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On Sunday, in<\/span> the wake of a military operation to kill one of the country\u2019s most infamous drug traffickers, clashes broke out across the Mexico, leaving dozens dead and producing shocking images<\/a> of roadblocks, armed men in the streets, and panicked civilians ducking for cover.<\/p>\n Within hours of the operation in which troops killed cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as \u201cEl Mencho,\u201d in a rural hideout outside Guadalajara, gunmen loyal to his Jalisco New Generation Cartel group poured into the streets of several cities, burning buses and firing automatic weapons.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city was completely emptied,\u201d said David Mora, an International Crisis Group analyst who happened to be in Guadalajara on Sunday, of the aftermath of the violence. \u201cI mean it was a ghost town \u2014 there was no one on the streets yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n The fighting left at least 70 people dead, including 25 members of Mexico\u2019s National Guard, which carried out the mission guided by intelligence from counterparts in U.S. military and law enforcement, according to President Claudia Sheinbaum.<\/p>\n \u201cThe country is at peace,\u201d Sheinbaum said at her daily press conference Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s calm.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The spasm of violence came amid a heavy-handed pressure campaign by the Trump administration, which for the past year has explicitly blamed Sheinbaum\u2019s government for allowing traffickers to flood the U.S. with fentanyl and other drugs. President Donald Trump has previously insinuated that the government of Mexico is captured by trafficking networks, and threatened unilateral military action<\/a> to stop the flow of drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cGoing after a big fish like this was kind of an indication of the new framing of this government\u2019s security strategy,\u201d said Mora. \u201cBut it also has to do with the elephant in the room, which is the pressure that Donald Trump is putting on Mexico to deliver this.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite an almost unprecedented willingness on the part of Sheinbaum to hand over high-profile narcos<\/a> to stand trial in the U.S. \u2014 and Trump\u2019s willingness to pardon convicted drug traffickers<\/a> \u2014 Trump has given little indication of relenting. Even as top U.S. officials took a victory lap and the deadly cost of the operation was just beginning to become clear, Trump hardly seemed satisfied.<\/p>\n \u201cMexico must step up their effort on Cartels and Drugs!\u201d he wrote Monday on his social media platform.<\/p>\n \u201cNow the question now is: What are you going to do to reduce demand and consumption?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n In Mexico, however, the death toll, which is likely higher than what has so far been reported, and the chaos that was unleashed were a stark reminder of the heavy cost paid by Mexicans in a war on organized crime that is dictated in large part by pressure from Washington \u2014 even as the paramilitary groups in question are armed with guns and ammunition from the U.S.<\/a> and fueled with money from drugs consumed by people north of the border.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a breakthrough,\u201d said Jes\u00fas Esquivel, a journalist with La Jornada and a longtime chronicler of the war on drugs. \u201cBut now the question now is: What are you going to do to reduce demand and consumption? What are you going to do to stop arms trafficking?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n