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The leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was buried in a shiny golden casket with a large military presence in the state that gave name to one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels.
A federal official confirmed that Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias “El Mencho,” was buried in a cemetery in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, on Monday.
Dozens of people accompanied the funeral procession, many carrying black umbrellas on a sunny day and with a band playing Mexican regional music known as banda.
The Attorney General’s Office had declined to confirm the location of El Mencho’s burial for “security reasons.”
There had been stepped-up security around a funeral home since Sunday where large flower wreaths had been arriving without a name. Some did include the image of a rooster in flowers and Oseguera Cervantes was sometimes called the “Lord of the Roosters.”
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People follow the hearse carrying the remains of whom authorities identify as the late Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho” (AP)
The Mexican army killed Oseguera Cervantes just over a week ago while attempting to capture him.
He died from multiple bullet wounds, according to the death certificate obtained by The Associated Press.
The killing set off violence in some 20 states. The death certificate fits with a description of the operation to capture Oseguera Cervantes given by Defense Secretary Ricardo Trevilla, who had said that the cartel leader and two bodyguards had been badly wounded in a gunfight with soldiers outside a home in Tapalpa, Jalisco. The three died en route to a hospital.
The certificate specified that Oseguera Cervantes had bullet wounds to his chest, abdomen and legs.
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A police officer escorts the car to the Recinto de Paz cemetery for burial in Guadalajara, Mexico (AP)
His body was taken to Mexico City, where an autopsy was performed before the body was turned over to his family on Saturday, the Attorney General’s Office said.
The death certificate also notes that Oseguera Cervantes was to be buried, standard practice in cases of violent deaths, to allow for additional forensic evidence to be gathered if needed in the future. The document did not say where the burial would take place.
Authorities’ security concerns surrounding the burial location are well-founded. Oseguera Cervantes’ killing set off retaliation by the cartel in numerous states. More than 70 people died between the military operation and the violence that followed. The government has said that security operations continue against other high-ranking members of the cartel.
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His body was taken to Mexico City, where an autopsy was performed, before the body was turned over to his family on Saturday (AP)
It is customary for an air of mystery to surround the burials of drug lords in Mexico, something their supporters take advantage of to try to elevate them to legend. Within hours of El Mencho’s death, there were already ballads, known as narcocorridos, written about his killing.
In Culiacan, in neighboring Sinaloa state, home to a cartel of the same name, there is a cemetery known for its luxury crypts and mausoleums for one-time kingpins like Ignacio Coronel — an old associate of El Mencho — and Arturo Beltrán Leyva.
There was the drug lord who was famously killed twice, Nazario Moreno, leader of the violent and pseudo-religious Knights Templar cartel, who authorities said was killed in 2010, only to kill him for real in 2014.
Sometimes the bodies disappear, like in the case of Heriberto Lazcano, leader of the fearsome Zetas, whose body was stolen in 2012. Or they die under bizarre circumstances, like Amado Carrillo Fuentes, “Lord of the Skies,” who died in a botched plastic surgery.
