Anabel Hernández: redes de corrupción y protección permitieron el ascenso de ‘El Mencho’

Anabel Hernández, look, you, Anabel, we have talked about the delivery to the United States of the Mayo Zambada, and now we are talking about the capture and death of the Mencho, of the two great characters of organized crime in Mexico and the world. Welcome, Anabel. Good morning, how are you? How are you, Carmen? Good morning and good morning to the audience. Nice to greet you. Likewise, from yesterday's event, what can be said this morning?

Well, look, Carmen, I think it's important to remind the audience that both El Mayo Zambada and Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, alias El Mencho, are two sadly famous drug traffickers in the world, but they are made in the United States. El Mayo and El Mencho did not start their criminal careers in Mexico. El Mayo and El Mencho started their criminal careers in an important way in the United States. It was that North American system that allowed them, sorry, I feel like I'm getting a call.

It's that North American system, that these two powerful drug traffickers, who later, over the years, became very powerful, found in illegality, in criminality, a window of opportunity. In Mayo Zambada, in California, by the hand of his brother-in-law, a Cuban, who is the one who,

Nico, alias Nico, who is the one who introduces him and starts to put it in the drug trafficking and then in distribution on a larger scale in the United States. And the same story is the Mencho. Curiously, it is also in California where the Mencho begins to make his pininos.

And this is important to remember because, although it is true, in Mexico we have a disaster in matters in corruption, which is what allows these leaders to reach the level they do, it's also true that in the United States there is a whole context that is not talked about much, which also allows this type of crime to exist. In fact, today, Carmen, and I think it's also another important topic to talk about, yes, there is talk of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel,

but honestly, there is the penetration of this organization in California that could well be called the California New Generation Cartel. That's why, not even many months ago, they captured the son-in-law of the Mexican. I have been talking for months, because I have been particularly investigating this criminal organization for months, and soon a product of these investigations will be released.

But I have been talking since last year with the forces of the order of California, Carmen. And well, I hope at some point, maybe on Friday's table, I can show you this, how there are vehicles in California, with California plates, in different cities, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, where they circulate with decals of the four letters, as I said, the Carte Jalisco Nueva Generación. where they circulate with the four-letter calcomanias,

as the Jalisco Cartel New Generation says. And they happily circulate on the freeway. There are different, or the marijuana production industry in California, for example, is a marijuana industry that, despite being legal, more than 60%, 70% of the market is still illegal.

Why? Because the Jalisco Cartel, along with other Asian communities, particularly Chinese, in different reserves in the United States of California, have begun to build this type of hydroponic marijuana crops, which makes it very productive because they are in the illegal trade and sell this drug at a very low cost. These are just a few examples of how, although it is true that in Mexico this terrible crime has been gestated, this terrible crime, there is a great complicity and co-participation

both by consumers and in one way or another, authorities at different levels in the United States. I don't think complicities like Genaro, García Luna, or characters like these, I mean, state secretaries, but obviously, yes, sheriffs, police chiefs,

probably some level of prosecutors, etc., so that this type of crime can flourish in this way, Carmen. So I think it's important to be able to emphasize this, because I also think it's important to point this out, because while it's true that in the last few hours in Mexico the first reaction of the MENCHO guests

has been reflected in their murder, I would not rule out, honestly, and I have been in communication with authorities in cities, states, where the Jalisco Cartel is present in the United States, like Texas, which is also another state where they operate very, very strongly, very, very penetrated, very, very dispersed, infiltrated, veryrated in the community, like what we see in some towns in Mexico.

Well, there is an alert that there could also be some type of violent reaction, some type of reaction by the question of the case at this moment is, what can come from the criminal organization itself? Is the head cut off in this way? And where can the re-arrangement of internal forces lead? where it could lead. Carmen, I think that at least in the investigations I've been doing in the last few months, and I've read the newspapers, the media in the last few hours, I think there's a coincidence in who are the main leaders of the Mecho that would be disputing, let's say, the leadership of this criminal organization, Carmen,

which today has a presence in more than 40 countries on the planet, and where, according to the latest reports, intelligence reports from the DEA, it has at least 19,000 members. That's what we're talking about, that this cake, which is the Jalisco New Generation cartel that will enter into a dispute today,

who will keep the cake? We're talking about 19,000 members who, one way or another, will have a kind of vote, to call it that, of who will be the new leader.

And among these leaders is Hugo Gonzalo Gaitán, a.k.a. El Zapo, Juan Carlos Valencia González, the stepson of the Mencho, a.k.a. El 03,

and there is Audias Flores Silva, the gardener. I would say that among these three characters is the successor of the Mencho. And it is striking that automatically, it is not his stepson, the 03,

who can be the heir to the criminal group, because unlike other criminal organizations, in the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, for example, like the Sinaloa type, well, there is the Mayo, and automatically it is assumed that the successor is their children.

There is the Guzman and automatically it is assumed that the successors will be part of the children. In the case of the New Calisco Generation, no, because they have a more military structure and they have more of a structure, and I'm sorry to say it in this word, because it's using a positive thing, a negative thing, but meritocracy, let's say. It's who has more merits,

not who has a bloodline or kinship, who is going to stay with the New Generation Jalisco Cartel. And that's where the dispute of these three men, where there are those who say, a few weeks ago I was able to have much more information about Audias Flores Silva, a.k.a. El Jardinero,

and there are those who say that their drug trafficking operation is of such magnitude that even in the armed forces, in the armies, in corrupt authorities, it was becoming even bigger in economy, in money, in economic power, it was becoming bigger than the Mexican itself. So, but as far as we know, the frog and its offspring, we would say, had a greater emotional closeness.

What I think, Carmen, is that what we saw yesterday is just a small tip of the iceberg of what can be expected, not only of reactions inside and outside of Mexico, of the menchus' ghosts about their murder, about this death, but also the internal dispute that will arise to stay with this criminal franchise. And this dispute, I am told by sources of intelligence, both from the US and Mexico,

can be a real massacre. A real massacre in a timing, Carmen, we would say, there is never a timing for this type of war, of course, but in a terrible timing for Mexico, because we are at the dawn of the inauguration of the World Cup, Carmen, where Jalisco, the very state of J these images have circulated around the world widely. From yesterday to today, we have received many messages from outside, from journalist colleagues who ask us, who are doubt, because it is a character who was identified as the most wanted in the world.

That's what he was called in yesterday's coverage.

Well, Carmen, one who was the most wanted in the world, but who in Mexico had leaders, had mayors, he had trade unions, he had deputies, and he even had officials up to the highest level, even the federal government, who served his criminal interests. A drug trafficker who in a strict sense was the most wanted, like Mayo Zambada and others, but the Mexican government had not been able to capture. And in this case, we should not be dismayed or minimize that this capture occurs, again, in this framework of pressure from the US government,

from this sword of Adamocles that we have been talking about for months at the Friday's Analysis Table, and in the face of a direct interference by the US government in this operation. There are even, Carmen, and I dare to say it because I have been able to corroborate the information

with more than two sources of information that are familiar with the subject, there are even those who speak not only about the participation in information and intelligence that the Mexican army has in this operation, but there are people who speak, which is not a recognized thing, let's say, officially by the government of Mexico and, but also there would have been a type of physical participation, I mean, in situ, in territory,

in the operation, in the hunt for the mangrove, which is telling us that the Mexican government did not act on its own, that it did not act in a, let's say, voluntary way, but it acted again against the wall, by force. I was listening to the comment of one of your radio listeners,

who said that they hoped that the governors would have been informed, and that they could have avoided all these blockades. Well, no. The problem is that there is no such thing. The problem is that there is corruption in Mexico and there is the penetration of these criminal organizations in all government structures that no.

This type of operation, so that they have the success they had yesterday, it really requires that it be a very, very, very narrow core of people who can have access to this information precisely so that it does not come to the MENCHO and force it to move out of place,

as had happened in the last months. I have been hearing this information about the MENCHO's steps for at least a month now from an informant from the federal government. They were already looking,

getting closer, I imagine, with different clues given by the US government. So I think that these images of a Mexico on fire

that are turning the world around is sadly the portrait of a Mexico where the territorial control is held by the narcos and not the authorities. An organized crime that has grown to this level because of complicity, Carmen. There is no Mayan, no Chapo, no Arturorán Leiva, nor Mencho, nor anyone. There is no criminal that can reach that dimension of power.

20 states of the Republic where there were drug blockades in a coordinated, strategic, coordinated way. There is no way this can happen without protection chandeliers to these criminal organizations. No more, no less. And well, we already heard this morning the Secretary of Defense, Ricardo Trevilla, explain

what the operation was and well, he gave some details. For example, that a sentimental couple was the key, a sentimental couple was key for this operation that cost the capture and death of Mr. Oseguera. It is an important fact the way he explained, that by the way, he had a breakdown there of the secretary when he spoke about this sentimental couple that the intelligence tracking led to this point. He was with that sentimental couple and stayed in the place, the man was in the place where he was already located. And that was, according to the secretary is basically his perdition. An information that came from the US government and that was provided by one of the extradited narcos

in what is going on in the last year by the government of Claudia Chimba. It is the information I have, it is information that I imagine is a kind of intestinal betrayal within the New Generation Jalisco Cartel. El Mencho is a man who really handled at least three security circles. Those three security circles were in force in this place where he was. The information I have is that he was with this sentimental partner,

one of his sentimental partners, since at least February 14, 15. This drug trafficker came out very romantic, very confident, of course. He felt so safe in that place that he trusted. He trusted and surely did not expect that the US government was already following in the footsteps of this sentimental couple. And that's how they manage to capture the man.

And I would stop at something else, Carmen, which seemed to me, from all the information and journalistic contributions I was hearing yesterday, I don't know about you, I imagine you did, because I'm telling you, this... This information that journalist Joan Grilo has...

Yes, tremendous.

...about the fact that the Mexo would have been executed by the government of Mexico and that it would have been a decision of the government of Mexico and not the United States. Beware of that. I think it's information that I, at this moment, have not been able to corroborate. I will try to corroborate it, but knowing that Joan is a journalist who handles serious information, very serious, for many years on this, I would take it, I would take this revelation into consideration.

We would be talking, if this is the dynamic, we would be talking about the fact that it is not the first kill them all, as former President López Obrador would say, an extrajudicial execution. It would not be the first in the mandate of Claudio Schembach. We had already commented on this many weeks ago with you, Carmen. Also, Pedro Insunza, Colonel, alias El Chon, son of Pedro Insunza, Colonel, alias El Don El Son, son of Pedro Insunza Noriega, a member

of the Chapo Isidro faction, would have also been executed by the Mexican government when he was already detained under the tutelage of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic and the Secretariat of the Navy in that case, and he also decided to finish him off. The information that I had obtained from the Navy's Secretariat

is that they had decided to finish off the pig for the very sensitive information he had. That is, he was better dead than extradited by telling the dirty secrets of officials linked to this criminal organization in the current sex scene. And I think that what Joan is saying is important, because obviously you decide,

from my point of view and experience, you decide to end a drug trafficker, because it would be very uncomfortable for you to talk. It's a whole topic. Why not? I propose, Anabel, that we recover for this broadcast, now, at this time of the morning, so that we recover what yesterday,

in the special coverage that Aristegui had on Sunday because of these events, what Joan told us. of I was looking, waiting to see what information I could get, once it was confirmed that the ambulance had arrived at that place with the remains of the blind man. And we saw how Yohan Grillo wrote yesterday in X the following, Mexican troops kill Mencho and his thugs set fire to the country. The Mexican forces said that Meno would not be detained alive.

Or what are the probabilities, he says, that three members of the wounded cartel die in the transport. We read this, what he wrote, Yohan, who, as you say, is a very well-known and recognized for a very extensive work over many years in these matters and we are looking for it. And this was part of what Anabel told us. Let's listen and I'll be back with you.

Yes, correct. This information came to me in the morning after it came out that the manchurian had died. The intelligence, or a very important part, came from the United States, where the MENSHO was. The decision that he was not going to come back alive was taken in Mexico. It was a source close to the security forces in Mexico. When the military came out,

the army came out saying that he died in the transfer, but with two companions, with two other people from the cartel. So, what is the chance, what is likely is that three people have been injured, injuries, that all died in the transfer. is the to So there are many factors that lead to this. I think the big thing is, it's sad to say that Mexico is living a form of war with this violence. And there aren't many people who are going to be complaining. Yes, it was the fact that the soldiers threw him in the transport. Not many people are going to complain about that in the situation. It is sad to say, but this is what is happening in the country.

That's what I was telling you yesterday, Anabel Hernández, because what she says is very strong, because she is proposing that the decision that she did not come alive after this operation was a decision that was taken in Mexico. I don't know, I didn't register it. We are on the air. If the Secretary of Defense explained how he died on the way from Jalisco to the capital of the country,

I think that has not been touched. No, I was reading what the Secretary General described, and it doesn't come not in his chronology, when did he lose his life, when did he lose his life, the man has not gone to know the autopsy, the necropsy. I think that in this type of event all this information should be advertised.

I don't say specifically photos of the corpse and that kind of thing, because it probably is not the most indicative, but yes, a necropsy, yes, a certainty of exactly in what conditions Carmen died. I would remember here another famous, sadly famous, Mexican drug trafficker who I had just a few months ago the confirmation that he was executed.

He has not fought in a confrontation with the authorities. And that was Arturo Beltran Leiva in that infamous December 2009 in a tower in the heart of Cuernavaca. You will remember that what the Navy Secretariat tells us is that he arrives at this department, if I'm not mistaken, it is the Altitude Tower,

arrives and in a confrontation Arturo Beltrán Leiva dies, and then the death of Arturo Beltrán-Leiva circulates, practically buried with his pants down, and with a series of bloodied dollars on his body. The information I have obtained is that the execution, in this case, of Arturo Beltrán Leiva, was paid by El Chapo and the Mayan Zambada to the forces of the Navy.

That is, he would have paid not to capture him, but to execute him in that case. So we are talking about, from my point of view, what Mexican society wants is justice, not revenge. What the Mexican citizenship wants is accountability. Not just for the MENCHO, which is just a link in a huge chain of the criminal system.

They want accountability, not just for the mayor of Tequila, Morenista, who was part of the MENCHO's hostages. We want every link in this criminal system to fall. And for it to fall, we need the information that these drug traffickers have. Why is the US government so successful sometimes in its fight against criminal groups, against drug lords? Why is it capable of putting the Mayan Sambada against the wall and forcing him to declare himself guilty?

Well, because it has a series of witnesses. The vast majority of drug lords are not saints, they are not the angels of the guard that will come to tell us how bad the drug dealers are, they have to be from that same clan, people from that same world, who can testify, yes, I saw, yes, I paid, yes, I helped, etc., etc. That's how it works.

If it's true, I repeat, there is still a hypothesis, it would be good to get more information. I imagine that Joan will be looking for more information about it. And well, I will do my own thing. If it is confirmed that the Mencho was executed, it is a great damage to justice. It is a great damage to the justice of Mexico and it's a great damage to the victims of these infamous drug traffickers.

Because there will be less clarity about who was the manchurian, and who helped him to operate, what are his chains of command, etc. I think that's very important information, that a part of it was taken by the manchurian to the grave. But I would say that if the intention was really that the wide networks of corruption woven by the Jalisco Cartel were not known in the United States

in previous decades, and in the current one, then they forgot that not many months ago, the president of Mexico also extradited a brother of the MENCHO, who has important knowledge of many of these uncomfortable secrets. So yes, maybe they could have silenced the MENCHO,

but they won't be able but completely bury the corruption networks, they won't be able to do that. We'll have to see what the reaction of the US government is. Apparently, at least there are congratulations, at least publicly. We'll have to see if under the table,

the Americans don't start asking themselves why the MENCHO is dead. And why the MENCHO is dead. That is one of the main questions at this moment, depending on what we are analyzing here. And yes, indeed, Ian Grillo leaves this open question about whether, as John says, the decision not to bring the MENCHO back to life

after the operation was taken in Mexico. The question in any case would be why, what would be the reason in any case that from Mexico this whole matter would be defined and decided. What is clear, according to what the US and Mexican authorities have recognized, is that there was intelligence collaboration from the US, but that the operation was planned and executed by the Mexican army. Secretary Trevilla himself explains that it is usual that whoever is going to do the operation is the one who plans it.

And if whoever did the operation was the by the army, he says that the army planned it, although the collaboration of the United States is also included in the plot, including the identification of this key woman in the capture of the leader of the Calisco New Generation cartel. Carmen, the reality, honestly, the information I have is another, that it would not only have been an exchange of intelligence information, but there would have been a much more direct intervention, let's say, by the US government. And it wouldn't be the first time, I doubt, really, that the government of Claudia Sheinbaum or that General Trevilla, with all due respect, will admit something of that size at a national level.

If the case of Ryan Wedding, the government of Mexico, still resists, resists recognizing that it is directly the FBI, an operation commanded by the FBI director, who goes and traps Wedding, this, in quotation marks, Canadian guy, as they called him. Well, obviously we will not be thinking,

Carmen, or you, or me, or I think the vast majority of the audience, that Claudia Sheinbaum goes to Vanessa and if they don't know what, what do they think? That it's true that the Americans come and operate and do and undo. They're not going to tell us. And I think it will be one of those unknowns that will remain. We will find out later, because in the end, these things

we don't find out. I remembered it the other time, precisely with the Wedding case. I remembered it. Oh, my partner, Jesus Esquivel, excuse me, Jesus Esquivel, where he talked about the operation in Mazatlán in 2014 to capture Chapo Guzmán. The Americans entered the tower of Mazatlán, they took Emma out of bed, and they captured El Chapo.

And that's how the story went. There are books about some of the Americans who participated directly in this activity. So I really, with all due respect, I don't think it was the way the official version says.

I think I trust more the information that my informants have sent me. I don't think it was the way the official version, I think I trust more the information that my informants have sent from both countries, that there was a much more direct intervention from the US government.

And in any case, the question remains, in what circumstances is it really when, let's say, the worm stops breathing? What is the time? what is the circumstance, what is the death certificate, what does it say, what is the cause of death,

the necrosis, you have to know. But regardless of this, Carmen, I think it is not through extrajudicial executions that this terrible problem terrible drug cartels problem will be solved.

I really don't think so. I understand that there may be members of the audience or victims of this criminal organization who do not agree with me, but it is not through extrajudicial executions that this can be solved.

And we return to the point, if that was the case, I don't think the government of Claudia Sheinbaum will declare it, will recognize it, because imagine if the country was set on fire in a matter of hours, because the head of this criminal organization died,

well, let's imagine what the revenge would be if it is known that he was executed. And I'm happy with this because I think that in this dynamic of internal dispute between Cartagena and New Generation about who will be the new leader, part of this is to gain the trust of the other members of the criminal organization.

And part of gaining this trust could be to see who executes more violent actions to avenge, in quotation marks, the boss. And I think that this consideration should be taken into account. Both the US government,

the Canadian government, where there is also an important presence of the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, the Mexican government, the Colombian government, where the New Generation Jalisco Cartel

has a very broad, how do you say, territorial distribution in the areas of cocaine production, where they work directly with the FARC. All this dynamic of mines that has been in Mexico in the last 8 or 10 years, attributed to the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, comes from this association, this brotherhood that it has made with many members and ex-members of the FARC, who have directly terrorist techniques. And I think that we should not diminish, although we should not alarm, we don't have to alarm, we don't have to alarm the movement, we don't have to lose sight of these important alliances and this important technical capacity,

because not only does brute force be required there, but technical capacity is required to be able to commit acts of terrorist level, and the Jalisco Cartel has that capacity thanks to what it has learned from these associates of the FARC. No more, no less. Well, this is the panorama, Anabel Hernández. We will see what happens because this cartel and this individual who died in this circumstance, still to be known more clearly, has led a very diverse criminal organization that, in addition to drug trafficking,

has had implications in the subject of trafficking of people, migrants, of course the huachicol, which is a very important issue in the Jalisco Cartel, Nueva Generación, and there is also the issue of the shared times. We should not stop to see that just a few days ago, and that's why it's important to see that it's Nayarit and that it's Puerto Vallarta, two places where the US alert is for its citizens, because there are thousands of people who have bought shared times in a network that is now exposed because the designation of the Jalisco Cartel,

New Generation, as a fundamental part or the main axis of this network, which is sanctioned just now by the United States and which has a tourist and real estate financial structure, well, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, included several people and 17 companies related to the Jalisco Cartel. That happened last week, not long ago.

And they are victims, thousands of people who would have been defrauded in this scheme, where the Jalisco Cartel Nueva Generación is linked as one of its criminal activities. I leave this data due to the closeness in times of this matter, which is also part of this criminal activities. I leave that data due to the proximity in times of this issue, which is also part of this criminal structure. And how to forget, Carmen, the extermination camps, like the one in Teotitlan, Jalisco, whose victims still have neither truth nor justice. It would have been a good idea for the MENCHO to stay alive, to have the sufficient resources to collaborate and to clarify the disappearance of hundreds,

tens of thousands of people in Mexico, a good part of it in the hands of the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, and just to make one last note, one of the members of the New Generation of the Jalisco Cartel that is currently in leadership is Hugo Gonzalo Gaitán, alias El Zapo, to whom the infamous Isaguirre Ranch is attributed in Tuchitlan, Jalisco.

No more, no less. Well, yes, all this together.

Anabel, a big hug and we'll keep talking.

Have a good day.

Thank you, see you later. Thank you, see you later.

Thank you for being here.