I'm back

Hi, I'm back. As they say around here, “ya se calmó la cosa,” at least in a large part of the state of Veracruz. Unfortunately, the situation in Jalisco remains complicated, as clashes with drug cartels are still being reported.

My whole family and I are fine.

What happened?

Well, a military operation was carried out in the state of Jalisco with the objective of capturing Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho.” During the confrontation, the armed forces managed to kill him along with three other leaders, who, according to various reports, were considered possible successors within the cartel.

This man was extremely dangerous; even mentioning his name jokingly could be a death sentence. If you don't believe me, just look up the case of “El Pirata de Culiacán” and see how it ended.

Following the confirmation of his death, CJNG hitmen began to carry out drug blockades to prevent entry to and exit from the city where El Mencho was located, as well as in neighboring cities and states.

The situation escalated rapidly, and within hours, the roadblocks and clashes spread to other states where the cartel had a presence.

How did you experience it?

Okay, I'm going to recount everything that happened up until today, Tuesday. It was two days of complete uncertainty; it wasn't a question of whether there would be another counterattack, but when it would happen.

On Sunday, I went to my mother's house, since she had invited us for lunch and wanted the whole family together. It was around 9:00 a.m. when we were driving along the highway and started seeing military convoys. We didn't think much of it, since near where I live there are four military bases, a military hospital, an apartment complex controlled by the Navy, and the local airport is also for military use. Seeing soldiers in the area isn't unusual.

When we were almost finished eating, around 10:00 or 11:00 a.m., we started hearing gunfire in the distance. From the sound, it was clear they were quite far away. Shortly after, helicopters began circling overhead.

My mother turned on the television and the first channel that appeared was a news channel. The presenter was saying:

“We repeat the information: SEDENA has just confirmed that Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias ‘El Mencho’, was killed in an operation coordinated with the United States intelligence department.”

Except for the children, who didn't know who she was or what the news meant, all the adults were pale. It was like going back to 2006, to the times of Calderón and his war on drugs.

Shortly after, the power and internet service went out. A little while later, the phone network for all the companies also went down. My mother was hysterical, since my younger sister (we are four siblings; I am the second oldest) was in Mexico City studying at university, and there was no way to contact her.

Around 3:00 p.m., military vehicles, National Guard vehicles—which is something like the Federal Police, but with military weaponry and training—and Federal Police vehicles began patrolling the city. By that time, we were all practically barricaded inside my mother's house.

Around 6:00 p.m., the cell phone signal returned. The first thing we did was contact my paternal grandparents, my maternal grandmother, and, of course, my sister. Fortunately, we were all okay.

At that very moment, I posted that I would be inactive, since I couldn't leave my mother's house. I wrote it hastily, with poor spelling and grammar, because I just wanted to let everyone know I was okay.

By 9:00 p.m., the gunfire had stopped, but the power still hadn't been restored. The entire city was completely dark, and we didn't know the condition of the roads, so no one went out. I spent the night there.

The electricity came back on around 5:00 a.m. We started to find out what had happened in the surrounding area and on the highways: there were roadblocks with burned-out tractor-trailers and terrible traffic on the secondary roads. That's why we stayed at my mother's house all day Monday, until late afternoon and evening.

Now I'm back home. We're safe, although there are still military and National Guard patrols, both on some highways and in the city where I live.

Hopefully, all of this will end up being something good for Mexico.

To be honest… I doubt it. Do you know how many cartels are currently operating in the country? More than 150. And of those, at least six have a level of power comparable to that of the CJNG. With the cartel bleeding dry and without a clear leader, what's coming isn't peace, but another internal war: everyone will want to fill the void left by El Mencho.

Add to that the fact that the World Cup is approaching and Mexico will be one of the host countries. To think that the drug cartels won't react, or that they won't try to demonstrate their strength in the days leading up to the event, would be naive.

And to all this is added the pressure from the US president—"the orange gringo"—demanding that Mexico do something about drug trafficking. When, internally, the United States isn't doing enough to curb its own consumption. In the end, that's where the market is.

Furthermore, the United States doesn't have real gun control. Many of the weapons used by the cartels were legally purchased there and then smuggled into Mexico. In other words, they're arming their own enemy.

It's a never-ending cycle...

Well… I've vented now.

I hope the situation doesn't escalate to something worse in the coming days or months. For now, I'm back active here on Patreon. I'll be answering your questions, posting some polls, and sharing mod updates. In fact, I'm already working on a Parity update for Purple Mode, and I can tell you now that it will bring some pretty significant changes.

Thank you so much for all the support over these past two days. And don't worry, it wasn't necessary to write in Spanish for me to understand your messages of encouragement, as I mentioned before.

• I speak, read and write Portuguese (my partner is Brazilian)

• I read and understand Japanese (I'm a bit of an otaku).

• And I understand English, although I don't speak or write it.