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As recently as 2005, it was not only doable to drive from the U.S. cities of El Paso or San Diego to Mexico City—it was safe.

That’s no longer the case. Since 2006, Mexico has descended into a drug war that has made large parts of the country unsafe to travel in. That reality was on stark display on Sunday after Mexican troops killed the country’s most notorious drug boss. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” commanded the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which responded by killing government forces in attacks across Mexico. Some areas popular with tourists were impacted by roadblocks and car burnings.

As recently as 2005, it was not only doable to drive from the U.S. cities of El Paso or San Diego to Mexico City—it was safe.

That’s no longer the case. Since 2006, Mexico has descended into a drug war that has made large parts of the country unsafe to travel in. That reality was on stark display on Sunday after Mexican troops killed the country’s most notorious drug boss. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” commanded the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which responded by killing government forces in attacks across Mexico. Some areas popular with tourists were impacted by roadblocks and car burnings.

Mexican forces killed El Mencho at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s orders—under U.S. pressure and with Washington’s intelligence support, but without U.S. troops. A U.S. military operation on Mexican soil is Sheinbaum’s red line in dealings with Washington, which appears to be eager to turn U.S. firepower against Mexican drug cartels.

In taking action against a major cartel leader, Sheinbaum is walking a tightrope. She has reversed her longtime stance against the U.S.-led war on drugs, which many Mexicans see as having initiated their long-standing insecurity crisis. (Anger about the war on drugs was a major reason that Sheinbaum’s Morena party first came to power in 2018.) At the same time, Sheinbaum is attempting to safeguard Mexican sovereignty and forestall the kind of intervention that U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch.

The Trump administration welcomed Mexico’s attack on CJNG and was quick to claim its share of the credit for El Mencho’s elimination. Yet the operation’s benefit to ordinary Mexicans is far less clear. The cartel’s reaction was swift and vicious. Actual casualty numbers are unclear, though at least 25 members of Mexico’s National Guard are reported to have been killed, with a total death toll of more than 70.........

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