Mexican President Sheinbaum Says She Talked With Trump About The Operation That Killed El Mencho: 'He Called Me'

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had a conversation with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump about the operation that killed Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho," the longtime leader of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) on Sunday.

Speaking during her daily press conference on Wednesday, Sheinbaum said that Trump called her on Monday. "It was an eight-minute phone call in which he asked me what was going on in Mexico, what things were like," she said.

"I told him about how the operation was conducted, that we had intelligence-related help from the U.S. government," Sheinbaum added. She went on to note that the two heads of State are not scheduled to meet in person at the moment.

Trump addressed the killing of El Mencho during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, saying the U.S. is to credit for the operation. "We've also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins. you saw that yesterday," Trump said during a passage of the speech.

He didn't explicitly mention the slain drug lord, but the topic has dominated the conversation since Sunday when Mexican forces conducted the operation. Trump did not delve into the extent of the U.S.'s involvement, with both countries saying on Sunday that there was cooperation between them.

In a press release detailing how the developments unfolded, Mexico's Defense Secretariat said that "for the execution of the operation, as well as central military intelligence tasks, within the framework of bilateral coordination and cooperation with the U.S., there was complementary information from the country's authorities."

The New York Times expanded on the matter, reporting that the CIA provided 'instrumental' information to locate El Mencho. The outlet went on to say that the U.S. has stepped up intelligence-sharing with the country and pressuring it to act on it.

General Ricardo Trevilla Trejo explained that Mexican forces managed to locate El Mencho after tracking down a lover of his. He said that military intelligence managed to locate a man close to one of El Mencho's lovers, allowing them to determine his location. Once the person left the premise, officers confirmed that El Mencho stayed there. Forces then moved on to detain him, engaging in a shootout with cartel operatives there.

Trevilla Trejo noted that that El Mencho tried to escape while leaving a group of operatives behind to slow down government forces. He made it to a nearby wood, but forces pinned him down and wounded him. El Mencho was taken to a helicopter heading to Mexico City, but he died on the way.