WA tourists stuck in Puerto Vallarta as cartel retaliates for killing

Colleen Echohawk’s husband was on his way to buy pastries for breakfast Sunday morning when he noticed smoke billowing outside the walls of the Puerto Vallarta resort.

At first, he thought someone was burning tires, said Echohawk, CEO of Seattle affordable housing nonprofit Community Roots. Then the Seattle couple and their 16-year-old daughter spotted military helicopters flying overhead.

The family is among hordes of tourists – many from Washington state – still sheltering in place after the Mexican army killed the leader of one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels Sunday, prompting a swift and fiery backlash by its members.

Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, a 59-year-old known as “El Mencho, was injured in a clash with troops trying to capture him in his home state of Jalisco, where Puerto Vallarta is located. Authorities said he later died while being flown to Mexico City, according to The Associated Press.

Members of Oseguera Cervantes’ organization, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, lashed out after the killing, blocking roads with burning vehicles at more than 250 points in 20 Mexican states, the Associated Press reported. The cartel is known for trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamine into the U.S., and was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department last February.

Authorities said more than 70 people were killed during Oseguergo Cervantes’ capture and its aftermath, including 25 members of Mexico’s National Guard, according to the AP.

The unrest prompted schools and businesses across Mexico to close, airlines to cancel flights and tourists and residents to shelter in place. Echohawk and other repeat visitors to Puerto Vallarta said they watched in disbelief as part of the city, known as a safe vacation destination, burned around them.

“I’ve been here before, and I’ve always felt very safe in Puerto Vallarta,” said Echohawk, 49, in a phone call Monday. “So it felt chaotic and confusing at first.”

Eight passenger flights between the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Puerto Vallarta were canceled Sunday, Sea-Tac spokesperson Perry Cooper said. One flight between the two cities was canceled Monday and several others were delayed, according to the Port of Seattle’s flight status tracker.

For most of the year, Puerto Vallarta is Sea-Tac’s eighth-most popular international travel destination, ranking just below Los Cabos and above Cancún. Puerto Vallarta’s popularity with Seattle travelers drops to 30th place in the summertime, Cooper said.

While some parts of the country had “returned to normal” by Monday, the U.S. State Department urged U.S. citizens in Mexico to continue sheltering in place and “minimize unnecessary movements” in other areas. Among those still considered dangerous is Jalisco State.

U.S. authorities have not said how many U.S. travelers, including how many from Washington, are currently in Mexico.

Heidi Velin, of Anacortes, was supposed to fly out of Puerto Vallarta on Monday afternoon with her husband and their 15-year-old daughter.

The family traveled to Mexico on Feb. 17 for a music festival in San Pancho, an hour north of Puerto Vallarta, where Velin and her husband were performing with their band, the Enthusiasts. The three-day festival was cut short Sunday due to the unrest in Puerto Vallarta, band member Doug “Diego” Cassidy said.

The streets of San Pancho were strangely quiet when the family returned to their Airbnb. The couple decided to skip their flight home Monday in case it got canceled, which would have left them stranded in Puerto Vallarta, where it could still be dangerous.

The couple’s daughter cried Monday, not knowing when her family would be able to go home or when she would see her friends again, Velin said.

“It’s mostly just unsettling,” Velin said.

Echohawk and her family had tickets to fly back to Seattle on Sunday night. But when she went to the resort’s front desk about 4 p.m. to ask about checking out, an employee told her she couldn’t go to the airport.

“We are so grateful because we would have been arriving at the airport right when things were really exploding there with guns and fire,” she said.

Echohawk’s anxiety grew Sunday as she watched the news and saw what was unfolding outside the walls of the resort. She fielded concerned messages from family and friends, assuring them she and her family were safe.

The chaos in Puerto Vallarta had mostly calmed by Monday morning, though the skies were still hazy with smoke, she said.

Echohawk and other families from Washington staying in Mexico for winter break are still trying to figure out how to get home. Her family rebooked a flight that was canceled Monday, but they hope to get on a plane Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Echohawk has been working remotely from the resort, with access to food, water and internet. But she knows the situation outside and for locals is very different.

A Puerto Vallarta resident told Echohawk they are worried about their parent who needs medication from a pharmacy that was burned down, she said. Resort employees haven’t been able to go home since Sunday morning.

“I feel really bad for the locals,” she said. “It’s just a very surreal place to be in right now.

Gig Harbor resident John Thompson woke up Sunday in Puerto Vallarta to the sound of explosions.

The 71-year-old, a retired environmental scientist for Pierce County, went to the rooftop of his vacation condo to see huge clouds of black smoke rising from about two blocks away. Cars, buses and semi-trucks were burning on nearby streets.

This is the third time Johnson and his wife, Debbie Yeend, have vacationed in Puerto Vallarta. But they’ve never experienced anything like the chaos that unfolded Sunday. Locals they’ve spoken to said they’ve never seen anything like it either, he said.

The chaos had “simmered down” by Monday morning. Nearby restaurants were still closed and a line outside a grocery stretched for about four blocks. But burned out cars were being towed away and the smoke had mostly subsided.

Johnson said he and his wife hope to fly back to Seattle on Friday. Until then, the couple is listening to the radio and “seeing what to do.”

“Everybody’s just trying to cope with it,” he said. “I think we’re ready for home.”