The El Mencho disinformation campaign exposed how cartel violence, AI manipulation, and viral rumors can destabilize markets, airports, and public trust—raising urgent questions for U.S. Latino families with ties to Mexico.
The downfall of Nemesio Oseguera, alias El Mencho, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), was followed not only by a wave of violence and chaos in the country, but also by a wave of digital disinformation. In the 48 hours following the operation led by the Army in Jalisco, hundreds of false or unverified posts circulated on various platforms.
The attacks unleashed by drug cartels in several states, including a series of roadblocks, vehicle burnings, and clashes between federal security forces and armed groups, were amplified by content generated by bots (short for robots), computer programs designed to automate repetitive tasks over the internet, the manipulation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and the influence of the American far right.
According to the report “Disinformation Following the Killing of ‘El Mencho’: Volume, Speed, and Reach,” published by the Digital Media Observatory of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM), numerous audiovisual pieces of content were disseminated on social media without descriptions, verification, or context.
Various Instagram accounts shared videos and photographs without specifying their origin. “It was not possible to determine whether these were recent recordings linked to violent reactions by organized crime in different parts of the country, or whether they corresponded to archival material strategically reused to amplify the narrative of the wave of violence following El Mencho’s capture,” the document details.
The images of chaos that flooded social media were reminiscent of the Culiacanazo, another episode of violence during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency, which followed the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and which led authorities to release him due to the terror sown by the Sinaloa Cartel in the state capital. The most shocking recordings this Sunday came from Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, specifically from the airport. Although authorities were quick to state that the terminals were never closed, several national and international airlines decided to cancel flights until passenger safety could be guaranteed.
According to the Digital Media Observatory, there is no official count consolidated by authorities or platforms, but based on a digital propagation model and typical behavior in high-impact events in Mexico, they estimate that in the first 48 hours after the operation, between 200 and 500 posts containing false or unverified information were shared. Between 20 and 40 posts achieved high virality, and several of them exceeded 50,000 reactions, 100,000 views, and were shared at least 10,000 times. This generated an estimated three to five million potential exposures to false or unverified content. “This does not equate to five million unique people; there may be duplicates, but it does reflect the volume of circulation,” the report specifies.
