Vue lecture

Inside in the Mexican town where drug lord ‘El Mencho’ was killed – video dispatch

Par : Tom Phillips · Analy Nuño · videographer Emilio Espejel · Maheen Sadiq

27 février 2026 à 19:36

Fires are still burning in the Mexican town of Tapalpa four days after the cartel boss known as 'El Mencho' made his last stand.

The Guardian correspondent Tom Phillips drove to the locations of fierce clashes between police and gang members who dug trenches, set fire to shops and sparked a forest blaze that was still burning days later.

Despite their efforts to distract security forces, the 59-year-old drug lord was wounded and he died in a helicopter on the way to the hospital

Shell-shocked and tense: inside the Mexican tourist town where ‘El Mencho’ made his last stand

The Guardian

Par : Tom Phillips and Analy Nuño in Tapalpa. Photographs and video by Emilio Espejel

27 février 2026 à 12:56

Tapalpa deserted and scared by day of terror when military raid brought feared drug lord’s reign to an end

Two days before one of the world’s most powerful drug lords was killed while trying to flee a chalet in the hills outside Mexico’s second biggest city, the Tapalpa Country Club posted an advert on Instagram inviting lovers to visit a place where they could “inhale peace [and] exhale stress”.

“Date idea: Escape to Tapalpa,” read the message, advertising romantic private cabins, picnics with spectacular lake views and a golf course “to have fun together”.