(02-23-2026, 05:30 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote:Quote:COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating
The reactions reflect an organizational reflex. They are disciplined, pre-planned, and brutally efficient. When centralized authority is removed from a networked criminal enterprise like CJNG, the first priority is not mourning. It is messaging.
The system must prove it still functions. It must demonstrate reach. It must reassure lieutenants, intimidate rivals, and test the state’s response time.
Remove the head, and the body moves fast.
El Mencho is confirmed dead. But CJNG was never built as a one-man show. It was built with regional commanders, logistics pipelines, and compartmentalized enforcement arms. That architecture is designed for survivability.
The speed of the narco-blockades suggests the contingency plan was already in place.
In recent months, attacks have targeted Mexican police and security forces. In December, a car bomb outside a community police station in Michoacán killed six people, including at least three officers. In February, police in Zacatecas were targeted with explosives.
These are not improvised street tactics. They represent escalation, using methods more commonly associated with insurgent warfare than organized crime. They show that cartel actors are willing to push the envelope, and absorb the consequences.
Organizations like CJNG do not collapse because one node is removed. They adapt.
If succession has been prearranged, consolidation will be swift and ruthless. If it is contested, fragmentation will follow. Factions will compete for territory, revenue streams, and legitimacy. This will produce more violence, as smaller cells fight to establish dominance. Public brutality becomes recruitment and signaling.
The structural incentives, meanwhile, remain unchanged. Synthetic drug demand continues north of the border. Precursor chemicals still flow through ports. Money still launders through shell networks. Weapons still cross the border.
The king is dead.
The system endures.
Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune.
‘El Mencho’ is Dead. The Cartel Mobilizes
clearly written by AI, commentary my ass