Mexico faces uphill battle to appease kingpin Trump after cartel boss’s killing

Trump tells Mexico to ‘step up’ effort to combat cartels even after military operation kills drug lord known as ‘El Mencho’

• Violence in Mexico after military kills notorious drug cartel boss – a visual guide

With schools still closed, flights cancelled and the charred carcasses of buses smouldering on streets across the country, Mexico was still reeling from the cartel backlash prompted by the killing of cartel kingpin Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho.”

Defense minister Omar García Harfuch was moved almost to tears on Monday as he offered his condolences to the families of soldiers felled in the operation to kill the country’s most wanted drug lord. Mexican military personnel, he said, “fulfilled their mission”.