How El Mencho’s death in Mexico could make drug cartel violence worse

There have been times throughout history when a single event is so significant that it snowballs into international news. Think of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the 9/11 terrorist attacks or the killing of Osama bin Laden a decade later.

For Mexico, the killing of drug lord Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, otherwise known as El Mencho, in a Mexican security operation in the state of Jalisco last weekend was certainly one of those moments. The successful targeting of Mexico’s most violent and powerful narcotrafficker is arguably the country’s biggest tactical success since security forces recaptured the infamous Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán a decade ago.

Yet in a cruel twist of irony, Mencho’s demise could also make the problem of narcotrafficking even worse than it is today.