NEW YORK: Toni Morrison, the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, has died following a brief illness, her family said in a statement Tuesday. She was 88.
“It is with profound sadness we share that, following a short illness, our adored mother and grandmother, Toni Morrison, passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends,” they said.
“Although her passing represents a tremendous loss, we are grateful she had a long, well lived life,” the statement added, describing her as “the consummate writer who treasured the written word.”
Morrison wrote 11 novels, many of them touching on life as a black American, in a glittering literary and award-laden career that lasted over six decades.
She won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for her 1987 novel “Beloved.” Set after the American Civil War in the 1860s, the story centered on a slave who escaped Kentucky to the free state of Ohio.
The book was later turned into a film starring Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey.
Morrison received numerous other accolades including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.
In 1996, she was honored with the National Book Foundation’s Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
In 2012 then President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2016 she received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction.
Tributes quickly poured in for her on Tuesday.
“She was a great woman and a great writer, and I don’t know which I will miss more,” Robert Gottlieb, Morrison’s longtime editor at Knopf publishers, said in a statement sent to AFP.
Sonny Mehta, chairman of Knopf, said he could “think of few writers in American letters who wrote with more humanity or with more love for language than Toni.”
“Her narratives and mesmerizing prose have made an indelible mark on our culture. Her novels command and demand our attention. They are canonical works, and more importantly, they are books that remain beloved by readers,” he said.
Morrison was born in Ohio on February 18, 1931. “The Bluest Eye,” her first novel, was published in 1970. She followed up with “Sula” in 1973, going on to publish another nine novels.
She also spent time as an editor at Random House and taught at Princeton University.
Morrison died at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York on Monday.
Nobel laureate Toni Morrison dead at 88
Nobel laureate Toni Morrison dead at 88
- Morrison wrote 11 novels, many of them touching on life as a black American
- She won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for her 1987 novel “Beloved.”
Mexican army kills leader of powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel during operation to capture him
- The killing of the powerful drug lord set off several hours of roadblocks with burning vehicles in Jalisco and other states
MEXICO CITY: The Mexican army killed the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho, ” on Sunday, decapitating what had become Mexico’s most powerful cartel and giving the government its biggest prize yet to show the Trump administration its efforts.
Oseguera Cervantes was wounded in an operation to capture him Sunday in Tapalpa, Jalisco about a two-hour drive southwest of Guadalajara and he died while being flown to Mexico City, the Defense Department said in a statement. The state is the base of the cartel known for trafficking huge quantities of fentanyl and other drugs to the United States.
During the operation, troops came under fire and killed four people at the location. Three more people, including Oseguera Cervantes, were wounded and later died, the statement said. Two others were arrested and armored vehicles, rocket launchers and other arms were seized. Three members of the armed forces were wounded and receiving medical treatment.
Roadblocks and burning vehicles
The killing of the powerful drug lord set off several hours of roadblocks with burning vehicles in Jalisco and other states. Such tactics are commonly used by the cartels to block military operations. Jalisco canceled school in the state for Monday.
Videos circulating on social media showed plumes of smoke billowing over the tourist city of Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco, and people sprinting through the airport of the state’s capital in panic. On Sunday afternoon, Air Canada announced it was suspending flights to Puerto Vallarta “due to an ongoing security situation” and advised customers not to go to their airport.
In Guadalajara, the state capital, burning vehicles blocked roads. Mexico’s second-largest city is scheduled to host matches during this summer’s soccer World Cup.
The US State Department warned US citizens in Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, Guerrero and Nuevo Leon states to remain in safe places due to the ongoing security operations. Canada’s embassy in Mexico warned its citizens in Puerto Vallarta to shelter in place and generally to keep a low profile in Jalisco.
Jalisco Gov. Pablo Lemus told residents to stay at home and suspended public transportation.
US had offered up to $15 million for his capture
The US State Department had offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of El Mencho. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG, is one of the most powerful and fastest growing criminal organizations in Mexico and was born in 2009.
In February, the Trump administration designated the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, like her predecessor, has criticized the “kingpin” strategy of previous administrations that took out cartel leaders only to trigger explosions of violence as cartels fractured. While she has remained popular in Mexico, security is a persistent concern and since US President Donald Trump took office a year ago, she has been under tremendous pressure to show results against drug trafficking.
Known as aggressive cartel
The Jalisco cartel has been one of the most aggressive cartels in its attacks on the military — including on helicopters — and is a pioneer in launching explosives from drones and installing mines. In 2020, it carried out a spectacular assassination attempt with grenades and high-powered rifles in the heart of Mexico City against the then head of the capital’s police force and now federal security secretary.
The DEA considers the cartel to be as powerful as the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most infamous criminal groups, with a presence in all 50 US states. It is one of the main suppliers of cocaine to the US market and, like the Sinaloa cartel, earns billions from the production of fentanyl and methamphetamines. Sinaloa, however, has been weakened by infighting after the loss of its leaders Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, both in US custody.
Oseguera Cervantes, 59, was originally from Aguililla in the neighboring state of Michoacan. He had been significantly involved in drug trafficking activities since the 1990s. When he was younger, he migrated to the US where he was convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin in the US District Court for the Northern District of California in 1994 and served nearly three years in prison.
Following his release from custody, Oseguera Cervantes returned to Mexico and reengaged in drug trafficking activity with drug lord Ignacio Coronel Villarreal, alias “Nacho Coronel.” After Villarreal’s death, Oseguera Cervantes and Erik Valencia Salazar, alias “El 85”, created the Jalisco New Generation Cartel around 2007.
Initially, they worked for the Sinaloa Cartel, but eventually split and for years the two cartels have battled for territory across Mexico.
Indicted several times in the United States
Since 2017, Oseguera Cervantes has been indicted several times in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
The most recent superseding indictment, filed on April 5, 2022, charges Oseguera Cervantes with conspiracy and distribution of controlled substances (methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl) for the purpose of illegal importation into the United States and use of firearms during and in connection with drug trafficking offenses. Oseguera Cervantes is also charged under the Drug Kingpin Enforcement Act for directing a continuing criminal enterprise.
Last year, people searching for missing relatives founds piles of shoes and other clothing, as well as bone fragments at what authorities later said was a Jalisco cartel recruitment and training site.
