HEAVILY armed Mexican security forces personnel kept up their battle with drug cartel gunmen on Monday.

The surge in violence was triggered by the killing on Sunday of Nemesio Oseguara Cervantes, the notorious leader of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), in the town of Tapalpa. 

Cartel fighters continued to block roads as smoke rose on the outskirts of the town in the state of Jalisco.

More than 70 people died in Sunday’s attempt to capture Mr Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” authorities said on Monday. 

The body count taken by security officials included security forces, suspected cartel members and others. Officials did not offer details and the circumstances of most of the deaths were unclear.

CJNG is accused of trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine to the United States and attacking Mexican government officials. 

The cartel responded to Mr Cervantes’s death with widespread violence, including erecting more than 250 roadblocks across 20 states and setting fire to vehicles.

Mexican Defence Secretary General Ricardo Trevilla said on Monday that authorities had tracked one of the cartel leader’s romantic partners to his hideout in Tapalpa.

Mr Cervantes and two bodyguards fled into a wooded area, where they were seriously wounded in a gunfight. They were taken into custody and died on the way to Mexico City, Gen Trevilla said.

Elsewhere in Jalisco, soldiers killed another high-ranking cartel member whom Gen Trevilla said had been co-ordinating violence and offering a bounty for every soldier killed.

Mexican authorities reported that 25 members of the Mexican National Guard had been killed in six separate attacks, while 30 criminal suspects were killed in Jalisco and four others in the neighbouring state of Michoacan. 

A prison guard and an agent from the state prosecutor’s office were also killed.

As the threat of more violence loomed, several Mexican states closed schools on Monday, while local and foreign governments warned their citizens to stay off the streets.