Almost 12,000 officers from the Mexican armed forces and the quasi-military National Guard (GN) are involved in operations of various kinds in Jalisco.
That number is expected to increase in 2022, when 12 further GN bases open in the state, according to Mexican Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval, speaking last week in Zapopan. Currently, 5,840 GN officers work out of 30 bases in the state, he confirmed.
Cresencio denied that the recent increase in the number of soldiers and marines in Jalisco is due to the recent arrest of Rosalinda “N,” the wife of Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho,” the supposed leader of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), but rather part of ongoing operations in collaboration with investigations into the movements of criminal organizations.
Cresencio said soldiers and GN officers in Jalisco are also tasked with preventing criminal gangs from siphoning fuel off pipelines, as well as identifying and capturing the perpetrators. He noted that in the past three years of the Lopez Obrador administration, 711 illegal taps on Pemex pipelines have been identified in Jalisco, with the highest numbers in Tlajomulco (207), Tala (153), El Arenal (83) and Zapotlanejo (58).