of clandestine laboratories and the arrest of numerous cartel members. Over the past year, the Mexican government has sent nearly 100 cartel suspects to the United States for prosecution.

Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.