“We Are Mencho’s Absolute Mob’!”: the Cry of the Former Mayor of Tequila at his Last Birthday Narco Party

To get into the birthday party of Diego Rivera, the former mayor of Tequila, Jalisco, there were two instructions to follow to the letter: turn off your cell phones and leave them at the entrance, and promise never to tell anyone what you saw at the Hacienda La Castañeda in Zapopan. “What happens in the rodeo arena,” the organizers threatened, “stays in the rodeo arena.”

However, after his arrest on February 5 for his alleged ties to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), the gag order that silenced his guests has been lifted.

Milenio spoke with an attendee of the celebration—and corroborated his account with photographs and videos of the event secretly recorded and independently obtained by this publication—who described the Morena party member’s 45th birthday as a drunken revel dedicated to boasting to family, friends, and business associates about his alliance with organized crime

With tequila and cocaine: Diego Rivera’s last birthday party

The celebration took place on Saturday, November 22, 2025, two days after Diego Rivera’s birthday. The gates of the hacienda at 2000 Periférico Norte, Zapopan, opened at 8:00 p.m.

A security perimeter was set up around the property with armed men in civilian clothes: half-jokingly, half-seriously, the attendees whispered that in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, no one can distinguish between police officers and hitmen anymore.

The dress code was formal: suits for men and dresses for women. Tequila was on the bar and cocaine in the restrooms. Everything was paid for for about 100 guests, among them his friend Lorena Marisol Rodríguez Rivera, who is now serving as his representative while Diego Rivera sleeps in the Observation and Classification Center pavilion of the Altiplano maximum-security prison.

The rates at La Castañeda are far beyond what a mayor of Tequila could theoretically afford for a birthday party: the mayor’s official monthly salary is 64,788 pesos, while a night at the charro arena costs 80,000 pesos plus overtime, food, drinks, waitstaff, and flower arrangements, among other expenses.

Despite this, no one asked how Diego Rivera managed to pay for the celebration, just as no one questioned his new watches and shoes. Some sudden wealth is self-explanatory and, for safety’s sake, best ignored.

“The mayor, as always, made his ‘triumphant’ entrance,” recalls Invitado, a businessman in Tequila. “He arrived in his black Chevrolet pickup truck, without license plates. A 2025 model, unmistakable to those of us who live in Tequila. It brings back horrible memories for many people: the mayor would come for you in that black truck and they’d drag you inside to torture you for not paying ‘protection money.'” The black Chevrolet, he adds, represented Diego Rivera’s leap into politics: as a city councilman, he used a Toyota FJ Cruiser, a reliable, hard-working 4×4, ideal for traversing rural roads without attracting as much attention as a Suburban. Later, during his campaign, he traveled with a private escort of up to 12 municipal police officers, which he demanded from his predecessor as mayor.

“And as mayor, he acquired the Chevrolet. A very famous tequila businessman from the area, with a well-known last name and many brothers in the business, bought it for him by force. These things are known in Tequila, but they aren’t talked about,” says Invitado.

Chicho Castro entertained the party with narco corridos

The music was provided by Chicho Castro, a Mexican singer and songwriter of regional Mexican music best known for his narco ballads that glorify the life and criminal activities of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, El Mencho, leader of the CJNG cartel. The stage for the private concert was set up in front of the arches in the main courtyard.

One of the songs most enthusiastically sung along to by the former mayor was “La Yoguriza,” dedicated to the criminal group led by Abraham Jesús Ambriz Cano, El Yogurt, head of the CJNG in Michoacán, Jalisco, and Colima. He is known for recruiting elite Mexican soldiers and Colombian mercenaries who specialize in the use of high-powered weaponry and warfare tactics.

“I bring Mexicans and foreigners / Don Mencho’s Special Forces / Purely trained people, I have good gunmen / And whoever wants to join is welcome / The doors are open, but traitors don’t enter / Because whoever screws up, I’ll send them straight to hell without a second thought,” Diego Rivera shouted.

In recent months, La Yoguriza has had a growing presence in Tequila, especially as extortionists. The alias El Yogurt is mentioned by several business owners as the owner of the houses used as detention centers for owners of tequila distilleries and tourism companies who refuse or are unable to pay protection money.

“No one was surprised when he took the microphone and sang a song by El Yogurt. Several guests are currently being extorted by that guy. We all understood the message as a show of power: that he has the cartel on his side,” says one guest.

Chicho Castro’s music is popular among narco corrido fans, and despite having gotten Jalisco politicians into trouble, he remains one of the most sought-after artists by El Mencho’s followers. Last June, Luis Octavio Vidrio, a local deputy for Jalisco, celebrated his 51st birthday in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, and the party was enlivened with corridos that glorify the CJNG leader.

This is how the corrido “La Yoguriza” goes.

Vidrio and his colleague in the Citizen’s Movement party, the mayor of Tlajomulco, Gerardo Quirino Velázquez Chávez, were recorded singing the war songs from memory.

“But the last straw came when the (former) mayor was very drunk. It happens to him quite often; he drinks too much and becomes aggressive. He starts talking nonsense, saying he brings powerful people with him, that he’s untouchable, and other silly things like the party incident. At that point, nobody felt comfortable.”

“We are all Mencho’s absolute mob!”the mayor shouted.

According to the witness, and the person who secretly recorded the footage, Diego Rivera, a member of the Morena party, saw that people were starting to leave near the hacienda’s closing time. He got angry and demanded they return to their tables; he would pay for one or two extra hours, or however many were necessary, to keep the party going until dawn.

When he saw that some people insisted on going home, he angrily walked to the center of the dance floor and held out his arm, gesturing for his entourage to hand him something.

“He asked for a gun, they gave it to him, and the crazy guy started shooting into the air. Bang, bang, bang! (sic). The people at the rodeo arena didn’t know what to do; the guests even less so, they were all terrified. Someone who does that, in that state, is bound to accidentally fire a gun,” the witness recalled.

The party continued for a while. While some rushed to get their cell phones back—and checked that they hadn’t been tapped by city hall staff—others asked the valet parking attendants to retrieve their cars. No one dared speak aloud about the criminal mayor’s outburst. To do so would have violated the rule of secrecy surrounding those in power. 

The tequila omertà.

“No one would have imagined that weeks later he would be arrested. No one, there was no way. Ever since he was a city councilman, he made every effort, publicly and privately, to make it clear that messing with him was messing with his ‘boss,’ ‘the owner of the company,’ the four letters,” Invitado asserted. “It’s funny how things turn out in life: this could be his last party as a free man.”

The party ended near dawn. The exact time is unclear, but two details have been confirmed by two different sources: the Morena party member stayed until the early hours of the morning with his closest team and extorted business owners, casually serenading them with rhymes in support of the criminal group operating in his state and municipality.

And what worried the guests the most: Diego Rivera repeatedly shouted the CJNG’s war cry: “We are Mencho’s absolute mob!”Therein lay his true allegiance.

Source: Milenio