Four videos in six and a half months, a very long list of names and threats, and—above all—omnipresent military-style gear: weapons, bulletproof vests, and helmets. A faction of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is waging a propaganda campaign across southern Mexico City, the State of Mexico, and Morelos, using short videos to criticize the tactics of their criminal rivals.
They condemn extortion, call out the unauthorized use of their brand name, and announce major “cleanups” to purge local gangs. Sometimes they target local politicians and officials; at other times, they demand that these authorities withhold protection from anyone else. They claim they are arriving to restore order.
The footage has drawn attention due to the “CJNG” acronym displayed on the operatives’ chest rigs—a name that evokes grim memories in the capital following the June 2020 attack on then-police chief Omar García Harfuch (now the federal security secretary). While such tactics have long been common among organized crime groups in Mexico, these images are striking for their underlying message: the silent announcement of an invasion and the prelude to the kind of warfare and horror the country has witnessed all too often over the past two decades. Authorities in the capital are analyzing the videos but are avoiding talk of an alarm.
The four short clips—the first released in December and the last this week—appear to have been filmed at the same location: a site nestled among low hills in a rural area. The second video, released on March 1, shows more than twenty hooded figures wearing balaclavas and caps, all armed to the teeth. In the other videos, the camera angles are tighter, making it impossible to see the group’s full membership. The staging is similar in all four: a single man reads from a mobile phone screen while the others remain silent. In the background stands the same wall made of gray blocks. The first video, dated December 27, shows a drone flying over the group on the left.
The footage illustrates the alleged push by this CJNG faction—first into Morelos (specifically Huitzilac, Jiutepec, and Emiliano Zapata) and subsequently into the southern boroughs of Mexico City (Tlalpan, Xochimilco, and Tláhuac). In the first two instances, visible messages or paraphernalia link the group to “Gente del Serio,” a CJNG offshoot allegedly led by Francisco Jaramillo Valdovinos, alias “Serio.” Over the past year, this group has released other videos showcasing its activities in Guerrero. Press reports link “Serio” to Audias Flores—known as “El Jardinero”—a high-ranking CJNG commander who was arrested in April in Nayarit, where he had been based in recent years.
Once a powerhouse, the CJNG now faces an uncertain future. In February, military forces killed Nemesio Oseguera—”El Mencho”—during an operation in the municipality of Tapalpa, Jalisco. In April, marines arrested “El Jardinero,” one of the leading candidates to succeed the leader; the only remaining contenders are Mencho’s stepson, Juan Carlos Valencia (alias “03”), and Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán (“La Rana”), who is linked to the criminal group’s forced recruitment operations in Jalisco, particularly along the corridor between Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta. Questions regarding the severity of the crisis facing the group following these blows dominate the landscape. Its ability to continue expanding, as it did in previous years, remains in doubt.
This explains the caution shown by authorities, who have witnessed similar situations before—propaganda videos from criminal groups announcing their arrival in the capital as a way to project strength to their rivals. In 2022, for example, an alleged faction of La Familia Michoacana did much the same, announcing its presence in another southern region of the city: the Milpa Alta borough.
However, the current situation calls for caution, especially given the CJNG’s criminal track record in the capital—such as the assassination attempt on García Harfuch, who miraculously survived. That attack demonstrated the group’s power and the ease with which it had orchestrated a lethal strike without being detected.
As is often the case, videos from “Gente del Serio” indicate that they have no issue with the authorities, provided the latter do not support the “extortionists.” In the latest video, released this Monday, they declare war on Unión Tepito and the Tláhuac Cartel in order to “restore order” in Mexico City and the State of Mexico. “We are coming for all the extortionists from Unión Tepito and the Tláhuac Cartel… This message is for everyone collecting protection money in our name and seizing homes and land—people like El Yayo and El Macero,” says a man, reading from his cell phone. Unión Tepito is the capital’s veteran mafia—a group that has repeatedly reinvented itself, fueled by the criminal underworld of the city center. The Tláhuac Cartel, meanwhile, represents smaller local gangs from the south.
