A powerful and aggressive Mexican cartel appears to have made a plea to its enemies following hundreds of deaths in the country.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) is thought to be responsible for a video which began circulating on social media last week, showing a number of masked men standing in front of the camera while holding guns.
In the clip, one of the Spanish-speaking members stresses that fighting should be kept between criminal groups rather than spilling over into the general public, resulting in the deaths of innocent people.
The video comes after more than 30,000 people were murdered in Mexico last year, many of who are thought to have died as a result of fighting between rival drug trafficking organisations, Reuters reports.
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Just last month, two Jesuit priests and a tour guide were killed in what is thought to have been a suspected run-in with a wanted drug trafficker in the state of Chihuahua.
The new video is being analysed by authorities, according to a press official at the attorney general's office cited by Reuters, but the man in the clip indicated he was part of the cartel.
He says in the video: "I ask you that the war remains between us, that we don't involve anyone who shouldn't be involved.
"We are people who are for the people."
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Speaking in the name of the cartel's leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (also known as El Mencho), the man pleaded with rival cartels to spare members of the public including doctors, medical personnel and teachers.
Though the video is yet to be verified by authorities, a source familiar with cartel beliefs said it appeared to be real, Reuters reports. However, the source could not say for certain whether the man speaking was Oseguera.
According to Insight Crime, the CJNG emerged after the former Sinaloa Cartel leader Ignacio Coronel was killed by Mexican forces in July 2010 and after the Milenio Cartel split into two new groups; the La Resistencia and Torcidos.
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The latter later went on to become the CJNG, which is now said to be known for its public relations campaigns and its aggressive use of violence, apparently evidenced as homicides, disappearances and the discoveries of mass graves spiked in Jalisco following its emergence.
The CJNG is said to have a presence in every part of Mexico except Sinaloa and the so-called 'Golden Triangle' of heroin production where the borders of Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango meet, however the cartel does not necessarily have control in all of the states.
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Topics: Crime, World News, Viral