Power and dispute--The Territorial Control Fight of CJNG

The increase in homicides in Jalisco during the first half of 2019 coincides with the power conflict between the Jalisco Nueva Generacion Cartel and the so-called Nueva Plaza cartel.

The ravages of the wave of violence in Jalisco are already causing alarms among governments. The number of murders has been increasing throughout this first half of 2019 and everything points to a reconfiguration in the territorial domain of criminal groups, which highlights the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System registers in the entity 1166 victims of intentional homicide between January and May of 2019, contemplated in 902 investigations of the State Attorney's Office, more than 867 records of victims during the same period in 2018.

1,166 victims of intentional homicide have been registered between January and May of 2019

In 2019, the Information System on Victims of Disappearance counts 994 pending to be reported that have been reported so far this year, which are added to the 7500 disappeared persons in Jalisco.

As early as May 2018, the organization HUMINT Data Analysis Human Intelligence, warned of an unprecedented crisis, according to what was stated in the security panorama of Jalisco of its Panorama of Security Risks. There stood out this climate for the conflict between the CJNG and the emergence of the so-called New Plaza Cartel (CNP).

There were 867 records of victims during the same period in 2018

The CJNG has not had any qualms to use extreme violence to confront the state

TERRITORIAL CONTROL, THE FIGHT OF CJNG

Carlos Antonio Flores Pérez, research professor at the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), points out that there are several hypotheses regarding the violence environment that has recently been created in Jalisco.

With respect to [Mencho] CJNG, the specialist points out that one of the theories is that it seeks to force the authorities to support with him, although another could be the reprisal against officials with whom he would eventually have agreements.

He argues that an organization such as the CJNG has been gaining power because of its logic of paramilitary organization and its coercive operation, which becomes fundamental to generate a territorial hegemony.

"Let us also bear in mind that the type of organization we are referring to does not seem to be interested only in the trafficking of illicit psychoactive substances.

"But it also apparently has the intention to cancel the various illegal activities that occur in the territories. This implies a whole logic of different operation, because it implies the permanent reproduction of violence, "explained the CIESAS academic.

This warning about the new configuration of the criminal group had already been reported by the Indigo Report on July 1, as indicated by the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights.

However, recent analyzes such as InSight Crime, Organized Crime Research Center, further detail the nature of the territorial disputes that take place in Jalisco.

"The CJNG has not had any qualms to use extreme violence to confront the state," says InSight clearly in its report Criminal GameChangers 2018, where it details that it is one of the big criminal organizations that won in 2018 in Latin America, together with the Primer Comando de la Capital and the National Liberation Army of Colombia.

THE NEW PLAZA

According to the international organization InSight, members of the Nueva Plaza Cartel (CNP) were part of the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

Its leader is Carlos Enrique Sández, alias "El Cholo", who was one of the trusted men of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias "El Mencho", leader of the CJNG. But his murder was ordered for having ended the life of a cartel financial operator in Puerto Vallarta.

From this separation, in March of 2017, El Cholo separated from the structures of the CJNG and created his own organization with the people he controlled in the Tapatía capital.

However, InSight points out that their presence is not very significant, because they are people who could negotiate their return to the maximum organization.

Currently the dispute between these organizations is in the western area of ​​the metropolis, where the CNP has managed to control areas of municipalities such as Tlaquepaque, Tonalá, Tlajomulco and El Salto, where its economy is limited to drug dealing, theft of auto parts and telephone extortion

YOUNG PEOPLE, CANNON FODDER

The most exposed in the war between organized crime groups are those who are at the bottom of the organizations in conflict.

This suggests that the majority are young, since they are the most recruited.

Local media have reported that the CJNG and the Gulf Cartel are the criminal organizations that include the most children in their ranks.

In Jalisco these range from 8 to 20 years.

The territorial superiority of this cartel is due to the ability to recruit new members as assassins, including through Facebook pages in job offers such as interviewers, bodyguards, security guards or police officers, but then they are moved to others municipalities to be trained, as detailed in the CMDPDH report

As local media have detailed, these hirings have also been made under duress. While InSight notes that the CJNG undertook an aggressive policy of recruiting minors and criminal cells that were left without leadership after the deaths of their leaders.

"When the CJNG wins another groups plaza, those that are left have to be aligned," said one of the sources to InSight Crime.

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