Inside the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), there is growing suspicion that the death of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho,” killed on February 22 in Tapalpa, Jalisco, was the result not only of a military operation but also of internal betrayal.
According to testimonies from members close to the CJNG’s top leader—a secretary and a hitman who survived the operation—the organization had already noticed strange movements among its own commanders before the military deployment that Saturday.
According to what journalist Luis Chaparro revealed on the program Pie de Nota, both sources indicated that the unusual attitude and preparedness of Hugo Gonzalo Mendoza Gaytán, “El Sapo,” on the day of the operation raised suspicions even before “El Mencho’s” death.
“I was in the same cabins (in Tapalpa), but on the other side, the opposite side. That day I went out to deliver a message to “El Sapo.” He was in Talpa de Allende, and that’s where I noticed something strange. I know him well, and it struck me as odd that they were getting ready, as if they already knew what was going to happen,” one of the sources told the reporter.
Although the official version maintains that the CJNG leader was wounded in the confrontation and died during transport, the death certificate places his death in Tapalpa.
One of the sources, whose close relationship with “El Mencho” Luis Chaparro verified through photographs and by comparing his account with a second testimony, indicated that from the very beginning, there was talk within the cartel of a possible betrayal: “We think it was “El Sapo” who set him up, but we don’t know for sure,” he recounted.
