You can smell it, can't you? That specific, acrid scent of burnt rubber and fear. It is the distinctive smell of **Guadalajara cartel violence** this week. It is the smell of failure.

Here we go again. Another day, another city turned into a war zone during a **CJNG rampage**. The news tells us that violence "looms." That is a fancy way of saying that the **Jalisco New Generation Cartel** decided to set the city on fire because their feelings got hurt. And why did they do it? Because the government decided to try and do its job for five minutes.

The story is always the same, repeating like a bad SEO loop. The army or the police decide they want to catch a big fish. This time, reports suggest a security operation targeting **Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes**, famously known as **El Mencho**. He is the big boss. The head honcho. The face driving the **Mexican drug war** search traffic. The government thinks that if they catch the guy on the poster, the crime will stop.

Let me tell you something: that is the stupidest idea in the history of ideas. It is like thinking that if you fire the manager at a burger joint, the kitchen will stop making burgers. It won't. The cooks are still there. The grill is still hot. The customers are still hungry. But the politicians and the generals love this game. They love the **Kingpin Strategy**. It makes for great headlines. "We almost got him!" they say. "We are winning!"

They are not winning. They are just poking a bear with a very short stick. And when you poke a bear—or a paramilitary organization like the CJNG—the bear does not apologize. The bear swipes.

So the army moved in, and the cartel hit back with **narcobloqueos**. They didn't hire lawyers. They didn't write angry letters to the editor. They hijacked buses. They set trucks on fire to block the roads. They shut down the city. This is not just violence. It is marketing. It is a billboard made of fire. The cartel is telling everyone, "We own these streets. You just live here."

And what does the government do? They scramble. They panic. They issue statements asking people to stay calm. Stay calm? Your car is on fire, but please, stay calm. The audacity of these people in suits is amazing. They sit in their safe offices with armed guards and tell regular people to relax while the sky turns black with smoke.

The people of Guadalajara are the only ones who matter here, and they are the only ones nobody cares about. They are just trying to go to work. They are trying to get their kids from school. They are trying to buy groceries. Instead, they have to dodge burning blockades. They have to worry if a bullet is going to fly through their window. They are pawns in a game played by two groups of greedy idiots.

On one side, you have the cartels. They are monsters, obviously. They kill for money. They ruin lives for profit. They are greed in its purest, ugliest form.

On the other side, you have the state. The politicians. The commanders. They are monsters too, just in better clothes. They allow this to happen. For years, they have taken bribes, looked the other way, or played these stupid games of "cops and robbers" that only get innocent people killed. They need the war on drugs. Without it, they wouldn't have big budgets. They wouldn't have power. If the crime actually stopped, a lot of powerful people would be out of a job.

So, the cycle continues. The army raids a house. The cartel burns a bus. The people hide in their homes. Then, a few days pass. The smoke clears. The politicians give a speech about "law and order." The cartel goes back to selling drugs. And everyone waits for the next time.

It is hopeless. It is a business arrangement disguised as a war. The cartel wants to make money. The government wants to look like they are doing something. The only people losing are the ones watching their city burn.

**El Mencho** is still out there, or maybe he isn't. It doesn't matter. There is always another Mencho. There is always another raid. And there is always another fire. Humans never learn. We just keep doing the same stupid things and expecting a different result. Pass me a drink. I'm tired of watching this movie.

***

### References & Fact-Check * **Original Event**: Following a security operation by federal forces in Jalisco, cartel members burned vehicles and blocked roads (narcobloqueos) in the Guadalajara metropolitan area. * **Primary Source**: [BBC News: Threat of further violence looms after Mexican cartel rampage](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgml2djwwvno?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss) * **Context**: The violence is attributed to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in response to rumored military actions against their leadership structure, potentially involving Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes ("El Mencho").