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Volume 63 Issue 15
Thursday, March 5, 2026
THE USD VISTA VISTA
The Official Student Newspaper of the University of San Diego since 1968
Conflict escalates in the Middle East
San Diego military complexes on high alert after advisory EMMA PIRHALA MANAGING EDITOR CADEN HAYNOR NEWS EDITOR Conflict in the Middle East is intensifying after joint U.S.Israel strikes on Iran began on Saturday, Feb. 28. Early Saturday morning, American and Israeli strikes hit Tehran, among other Iranian cities. One attack destroyed a government compound in Tehran, killing Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other high-ranking officials. In retaliation, Iran launched strikes against Israel, as well as American installments and allies in the Middle East. In a video posted to Truth Social on Feb. 28, President Trump outlined the objectives of the military operation, known as “Epic Fury.” “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,” Trump said. “We are going to annihilate their navy. We are going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can
Missile attacks destroyed multiple buildings in Tehran, Iran.
no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces, and no longer use their [improvised explosive devices] or roadside bombs, as they are
Photo courtesy of @ap/X
sometimes called to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.” The strikes follow
“Operation Midnight Hammer” which the U.S. military conducted in June 2025. The operation aimed to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.
During the campaign, White House officials claimed that American bombers and fighter jets hit three nuclear plants — effectively diminishing the country’s nuclear capabilities. Despite the ongoing conflict, the U.S. has not officially waged war on Iran. According to the Constitution, a declaration of war requires congressional approval. As of March 3, Congress has not provided approval. Trump’s actions have faced backlash from figures across the political spectrum. Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized Trump and the military intervention in Iran. “We said ‘No More Foreign Wars, No More Regime Change,’” Greene posted on X on Feb. 28. “We said it on rally stage after rally stage, speech after speech. Trump, Vance, basically the entire admin campaigned on it and promised to put America FIRST and Make America Great Again.” On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are attempting to rally Congress
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Mexican special forces operation kills El Mencho
USD students attempt to avoid Mexico following cartel retaliation CONNOR DUFFEY ASST. NEWS EDITOR He was a former California police officer. He picked avocados as a child in rural Mexico. He was also, by the time he died, the most wanted man in North America. Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, better known as “El Mencho,” was the head of the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). The group has operated out of Western Mexico since 2007 and was declared a foreign terrorist organization by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in 2025. The group controls an estimated 100 drug labs throughout Mexico, netting upwards of $8 billion annually from the drug trade. On Feb. 22, Mexican special forces surrounded a mountain resort in Jalisco, Mexico, where Cervantes had visited
INSIDE
Violent riots spread across Mexico following the death of El Mencho.
frequently over the last two decades. CJNG mercenaries opened fire on the soldiers as they approached, giving
USD ADPi closure See News, page 2
El Mencho the opportunity to escape to a nearby cabin. A second firefight erupted at the new location, which left El
California effect See A&C, page 5
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Photo courtesy of @bbcnews/Instagram
Mencho severely wounded. He later succumbed to his wounds while being airlifted to a hospital in Mexico City.
In the wake of the operation, CJNG second-in-command Hugo “El Tuli” Macias Ureña offered a bounty of 20,000 pesos per Mexican soldier killed — a move designed to incentivize violence as part of the cartel’s retaliatory campaign. On the same day, El Tuli was tracked by Mexican forces to a safe house south of Guadalajara and killed. Since then, violence and civil unrest have erupted across Mexico, with CJNG gunmen blocking and burning vehicles in more than half a dozen states, including Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, Nayarit, Guanajuato and Tamaulipas. In attacks on the night of Feb. 22 in Jalisco, where the cartel is based, twenty-five National Guard officers, a state police officer, a security guard and a pregnant woman were killed. The violence has not stayed only in Western Mexico, however. The U.S. has suffered
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Mexico,
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Tammy Dwyer
Prediction markets
Rugby beats UCLA
See Feature, page 8
See Opinion, page 10
See Sports, page 12
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