( CNN ) -- One smiles for the camera , another appears defiant , while a third looks serene . They all look straight into the camera . Their confessions are blunt and candid -- it 's a relatively new strategy used by Mexican authorities . Under pressure to show results from a nationwide offensive against organized crime , the Mexican government has been releasing videos of high-profile interrogations . Most of the subjects are suspected drug lords who have been recently captured and are in jail awaiting trial . The new approach comes nearly five years into President Felipe Calderon 's term . By some estimates , more than 40,000 people have died since he took office in December 2006 and launched the drug offensive . As his strategy has become unpopular with many in Mexico , his administration has been pressured to respond to the criticism and show the results of his efforts : more than 20 of the country 's 37 most-wanted criminals killed or captured since March 2009 . Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas , also known as `` The Monkey , '' is a reputed co-founder and co-leader of the Mexican drug cartel known as `` La Familia . '' In his video interrogation , he explains what kind of men his cartel recruited as operatives . `` ( We would choose ) young men who did n't do drugs , who had a good profile , and who were good to the full extent of the word , that did things right , and who did n't kidnap people , '' Mendez says . La Familia announced its creation in 2006 in the Mexican state of Michoacan by tossing five severed human heads onto a dance floor . Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez , also known as `` El Diego , '' was the reputed leader of `` La Linea , '' a gang of enforcers for the Juarez Cartel in the Mexican state of Chihuahua . In his video interrogation , he admits that he was the mastermind of an attack against federal police officers using a car bomb . `` We kidnapped an individual who belonged to the Sinaloa Cartel ; we killed him , and dressed him with a local police uniform . He was thrown at an intersection right next to a vehicle with explosives and somebody activated the explosives remotely with a cell phone , '' Acosta said . He also says he gave the order to kill U.S. consular employee Leslie Enriquez and her husband , Arthur Redelfs , as well as 15 young people at a house party in Mexico 's murder capital , Ciudad Juarez , just across the border from El Paso , Texas . `` Since they were all minors , there was a lot of commotion , and , yes , honestly , some of them were innocent , '' Acosta says . Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar , aka `` El Mamito , '' was a former Special Forces officer who allegedly deserted to join the cartel known as `` Los Zetas . '' He admits he owned as many as five so-called `` narco tanks '' or `` monsters , '' custom-made armored trucks with swiveling turrets and reinforced steel battering rams . In a revealing moment , he tells his interrogator the thing that he regrets the most . `` Is there anybody you would want to ask for forgiveness ? I mean , for your actions , for what you did , if you failed somebody , your children , your family ? '' his interrogator asks . Rejon responds : `` Oh , my mother . Because of this I have n't seen her in about 17 years . ... It 's hard ... it 's cruel , but that 's the way it is . '' Despite the offensive , however , violence has continued unabated as the remaining drug cartel leaders fight turf and succession wars , especially in such border states as Chihuahua and Tamaulipas that have traditionally been transit points for drug shipments headed for the United States .
Mexican police have begun releasing the videos . Most of the suspects are suspected drug lords awaiting trial . Government has been under pressure to show results of the offensive .