In Mexico, a cartel is taking over: Jalisco New Generation

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s fastest-rising cartel, the Jalisco New Generation gang, has a reputation for ruthlessness and violence unlike any since the fall of the old Zetas cartel. In parts of the country it is fighting medieval-style battles, complete with fortified redoubts, to expand nationwide, from the outskirts of Mexico City, into the tourist resorts around Cancun, and along the northern border.

Jalisco so likes violence and heavy armament that U.S. prosecutors said its operatives tried to buy belt-fed M-60 machine guns in the United States, and once brought down a Mexican military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.

But Jalisco is also mounting a propaganda campaign, using videos and social media to threaten rivals while promising civilians that it won’t prey on them with extortion and kidnappings. It is a promise that cartels in Mexico have long made, and always broken. But Jalisco’s onslaught is so powerful that the cartel appears to have persuaded some Mexicans, especially those who are tired of local gangs, to accept control by one large, powerful cartel.

“It seems like the Jalisco New Generation group is taking over everywhere,” said a priest in the western city of Apatzingan. “It seems like they allow people to work, and they don’t prey on civilians, they don’t kidnap, they don’t steal vehicles, they just go about their drug business.”

The priest, who is not being identified to prevent reprisals, would rather not have any gang in town. But one of his parishioners was recently kidnapped, raped and killed by members of a local gang, the Viagras, even after her family paid a ransom; locals are so sick of that gang they’d rather have anybody else move in.

He is not the only one. A restaurant owner in the central state of Guanajuato says he would prefer that Jalisco take over,...