Soldiers continue to clash with cartel gunmen a day after Mexico’s military killed a top drug lord

TAPALPA, Mexico (AP) — A day after the Mexican military killed the country’s most powerful drug lord, the picturesque town where it happened was a study in contrasts.

Children whose classes were suspended due to the outbreak of violence that played out in cobbled streets and tourist shops were out in Tapalpa’s main square on Monday. But gunshots also rang out, and just outside the town a dead man lay on the road next to a Jeep that had been sprayed with bullets.

Meanwhile, heavily armed Mexican security forces continued their battle with cartel gunmen after the killing that sparked a surge in violence and put the country on edge. Cartel fighters continued to block roads as smoke rose on the outskirts of the town in Jalisco state.

More than 70 people have died in the effort to capture Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes and its aftermath, authorities said Monday. Known as “El Mencho,” he was the notorious leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Mexico.

The body count taken by security officials includes security forces, suspected cartel members and others. Officials did not provide details, and the circumstances of most of the deaths were unclear.

Fast growing poster

Oseguera Cervantes was the boss of one of the fastest growing criminal networks in Mexico, known for trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine to the United States and launching attacks against Mexican government officials. The organization responded to his death with widespread violence, including setting up more than 250 roadblocks across 20 states and burning vehicles.

The capo died after a shootout with the Mexican military on Sunday. Mexican Minister of Defense, Gen. Ricardo Trevilla, said on Monday that authorities had tracked down one of his romantic partners to his hideout in Tapalpa.

The cartel leader and two bodyguards fled to a wooded area where they were seriously wounded in a firefight. They were arrested and died en route to Mexico City, Trevilla said.

Elsewhere in Jalisco, soldiers killed another high-ranking cartel member who Trevilla said was coordinating violence and offering more than $1,000 for each soldier killed.

Mexican authorities reported that 25 members of the Mexican National Guard were killed in six separate attacks, while some 30 criminal suspects were killed in Jalisco and four others in the neighboring state of Michoacan. A prison guard and an agent from the public prosecutor’s office were also killed.

The White House confirmed that the US provided intelligence support to the operation to capture the cartel leader and applauded Mexico’s military for taking down a man who was one of the most wanted criminals in both countries.

Violence emerges in Jalisco

Mexico had hoped the deaths of the world’s biggest fentanyl traffickers would ease pressure from the Trump administration to do more against the cartels, but many people were anxious as they waited to see the powerful cartel’s response.

As the threat of more violence loomed, several Mexican states canceled school on Monday, while local and foreign governments warned their citizens to stay indoors.

Steve Perkins, 57, visited Puerto Vallarta with his wife and friends. The couple was due to return to Broken Arrow, Okla., on Monday when their flight was canceled.

Perkins said he and his wife were drinking coffee on the terrace of their downtown hotel room when they heard rounds of explosions and gunshots and saw smoke billowing over the city around 8:30 a.m.

“The whole downtown area in the bay was just covered in thick black smoke, pretty scary,” Perkins said. “And then at some point we heard screams. We heard a lot of screams … So then we started to get really worried.”

Perkins and his wife exchanged their sneakers for running shoes in case “we have to run for it”.

“My wife called our kids to say goodbye if we were never going to see them again,” Perkins said.

The US Embassy said via X that its staff in eight cities and in the state of Michoacan will shelter in place and work remotely on Monday. It warned American citizens in many parts of Mexico to do the same.

Much fear what comes next

In Guadalajara, the state capital, some took to the streets to work and buy supplies, a notable change from Sunday, when Mexico’s second-largest city was almost completely shut down as terrified residents stayed home.

More than 1,000 people were trapped overnight in Guadalajara’s zoo, sleeping in buses. Families were left stranded and unable to return home to nearby states such as Zacatecas and Michoacan, said Luis Soto Rendón, the zoo’s director.

“We decided to let people stay in the zoo for their safety,” Soto said. “We have everyone from small children to senior citizens.”

José Luis Ramírez, a 54-year-old therapist, was in a long line of people waiting outside a pharmacy, one of the few businesses open Monday in Guadalajara. Families bought food, medicine, water, diapers and baby formula from pharmacies through a chained door.

It was the first time Ramírez had left home since the violence broke out.

“We must not think fearfully, but be cool-headed, as they say, and take things as they come,” he said.

Those who had to work carefully moved through the city.

Irma Hernández, a 43-year-old hotel security guard in Guadalajara, usually takes public transportation to work, but buses weren’t running, and she had no way to cross the city. Her bosses organized a private car to pick her up. Her family, she said, stayed at home, too afraid to leave.

“I’m worried because I don’t know how to get home if something happens,” she said.

Trump has pushed Mexico to fight fentanyl

US President Donald Trump has demanded that Mexico do more to fight the smuggling of fentanyl, threatening to impose more tariffs or take unilateral military action if the country does not show results.

The US State Department has offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of El Mencho. The Jalisco New Generation cartel began operating around 2009.

In February 2025, the Trump administration designated the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization. It has been one of the most aggressive cartels in its attacks on the military – including on helicopters – and is a pioneer in launching explosives from drones and installing mines.

At a roadblock Monday on the outskirts of Tapalpa, 25-year-old Joel Ramírez and two friends waited for soldiers to remove a roadblock of tree limbs. He hauls things in his bakkie for a living and has not been able to get home since Sunday’s violence.

“Everything seems calmer, but we were almost there and got stuck,” he said. “We are afraid.”

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Verza reports from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Fabiola Sánchez in Mexico City and Juan Lozano in Houston also contributed to this report.

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