When the cartel gave him 24 hours to get out, he sent his ranch workers away and set up his collection of hunting rifles and handguns at doors and widows of his house. Since it's illegal for most in Mexico to own weapons, this was doubtless a lifetime collection (he was 77 years old).
When the cartel arrived and ordered him out, he answered with gunfire.
They had grenades and automatic weapons, but that old man with his hunting rifles and handguns killed four and wounded two and sent the others running.
He died, but if they take over the ranch, they paid in blood. It's a shame more of the people of Mexico don't have the means to defend themselves, and that their government is so ineffective at defending them.
We need military on our border, and I'm not so sure that it won't take military across the border to end this situation, before it becomes as bad on this side as it is on the other side.
I agree that we need the military on the border, but it will never "become as bad on this side as it is on the other", because the militia will act. They might be called "vigilantes" when they do it, but unlike Mexico, we "do" have the Second Amendment and an armed citizenry.