{"id":23334,"date":"2026-07-17T19:20:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/cartel-video-fuels-fears-of-drug-violence-reaching-mexico-city\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:20:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:20:28","slug":"cartel-video-fuels-fears-of-drug-violence-reaching-mexico-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/cartel-video-fuels-fears-of-drug-violence-reaching-mexico-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Cartel video fuels fears of drug violence reaching Mexico City"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Mexico City, July 17 &mdash;&nbsp;Mexico&rsquo;s vibrant capital city has been relatively untouched by decades of drug violence, but a video of self-styled cartel gunmen claiming to operate in a neighborhood popular with tourists has sparked fears that could change.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The clean-up has already begun,&rdquo; declares the masked man wielding a military-grade assault rifle and flanked by a dozen supposed operatives from one of the country&rsquo;s most feared cartels.<\/p>\n<p>The gunman threatens local criminal groups and claims to be from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel&mdash;an ultra-violent paramilitary gang involved in extortion and money laundering, and which runs a global drug trafficking network.<\/p>\n<p>Mexico has been plagued by cartel violence that has killed or left missing over half a million people in just a few decades, according to the government&rsquo;s own estimates.<\/p>\n<p>But the rules are different in Mexico City, where gun battles, cartel checkpoints or paramilitary patrols would draw too much heat from the authorities.<\/p>\n<p>A series of videos has emerged and&mdash;although unverified&mdash;has spread quickly on social networks and been picked up by local media.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>In them, the cartel promises to end extortion and &ldquo;impose order&rdquo; in Xochimilco&mdash;a tranquil neighborhood of canals and islands that draws tourists from around the world and has been dubbed &ldquo;the Mexican Venice.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>It is not known exactly who made the video or why.<\/p>\n<p>AFP&rsquo;s digital verification service has dismissed the possibility that artificial intelligence was used to create it.<\/p>\n<p>But the most recent video has confused residents, who describe the neighborhood as peaceful and with limited crime.<\/p>\n<p>While one tourist guide said the police keep close watch over the area, others said criminals had never bothered them.<\/p>\n<p>Two gangs are said to operate in a nearby forest, where authorities have received multiple reports of illegal logging.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/migrant-acquitted-in-first-trial-over-us-border-military-zones\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>AFP asked Mexico City prosecutors and police if they were investigating the video, but received no immediate comment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cartel propaganda&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Jalisco New Generation Cartel has its base in Guadalajara and on Mexico&rsquo;s central Pacific coast.<\/p>\n<p>It has run limited operations in the capital, where local street gangs, the Union Tepito and the Tlahuac Cartel, form periodic alliances with larger groups.<\/p>\n<p>The cartel has been blamed for a failed assassination attempt against Omar Garcia Harfuch, the former Mexico City police chief who is now the country&rsquo;s security minister, in an upscale Mexico City neighborhood in June 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Harfuch was injured, while two of his bodyguards and a bystander were killed.<\/p>\n<p>The organization suffered a major blow following the killing of its leader, Nemesio &ldquo;El Mencho&rdquo; Oseguera Cervantes, in a shootout with Mexican soldiers in February.<\/p>\n<p>Threatening videos of armed men are a well-established cartel propaganda ploy.<\/p>\n<p>Before social media, their arrival in certain neighborhoods was announced through rumors on the street or pamphlets promising to bring stability to violence-wracked communities. &mdash; AFP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub>Cartel video fuels fears of drug violence reaching Mexico City<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mexico City, July 17 &mdash;&nbsp;Mexico&rsquo;s vibrant capital city has been relatively untouched by decades of drug violence, but a video of self-styled cartel gunmen claiming to operate in a neighborhood popular with tourists has sparked fears that could change. &ldquo;The clean-up has already begun,&rdquo; declares the masked man wielding a military-grade assault rifle and flanked&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/cartel-video-fuels-fears-of-drug-violence-reaching-mexico-city\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Cartel video fuels fears of drug violence reaching Mexico City&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}