Ontarians on vacation ‘flabbergasted’ as tensions in Mexico escalate

Ontarians staying in Mexico are in disbelief after tensions between cartels and the military began to escalate Sunday morning.

Puerto Vallarta, in the Mexican state of Jalisco, is under a shelter in place. Criminal groups have set up roadblocks, lit local businesses on fire and gunshots have been heard in several cities across southwestern Mexico. The violence was triggered after ‘El Mencho,’ the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was killed during a clash with military special forces.

Port Stanley, Ont., resident Susan Merucci, who is staying at a hotel in Puerto Vallarta, says she was “flabbergasted” by the situation, especially as she’s been visiting Mexico with her husband for more than 32 years.

“It was just unbelievable,” she told CBC Toronto Sunday. “We’ve never had a problem in all of the time that we’ve been coming down here.”

The Government of Canada issued regional advisories for parts of Mexico Sunday and advised that travellers “exercise a high level of caution.” The federal government is “closely monitoring the situation,” Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said in a statement.

Merucci has been in Mexico since December and will remain there until April, when she’s supposed to fly back after avoiding the Canadian winter.

“It’s definitely eerie and scary, because normally you see people on the street and the streets are full of buses, cars and taxis,” she said. “[Now] it’s just like a ghost town.”

Merucci says grocery stores a few blocks down from their hotel have been targeted.

“It is pretty scary here, especially when we don’t even know what’s going to happen.”

For Robert McBride, who is a Torontonian staying at a hotel in Puerto Vallarta, there’s some anxiety and uncertainty.

“I heard a bit of an explosion. And then I see really thick black smoke just billowing all over the place. So that set off an alarm bell for sure,” he told CBC Toronto Sunday.

McBride was supposed to come back to Toronto Sunday, after a three-week vacation, but his flight was one of many cancelled. He was rebooked to fly back on March 8, but McBride said that wasn’t going to work.

“I actually had to cancel my flight and get a refund. And now I [have] to try and find a way out of here,” he said. “It was an arduous process that really resulted in nothing.”

“There’s nothing that can’t be resolved.”

In a statement on social media, the Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP) said internal operations and safety within facilities were not impacted at Puerto Vallarta International Airport.

“The airport is under the protection of personnel from the National Guard (GN) and the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA), as part of ongoing coordination efforts with federal authorities,” the GAP said.

Top cartel boss killed as violence engulfs Puerto Vallarta and several states, Mexico says

But, it noted airlines have cancelled all international operations and most domestic flights to the airport.

“We urge passengers and users to remain calm and follow all instructions provided by airport personnel at all times,” the statement reads. “Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico recommends that passengers traveling through Puerto Vallarta Airport remain in contact with their airlines for updates regarding changes to their itineraries.”

Toronto Metropolitan University professor emeritus Paul Knox, who specializes in Latin American politics and society, said Mexico has been undergoing a transition from a one-party state to a pluralist system for the past 40 years — a shift that has freed central control of the state and allowed criminal organizations to control regions.

But pressure from the U.S. to crack down on the organizations has created the ongoing situation, Knox said.

“Obviously, if you’re as powerful and as ruthless as these organizations are, you don’t take that kind of thing lightly,” he told CBC Toronto Sunday. “This is the cartel resisting these efforts by the Mexican forces to exert control. It’s by no means certain how this is going to play out.”

According to Knox, the cartels have been known to penetrate places such as hotels and use staff information to carry out robberies and kidnappings.

“Even in quiet times, there’s always a heightened risk,” he said. “Now there is definitely a need to be a lot more vigilant about what you do, where you go, when you do it. Really watching travelling [in the] dark and really thinking carefully about traveling outside these cities.”

“Mexico would like the tourist dollars to keep coming, but they also don’t want to be having to make arrangements for a whole lot of bodies to be flown out,” he said. “Mexican culture is amazing, one of the world’s great cultures, frankly, and I just think we need to keep that in our thoughts and Mexicans in our hearts.”