Two members of the National Guard (GN) and three Mexican soldiers were killed on Sunday in two separate attacks allegedly perpetrated by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Jalisco and Michoacán.
Alleged CJNG gunmen killed two National Guard members in the town of Guadalupe del Lerma in the Jalisco municipality of La Barca, the GN told the EFE news agency.
Michoacán | Emboscan a militares en Chilchota; hay tres soldados fallecidos y dos heridos
Un camión de la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (SEDENA) fue atacado por un grupo armado la noche de este domingo en la carretera Morelia-Zamora, a e la Guardia Nacional muertos y dos pic.twitter.com/DzGWPgGgRm
— Es Michoacán Noticia (@EsMichoacanNews) March 17, 2025
The victims belonged to the National Guard’s highway security division and were in a GN vehicle when they came under fire.
Alleged CJNG henchman also shot dead three soldiers in the Michoacán municipality of Chilchota. The troops came under attack at approximately 7:30 p.m. when they were changing the tires on an army vehicle that had driven over road spikes laid by cartel operatives on the highway between Chilchota and Zamora, according to EFE.
At least two other soldiers were wounded in the attack.
The Michoacán Security Ministry said in a social media post late on Sunday night that the state Civil Guard had begun an “inter-institutional operation” aimed at detaining the perpetrators of the attacks in Michoacán and Jalisco. It said the operation spanned the municipalities of Zamora, La Piedad and Jiquilpan.
No arrests had been reported as of Monday morning.
Aristegui Noticias and other media outlets reported that three presumed criminals were killed in clashes on Sunday evening between federal security forces and members of the CJNG, one of six Mexican cartels recently designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the United States government. As of Monday morning, the deaths of the alleged cartel members had not been confirmed by authorities.
Tras la agresión a elementos del #EjércitoMexicano y la @GN_MEXICO_ en Chilchota y Jalisco, con un saldo de cinco oficiales fallecidos y dos heridos, la #GuardiaCivil desplegó un operativo interinstitucional en Zamora, La Piedad y Jiquilpan para localizar a los responsables. pic.twitter.com/E2oJ4YyWZh
— SSP MICHOACÁN (@SSeguridad_Mich) March 17, 2025
Early on Monday, the state security ministry said that the Civil Guard had begun an “inter-institutional operation” in Zamora aimed at detaining the perpetrators of the attacks in Michoacán and Jalisco.
The attacks in Jalisco and Michoacán came less than two weeks after the discovery of clandestine crematoriums on a Jalisco ranch linked to the CJNG. The property in the municipality of Teuchitlán has been variously described as an “extermination camp,” an “apparent mass killing site” and even “Mexico’s Auschwitz.”
A violent evening
According to EFE, the first attack in a series of assaults carried out by the CJNG on Sunday occurred at around 6 p.m. in the town of San Antonio de Rivas in the Jalisco municipality of La Barca.
In San Antonio de Rivas, gunmen opened fire on GN personnel carrying out patrols in the area, EFE said. No deaths or injuries were reported as a result of that attack.
San Antonio de Rivas is located around seven kilometers from Guadalupe del Lerma, where the two GN members were killed. La Barca is located in eastern Jalisco on the border with Michoacán.
EFE reported that security forces also came under fire on Sunday evening in the Michoacán municipalities of Vista Hermosa, Tanhuato and Yurécuaro. All three municipalities are located on the border with Jalisco. Two state police officers were wounded in those attacks, the Milenio newspaper reported.
Alleged CJNG members also hijacked a number of vehicles on Sunday which they subsequently set alight to create fiery roadblocks on highways that link Michoacán to Jalisco and on other several other roads in various Michoacán municipalities.
Criminal groups in Mexico often use so-called “narco-blockades” to prevent additional security forces from reaching areas where they are engaged in confrontations with authorities or other illicit activities.
Attacks attributed to close associate of CJNG leader ‘El Mencho’
Citing preliminary National Guard investigations, EFE reported that CJNG “deputy” Heraclio Guerrero Martínez is responsible for orchestrating the attacks in Jalisco and Michoacán.
EFE said that Guerrero, known as “El Tio Laco,” has been identified as “a man close to” Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the leader of the powerful CJNG.
The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to US $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Oseguera.
On its “wanted” page for El Mencho, the State Department says that the CJNG “was formed in 2009 and has grown into one of the most violent drug cartels in Mexico.”
It says that the cartel “has been assessed to have the highest cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine trafficking capacity in Mexico, and over the past few years, [that capacity] includes the trafficking of fentanyl into the United States.”
Former DEA administrator Anne Milgram said that the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel pose “the greatest criminal threat the United States has ever faced” given the large quantity of fentanyl they illegally ship to the United States.
With reports from EFE, MVS Noticias, Aristegui Noticias, Reforma, DW and Milenio
