He ordered the blocking of roads and communication routes, the burning of cars and other vehicles, attacks on barracks and businesses, and the sowing of chaos after the military operation that on Sunday decapitated the dangerous Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) by killing its leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho.”
His right-hand man, Hugo César Macías Ureña, alias “El Tuli” or “El Tulipán,” was identified by Mexican authorities as the coordinator of armed cells and financial operator for the CJNG, and as the mastermind behind the blockades and riots that followed “El Mencho’s” death, in which 25 members of the National Guard and three civilians died.
Macías Ureña himself also lost his life in the clashes with security forces, as did 33 other alleged criminals linked to the CJNG.
“With central military intelligence, we also obtained information that Hugo ‘H’, alias ‘El Tuli’, who was the logistics and financial operator and ‘El Mencho’s’ main confidant, was in El Grullo, Jalisco,” stated General Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, Secretary of National Defense, at the press conference detailing the timeline of the operation against the CJNG.
From El Grullo, “he was coordinating roadblocks, vehicle fires, attacks on military installations, the National Guard, and, in short, businesses, government facilities, and so on. He was also offering 20,000 pesos for each soldier who killed all the members of this criminal group,” revealed the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch.
In response, an airmobile unit of Special Forces from the Paratrooper Rifle Brigade was deployed, explained Trevilla Trejo.
A bus set on fire during the riots in Mexico.
Image source: Reuters
Upon being located, “El Tuli” attempted to escape in a vehicle and allegedly opened fire on the officers deployed to capture him. The officers responded by killing the man considered one of the closest associates of “El Mencho,” also known as “The Lord of the Roosters.”
Who was “El Tuli”?
Hugo César Macías Ureña appears in ministerial investigations and intelligence reports as one of the operational commanders closest to the now-deceased Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, according to the newspaper “Milenio.”
This is even revealed in several narcocorridos dedicated to “El Tuli,” a popular musical genre in some parts of Mexico that glorifies drug traffickers and provides details about their lives.
In Martín Castillo’s “El Tulipán,” it is noted, for example, that “El 5,” as Macías Ureña was also known, is “a very trusted friend of that Lord of the Roosters; through thick and thin, they have never let him down, and in the worst battles, they have always come out on top.”
“I won’t say what he does for a living, I don’t want any misunderstandings,” continues Martín Castillo, “but he is Mencho’s friend and loves his sons very much.”
“El Tuli” was, apparently, identified as the direct head of shock troops with influence in territorial operations, according to information provided by arrested hitmen and leaked documents, as reported by “Milenio.”
Authorities clarified that Macías Ureña had not been officially named “El Mencho’s” successor, but he quickly assumed operational control of the cartel after the leader’s death.
Source: bbc
