Five CJNG Members Arrested for Retaliatory Attacks after El Mencho’s Death in Ixhuatán, Chiapas.

The five men were arrested in a multi agency operation which included a Black Hawk helicopter in the town of Chapayal Grande, in Ixhuatán, in the north of Chiapas state. The men are accused of participating in retaliatory attacks in Chiapas in response to the February 22nd killing of CJNG boss Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes “El Mencho” in a security operation.

These attacks occured in over 20 Mexican states, where CJNG members burned vehicles, corner stores, and created hundreds of barricades on public roads. Prosecutors also claim the men were behind a series of threatening audio messages which were sent to authorities in the regions of Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán, Rayón, Tapilula, Ixtapangajoya, Ixhuatán and Pichucalco. Some of the messages were partially in Tzotzil, an indigenous language spoken in Chiapas.

This is the second group of captured CJNG members accused of the same messages. On February 26, another four CJNG members were arrested by the Fuerza de Reacción Inmediata Pakal (FRIP) y la Guardia Estatal Preventiva, also in Chapayal Grande.

This operation mirrored similar raids by the Mexican government on CJNG cells linked to the February 22 retaliatory attacks. Killing El Mencho was a tactical success, but also a major failure to contain CJNG retaliation. The event caused the largest one day loss of soldiers in recent history, and mass disruption and panic across large parts of the country.

Yesterday, authorities in Baja California arrested Ángel Javier “N”, alias “El RR”, a CJNG member allegedly behind vehicle burnings in Mexicali. On March 8, federal authorities arrested “El Cherrys, the third in command of the Gulf Cartel Metros faction, allegedly also responsible for retaliatory attacks in Reynosa.

Sources: Proceso, InfoBae, Diario de Chiapas, @reporterosdlsur Twitter, Guardia Nocturna, Borderland Beat Archives