Town scarred by day of terror

Etzatlán, Mexico, picks up pieces and seeks answers after retaliatory attacks for killing of ‘El Mencho’

- By Keegan Hamilton

A BURNED PEMEX gas station along the highway connecting Guadalajara and Etzatlán in Mexico.

(FELIX MARQUEZ For The Times)

There are two sides to the town on Jalisco’s tequila trail.

One is the charming pueblo in foothills lined with neat rows of agave cactus. In the central plaza you'll see swaths of handwoven fabric draped like canopies over the cobbled streets — splashes of pink, blue, yellow and green offering welcome shade from the afternoon heat. Locals boast that their cielo tejido is world-famous, and once even went on display in Dubai.

The other version of Etzatlán is one most people are scared to talk about.

It’s the place where cartel foot soldiers torched the gas station last week, along with the bus depot, a state-run bank and dozens of vehicles, leaving residents hiding in their homes during a 24-hour reign of terror.

Many remain fearful in the aftermath, left wondering whether a sense of normalcy will ever return and venting frustration with lo-

cal authorities, who seemingly did nothing to intervene amid the chaos.

This area was once the domain of Mexico’s original cartel godfathers, among them Rafael Caro Quintro — “El Numero Uno” — who was rumored to have kept a residence nearby. Today, it belongs to the Jalisco New Generation cartel. The recent mayhem followed a Mexican military operation on Feb. 22 that killed the group’s leader, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho.”

Reprisal attacks were widespread, hitting at least 20 states, and days after the chaos, the charred husks of vehicles and Oxxo convenience stores still were visible heading west out of Guadalajara, the state capital, toward the Pacific.