{"id":497838,"date":"2026-02-25T04:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497838\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T04:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:54:08","slug":"mexico-pledges-safety-for-world-cup-after-violence-erupts-from-cartel-bosss-killing-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497838\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico pledges safety for World Cup after violence erupts from cartel boss\u2019s killing | Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mexico\u2019s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that there is \u201cno risk\u201d for visitors coming to Fifa World Cup<\/a> games scheduled to be held in the country, after the death of a top cartel boss triggered a wave of retaliatory violence from gunmen who blocked roads and attacked security forces across the country.<\/p>\n

The Mexican military attempted to detain \u201cEl Mencho\u201d, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in a dawn raid on Sunday,<\/a> leading to a firefight in which he was fatally wounded, before dying while being airlifted to hospital.<\/p>\n

Followers of El Mencho, whose real name is Nemesio Rub\u00e9n Oseguera Cervantes<\/a>, immediately took the streets, blocking almost 100 major roads and attacking national guard bases, particularly in the states of Jalisco and Michoac\u00e1n. At least 25 soldiers and 34 cartel gunmen died in the fighting.<\/p>\n

By Monday the violence had largely ebbed \u2013 but local media reported episodes of violence in several rural municipalities of Jalisco state over the night on Monday.<\/p>\n

Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, is due to host four World Cup<\/a> games. The tournament, which Mexico is co-hosting with the US and Canada, will also involve games in Monterrey and Mexico City, in the legendary Azteca stadium.<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum said in her daily press conference on Tuesday that there are \u201call the guarantees\u201d for the World Cup to be held in Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Guadalajara and the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, which were all but shut down by Sunday\u2019s violence, are gradually reopening this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cLittle by little the situation [in Jalisco] is returning to normal,\u201d said Sheinbaum.<\/p>\n

Fifa boss Gianni Infantino told the AFP news agency on Tuesday that he was \u201cvery reassured\u201d about Mexico\u2019s role as host.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s good. It\u2019s going to be spectacular,\u201d Infantino said in the Colombian city of Barranquilla.<\/p>\n

Sheinbaum also said she was considering taking legal action against tech billionaire Elon Musk after he alleged on Monday that she took orders from drug traffickers, echoing Donald Trump\u2019s repeated assertions that Mexico is \u201crun by cartels\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a post on X after the killing of El Mencho, Musk responded to a 2025 video of Sheinbaum discussing cartel violence by claiming she was \u201csaying what her cartel bosses tell her to say<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the clip, Sheinbaum said a return to a \u201cwar on drugs\u201d was not an option.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe war against the narco is outside of the law,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause it is permission to kill without any trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past, targeting cartel leaders has often led to the splintering of their organisations<\/a>, as their lieutenants fight to take control. This is widely believed to have helped drive the high homicide rate in Mexico since then president Felipe Calder\u00f3n began a military offensive against Mexico\u2019s cartels 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

But Sheinbaum rejected the comparison between the operation that killed El Mencho and the security policies of her predecessor.<\/p>\n

\u201cA situation arose in which, during the arrest of a member of an organised crime group who had an arrest warrant out against him, members of the army were attacked and responded, and he died during transport,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for peace, not war,\u201d she added. \u201cThat is the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mexico\u2019s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that there is \u201cno risk\u201d for visitors coming to Fifa World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-497838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}