A popular spring break destination, Puerto Vallarta, in Mexico is currently under crisis after powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader, ‘El Mencho,’ was killed by the Mexican military. The CJNG cartel is responding by creating chaos and violence all over the city. The violence is causing many tourists to be stuck in resorts, flight cancellations, and whole city shut downs.
‘El Mencho’ was an infamous drug lord. His real name is Nemeiso Oseguera Cervantes; he led the Jalisco New Generation Cartel which is one of Mexico’s most dangerous cartels. El Mencho was one of the top drug traffickers in the world, which meant his capture would come with a reward.
On February 22nd a military operation with a goal to either capture or kill ‘El Mencho’ occurred in Tapalpa, Jalisco, Mexico. During the operation El Mencho was injured in a firefight against Mexican special forces and died later in custody while being transported.
After El Mencho was killed, word spread quickly. The news led to widespread violence all across the Jalisco state, which includes the popular resort and vacation spot, Puerto Vallarta. The violence was coordinated by the CJNG cartel to show their retaliation, power, and strength they have against the government. They launched “narcobloques” in many large cities such as Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara. These launches involved causing chaos to civilians and tourists by setting fire to buses, cars, and stores. This led to shutting down big roads which trapped civilians. The CJNG also violently encountered the Mexican army which ended up resulting in many deaths. According to CNN there were about 25 Mexican National guard members killed. This violence has also not just been in the Jalisco state but also nearby states like Michoacan, Guanajuato, and Colima.
Since Puerto Vallarta is a very popular destination for spring breakers this has affected many spring break plans. Students right here at Sartell High School have been affected as well. A huge senior trip was planned months in advance to go to an all inclusive trip to Puerto Vallarta, but unfortunately as soon as news broke about the cartel “war” many seniors and their families had to cancel plans.
Some airlines even canceled flights to Puerto Vallarta a whole month in advance. This caused chaos as almost 40 families had to cancel, get refunded, and rebook a spring break trip.
Senior, Mia Larcom, has vacationed to Puerto Vallarta and loves how amazing the people are. “It is super sad to see what is happening in Puerto Vallarta, this place holds a special place in my heart because my family loves to go there. It’s not only sad to see it go through all the violence but also know that I won’t get to go there on my senior trip.”
Another senior, Molly Chappell, says “It’s sad because it is such a beautiful place and it’s super unfortunate that we won’t be able to go their for our senior trip.” Molly has not been their before but was excited to get to go on vacation with all of her friends to a new place.
On the opposite side many people were vacationing while this happened. Those people are experiencing a whole different side to this. Drug raids are obviously not an uncommon occurrence, but this is a entirely different situation. Stacey Jurek, a teacher at Little Falls and was on a vacation in Puerto Vallarta when all of this went down. Besides the airport chaos and local lockdowns, she said the airport was locked down for two days but after those two days, travel was back to normal.
Jurek also said “Honestly, if we did not have social media we would not have known what was happening. At our resort, we could see black smoke from some fires but only for a short time.” She also says that lots of the scary media is AI generated so one of the hardest parts was knowing how the local community was struggling since they are heavily reliant on tourist dollars.
