Mexico's fastest growing cartel parades weapons in most brazen display of rising power

Carrying sniper rifles, the men could be mistaken for members of Mexico's army.

But a closer look at the video that went viral in Mexico on Friday shows the men are wearing bullet-proof vests emblazoned with the letters “CJNG” – the acronym for the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, one of Mexico's biggest and most violent gangs, which now operates across virtually all of the country.

In the video, the camera slowly pans along the line of men, showing a huge convoy of armoured vehicles and heavily armed men.

The video, which is now being investigated by the authorities, is just the latest show of power from the group whose influence is spreading.

Originally an offshoot of the Sinaloa cartel, the cartel has in recent years massively grown in strength, and increasingly has posed direct challenges to the government. Mexico City's police chief blamed it for an elaborately planned attempt on his life last month.

Almost all of the unformed men wearing bulletproof vests wield assault rifles, and some appear to have belt-fed machine guns or .50 calibre sniper rifles.

Several dozen masked men are heard shouting they are "people of Mencho," a nickname used by the cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera, who has a $10m bounty placed on his head by the US government.

Days before the video was released, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Mexican president, paid a visit to the state of Jalisco, the crime gang's heartland.

He met Jalisco's governor Enrique Alfaro - who says he has received threats from CJNG - to offer the government's support.

Mr Lopez Obrador has pledged to stamp out crime gangs with a non-confrontational approach, but the strategy has so far proved ineffective. Homicides are continuing to rise, and 2020 is expected to be Mexico’s bloodiest year on record.

The video was interpreted as a retort to Mr Lopez Obrador’s visit.

“It’s a war cry to the Mexican government and a good media show and communications strategy that can be useful for them and frighten local authorities who feel very vulnerable.

"Their message is that Cartel Jalisco effectively controls various parts of Mexican territory,” Eduardo Guerrero, a security analyst at Lantia Consultancy, told The Telegraph.

The latest show of force from CJNG also follows the brazen attack on Omar García Harfuch, Mexico City’s police chief, last month.

In the early hours of June 26, armed men opened fire on his convoy in the capital, killing his bodyguards. Mr Harfuch was wounded, but survived, and tweeted from his hospital bed to blame the Jalisco cartel for the attack.

“Generally, this is them trying to draw a line in the sand at a time where there must be deliberations within the Federal Government of where to take it after the attack on Harfuch,” Falko Ernst, a senior analyst in Mexico for the International Crisis Group, told the Telegraph.

Mr Ernst, who has carried out extensive research on criminal organizations in Mexico, told the Telegraph that his sources say the video was filmed in the state of Jalisco.

“This is not representative of the CJNG overall. This is a relatively small elite structure surrounding el Mencho.”