What is it like to have your vacation interrupted by a cartel crackdown?
“We’ve been very blessed to have all of our amenities have communication and power, water, food, and employees that are taking great care of us as they’re sheltering with us,” said Susan Saunders, a long-time morning host at WBNQ Radio in Bloomington, Ill., during a Monday interview with Audacy station KCBS Radio in the Bay Area.
Saunders is staying at a hotel around a half an hour outside of Puerto Vallarta, a popular vacation destination in Mexico.
Beautiful vistas with bright blue skies and palm tree fronds fluttering in the wind were also filled with dark smoke this Sunday in the town as an operation was carried out against Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG) and its leader. Jim Murphy of Joliet, Ill., shared videos of the smoke taken from his hotel in Puerto Vallarta Sunday with Audacy station WBBM Newsradio in Chicago.
“Flights into and out of the main airport in Puerto Vallarta have been affected and security alerts are in place for the Mexican states of Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Michoacán, Guerrero, and Nuevo Leon,” WBBM reported.
Things turned intense Sunday, resulting in the cartel leader (Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho”) being killed. Tourists from the U.S. like Saunders and Murphy were left stranded and under shelter-in-place orders.
“Special Forces of the Mexican Army planned and executed an operation in Tapalpa [in the state of Jalisco], in which various aircraft from the Air Force and the National Guard's Immediate Reaction Special Force intervened to achieve the detention of Ruben ‘N’ (a) Mencho,” said an X post from the Mexican defense department. “During this operation, military personnel were attacked, so in defense of their integrity they repelled the aggression, resulting in four members of the ‘CJNG’ criminal group dead at the scene and three seriously injured, who lost their lives during their transfer via air to Mexico City; among the latter is Ruben ‘N’ (a) Mencho.”
According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, the U.S. aided in Sunday’s operation with intelligence support.
“‘El Mencho’ was a was a top target for the Mexican and United States government as one of the top traffickers of fentanyl into our homeland,” said the White House. “Last year, President Trump rightfully designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization – because that’s exactly what it is.”
In addition to “El Mencho” and the three other CJNG members who were killed during the operation, three more were wounded and two were arrested, the White House said. Both Mexico and the U.S. praised the action as a win for national security. Still, tourists expecting time relaxing by the pool found themselves in an uneasy situation.
“The governor of Jalisco – that’s the state in which you would find Puerta Vallarta – had put down as of yesterday, a shelter in place order for everyone,” Saunders explained. She said the “cartels were creating blockades to create chaos and the way that they were doing that was setting vehicles and busses on fire on major thoroughfares.”
Amid this chaos, she said that “the airports began to evacuate all of the people that were coming in or trying to get out,” resulting in even more confusion. Even so, she said that “people have been safe.”
“I’m very happy to report that the injury level has been very low,” Saunders told KCBS Radio. “We have not been affected by people shooting at us or trying hurt people. There’s been multiple stories from locals that when they were setting a bus on fire, they first made sure to evacuate everybody off of the bus.”
Though they’re staying at a resort north of Puerto Vallarta, Saunders said they still could see the smoky haze in the distance and heard one or two loud explosions early Sunday. After considerable travel in Latin America, Saunders said this experience has been “highly unusual” and she’s worried that it will have a negative impact on tourism in Puerto Vallarta.
“This is really disastrous for those who are in the tourist industry, because it’s bad PR,” Saunders said.
So, despite the chaos, she’s planning to stay for the rest of the trip she planned and show support.
“We will not let the cartels win,” Saunders told KCBS Radio.
Rob Rose out of Audacy station WSKY in Gainesville, Fla., said that he also heard that Rynni Henderson, publisher of City Lifestyle Magazine, was also in Puerto Vallarta during the operation.
“They said that luckily they had done some produce and food shopping the day before… the resort had food for like three or four days, because they weren’t letting you out,” said Rose’s co-host Greg Cassidy.
Per the U.S. State Department, there is an ongoing security alert in multiple states across Mexico. More information is available here.