Sawt Falasteen - Mexico City tourist area appears to come into cartel's crosshairs

"The clean-up has already begun," declares the masked man wielding a military-grade assault rifle and flanked by a dozen supposed operatives from one of the country's most feared cartels.

The gunman threatens local criminal groups and claims to be from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel -- an ultra-violent paramilitary gang involved in extortion and money laundering, and which runs a global drug trafficking network.

Mexico has been plagued by cartel violence that has killed or left missing over half a million people in just a few decades, according to the government's own estimates.

But the rules are different in Mexico City, where gun battles, cartel checkpoints or paramilitary patrols would draw too much heat from the authorities.

A series of videos has emerged and -- although unverified -- has spread quickly on social networks and been picked up by local media.

In them, the cartel promises to end extortion and "impose order" in Xochimilco -- a tranquil neighborhood of canals and islands that draws tourists from around the world and has been dubbed "the Mexican Venice."

It is not known exactly who made the video or why.

AFP's digital verification service has dismissed the possibility that artificial intelligence was used to create it.

But the most recent video has confused residents, who describe the neighborhood as peaceful and with limited crime.

While one tourist guide said the police keep close watch over the area, others said criminals had never bothered them.

Two gangs are said to operate in a nearby forest, where authorities have received multiple reports of illegal logging.

AFP asked Mexico City prosecutors and police if they were investigating the video, but received no immediate comment.

- Cartel propaganda -

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel has its base in Guadalajara and on Mexico's central Pacific coast.

It has run limited operations in the capital, where local street gangs, the Union Tepito and the Tlahuac Cartel, form periodic alliances with larger groups.

The cartel has been blamed for a failed assassination attempt against Omar Garcia Harfuch, the former Mexico City police chief who is now the country's security minister, in an upscale Mexico City neighborhood in June 2020.

Harfuch was injured, while two of his bodyguards and a bystander were killed.

The organization suffered a major blow following the killing of its leader, Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes, in a shootout with Mexican soldiers in February.

Threatening videos of armed men are a well-established cartel propaganda ploy.

Before social media, their arrival in certain neighborhoods was announced through rumors on the street or pamphlets promising to bring stability to violence-wracked communities.

G.AbuHamad--SF-PST