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Tourists caught in the chaos describe their fear as they attempted to flee Mexico, where violence surged following the death of a notorious drug lord.
At least 20 states have been engulfed in cartel-driven turmoil after Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as ‘El Mencho’, died in custody on Sunday. He was captured by Mexican special forces in Jalisco state.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most feared criminal syndicates, was under his command, making him the country’s top fugitive.
Jim Beck, an American tourist who has visited Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco for two decades, expressed his fear as violence erupted around his hotel. The Mexican military clashed with criminal elements just outside.
“We saw people running from flames and chaos, and we rushed back to the hotel where we were told to shelter in place,” Beck recounted to CNN.
He spoke of “taxi cabs blown up across town, blocking roads,” and how he and locals remained “hidden and locked up” in the hotel for an entire day with scarce food and water.
‘It’s been quite surreal, knowing this warm, wonderful place that we come to visit a couple times a year is in lockdown, and just terrifying for all the people.’
Mexican beauty influencer Yasmin Maya, known as ‘Beautyybird’ on social media, described sending a panicked message to her husband, telling him to ‘hug the girls for me, tell them I love them’, as she was stuck at Guadalajara airport with her elderly grandmother when violence broke out.
Mexican beauty influencer Yasmin Maya, known as ‘Beautyybird’ on social media, described sending a panicked message to her husband as she was stuck at Guadalajara airport with her elderly grandmother when violence broke out
American tourist Jim Beck, who has been holidaying in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco state, for 20 years, said he was ‘terrified’ after seeing unrest unravel outside his hotel on Sunday
Maya anxiously shouted at her grandmother to ‘Get on the floor!’ and ‘Get down!’ as terrified passengers ran for their lives at the airport, trying to escape the cartel violence.
‘It was honestly the most traumatic experience of my life that I never want to experience ever again,’ she told CNN.
‘Especially with her, because in that moment, all I wanted to do was obviously just run and hide, but it’s my grandma, she’s 84-years-old, she can’t move fast,’ she added.
‘All I saw were people running for their lives – screaming, ducking, hiding behind counters. In that moment, everything was just in panic mode.’
The influencer, with over a million followers on Instagram, said she decided to record a video of herself amid the terror so she had something to send to her family if anything happened to her.
Describing the panicked message she sent to her husband in preparation of a tragedy, Maya said: ‘It’s a message that you never want to send, but I just kept praying: “Please, just take me home to my babies.”‘
When Maya eventually managed to board a plane to safety, she recalled how the journey ‘felt like eternity’.
‘What’s happening in Mexico, it’s so sad and it hurts me. I still have my family and my grandma still living there, and my heart hurts for all the people still being trapped in their homes.’
At least 25 members of Mexico’s National Guard have been killed in Jalisco state since the chaos erupted.
An extra 2,500 soldiers were deployed to western Mexico on Monday, with the government saying about 9,500 troops have been deployed overall since Sunday.
A bus set on fire by organised crime groups burns at one of the main avenues in Zapopan, state of Jalisco, Mexico, on February 22
Following the death of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as El Mencho, on Sunday, gunmen unleashed bloody chaos across several Mexican cities
Smoke billows from burning vehicles amid a wave of violence, with torched vehicles and gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states
Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes was killed by Mexican federal forces on Sunday
A bus burns on one of the main avenues after it was set on fire by organised crime groups in response to an operation in Jalisco
A man extinguishes a burning truck set on fire by organised crime groups
Jalisco cartel leader El Mencho was captured after US and Mexican intelligence agencies tracked down a girlfriend he was meeting in a secluded forest cabin.
On early Sunday morning, a squad of elite Mexican army and National Guard special-operations soldiers descended on the community of Tapalpa in western Mexico, where the kingpin remained holed up after his partner left.
El Mencho and his several bodyguards were chased down by soldiers, who surrounded them deep into the nearby woods.
Fighting ensued as the drug lord’s bodyguards, armed with two rocket launchers, desperately fired on the troops.
Eight people were killed in the fight, including El Mencho and two of his operatives, who were severly injured and then died in a military helicopter later.
Mexico’s Defence Secretary, Gen. Ricardo Trevilla, said intelligence services identified a man close to El Mencho’s lover who transported her to Tapalpa.
Tapalpa is a mountain weekend getaway in western Jalisco state, surrounded by pine forests.
‘The intelligence process is very complex; it requires a great deal of time to gather a lot of information from diverse national and international sources,’ Trevilla said, standing next to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Over 50 people died in the aftermath of the operation during the gang’s counteroffensive.
The fatalities included 25 Mexican troops and security officers, as well as 30 alleged gunmen.
Authorities said civilians were also caught in the crossfire, including a pregnant woman.
Smoke billows around the tourist area of Puerto Vallarta amid a wave of violence, with torched vehicles and gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states
Aaron Mason, from Buffalo, New York, was on holiday in Puerto Vallarta when the cartel violence broke out.
‘Everything is shut down, all the businesses are shut down, restaurants, corner stores. We don’t have any food at our house,’ he told 7 News WKBW, describing how a number of cars had been lit on fire outside of the local Costco.
‘It’s just kind of surreal,’ he added.
When chaos first erupted on Sunday, people in Guadalajara – a host city for four FIFA World Cup group games this summer – locked themselves in their homes.
Tourists stranded in the area were warned to shelter in place, avoid crowds and minimise their movements.
Carnage spread up the west coast of the country, with reports of attacks getting closer to Baja California, Mexico, as gunfire erupted at Guadalajara airport.
Canadian tourist Tania Kidston told Reuters her daughter saw the cartel ‘light a car on fire right in front of us’.
‘There was fire all around us. It was terrifying,’ the government worker said.
She said her family went without food as residents went into lockdown. ‘We were hungry yesterday. We had no food … Nothing was open. It was a terrifying day yesterday.’
An American tourist, Katy Holloman, from El Dorado Hills, took to Facebook to speak of her ordeal after she was told to shelter in her hotel as it was safer than attempting a journey to the airport.
‘The road is closed due to the cartel. There’s no flights going out of the airport to the States. We’ve rescheduled them for tomorrow afternoon, really hoping we make it home,’ she said in a video.
‘Just going to pray we make it home tomorrow. This is unprecedented here; the hotel staff have been saying this has never happened before.’
Another tourist, Dan Smith, from the Palm Springs area, shared a shocking clip of what appeared to be him running down a staircase as alarms rang out in the background while a Mexican woman ordered him outside.
He said in a video clip: ‘We’re evacuating the building, propane tanks have exploded. Hoping the building doesn’t catch on fire.’
His brother Richard uploaded more footage from Daniel showing a bus in flames and other blazing vehicles blocking the roads of Puerto Vallarta.
He said: ‘Please keep good thoughts for my brother Daniel. Puerto Vallarta is under siege. He is stuck downtown, and all roads in and out are closed off. He can’t get home.
‘Luckily, there are some friends downtown where he can hang out. Although it’s been evacuated once already. The drug cartel is p***** off.’
Canadian tourist Tania Kidston told Reuters her daughter saw the cartel ‘light a car on fire right in front of us’
American tourist, Katy Holloman, from El Dorado Hills, took to Facebook to speak of her ordeal after she was told to shelter in her hotel as it was safer than attempting a journey to the airport
Dan Smith, from the Palm Springs area, shared a shocking clip of what appeared to be him running down a staircase as alarms rang out in the background
Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the DEA, said Mexico had sent a ‘strong message to Donald Trump’s administration that they are fighting aggressively and effectively’ against the most powerful cartels.
He added that ‘the majority of the information came from the Mexican armed forces and all credit goes to Mexico.’
It’s not clear who will succeed El Mencho, or if any one person can.
The Jalisco cartel has a presence in at least 21 of Mexico’s 32 states and is active in almost all of the US, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
But it is also a global organisation, and the loss of its leader could be felt well beyond Mexico.
‘El Mencho controlled everything; he was like a country’s dictator,’ Vigil said.
His absence could slow the cartel’s rapid growth and expansion and leave it initially weakened against the rival Sinaloa cartel on several fronts where they or their proxies are fighting.
The Sinaloa is locked in its own internal power struggle, however, between the sons of ‘El Chapo’ and the faction loyal to Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambada, who is in US custody.
Vigil said Mexico should seize the moment to launch ‘an effective frontal assault based on intelligence.’
‘This is a big opportunity for Mexico and the United States if they work together,’ he said.
Security analyst David Saucedo said that if relatives of El Mencho take control of the cartel, the violence seen Sunday could continue.
If others take power, they could be more willing to turn the page and continue operations.
The greatest fear would be that the cartel turns to indiscriminate violence.
They could decide to ‘launch narcoterrorism attacks… and generate a scenario similar to what Colombia lived in the 1990s,’ a full-on attack against the government, ‘car bombs, assassinations, and attacks on aircraft.’
Smoke billows amid a wave of violence, with torched vehicles and gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states
A National Guard convoy in Mexico City, Mexico, on February 22, escorts a Rhino, an armored tactical vehicle used for high-impact operations and critical security situations, after federal forces kill Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes
The US had a $15 million bounty on El Mencho.
During the raid, Mexican authorities seized heavy weapons and ammunition, two rocket launchers and eight vehicles used by the kingpin’s operatives.
President Sheinbaum praised the army’s operation that led to El Mencho’s death and said her priority is to guarantee peace and security across Mexico.
‘There is calm, there is government, there are armed forces, and there is a lot of co-ordination,’ Sheinbaum said.
She emphasised that there were no US boots on the ground and denied direct US involvement, saying: ‘All operations, from their planning onwards, are the responsibility of the Mexican federal forces.’
A top financial operator for El Mencho also died in a gunfight at a nearby town as he attempted to flee in a vehicle on Sunday.
The operative was offering rewards of 20,000 pesos, equivalent to almost £900, for the death of any Mexican official involved in the raid.
Following news of El Mencho’s killing, armed members of the CJNG resorted to a common tactic: putting up blockades of setting fire to cars and trucks.
It total, some 252 roadblocks were put in place, many of them on federal highways, leading to severe disruption.
Armed operatives targetted military facilities in states as far as the Gulf state of Tamaulipas, a lawless underworld hub in the US-Mexico border.
They also attacked supermarkets, state-run bank branches and petrol stations, and forced the closure of airports in several cities.
In central Guanajuato state – a critical Jalisco cartel territory due to its vast fuel-smuggling rackets – local authorities demanded the immediate closure of schools and universities.
According to Trevilla, all roadblocks were removed by authorities on Monday and more than 70 people have been arrested.
Air service to the beach resort town of Puerto Vallarta was due to resume yesterday.
‘Unfortunately, it’s not the first time we’re experiencing this, but this time it does seem a bit more worrying because there’s no successor to these cartels,’ said Fabiola Cortes, a schoolteacher in Mexico City. ‘We hope that, truly, our president does something for us, protects us, because honestly, fear is everywhere on the streets.’
