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Some Manitobans have been caught in the violent turmoil that’s shaken up the Mexican city of Puerto Vallarta following a special operation that took down the leader of a powerful drug cartel.
Global Affairs Canada has issued a travel advisory for the coastal city west of Mexico City and other parts of the Mexican state of Jalisco, saying it is under a shelter-in-place order.
The agency says there are just under 19,000 Canadians in Mexico at the moment, including nearly 5,000 in Jalisco.
Winnipegger Ed Johner said he was out for a walk Sunday morning when he noticed smoke from all around the bay in the coastal city. He said he thought it was a wildfire at first.
“As I walked downtown along the malecon, I saw a couple of cars burning on a side street,” he told CBC News.
“I stopped and talked to someone on the malecon and they had said that they had heard that there was cartel issues.
“I’m starting to get quite concerned,” Johner said. “We heard down below us what actually sounded like yelling and gunfire, and then a bunch of guys taking off on motorcycles, so I don’t know what that was all about, but it’s not good.”
The mass violence flared as federal authorities announced it had launched a special forces operation to capture Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Oseguera Cervantes was wounded in a clash with federal authorities and died from his injuries while enroute to Mexico City, the Secretariat of National Defence said in a statement.
Jalisco’s governor said on social media Sunday afternoon all public transport will remain suspended until the situation is under control, saying some individuals had burned vehicles and set up road blocks to impede the authorities.
Tegan Monforton, who lives in Steinbach, said the sky was so dark that she thought a storm was rolling in on Sunday morning.
She said she could see black smoke billowing up from fires below the balcony of her Airbnb in downtown Puerto Vallarta, estimating about 20 fires from her vantage point alone.
The inside of her Airbnb, where she has been staying with her 13-year-old daughter, was smoky due to the open-walled layout. She said they’re lockdown there and have been running low on food.
“It was absolute chaos,” Monforton said of the violence, adding several fires were set along the coastline after motorcycles roared through the streets. “There was fire after fire.”
Monforton said she had initially planned to leave on Feb. 18, but chose to stay in Mexico a little longer.
“We’re supposed to leave on the 25th but I don’t know if that’s going to go down now,” she said. “I wish I didn’t extend our stay.”
Global Affairs Canada has updated its travel advisory for the coastal city of Puerto Vallarta and other parts of the Mexican state of Jalisco following a sudden explosion of violence that has seen road blockades with burning vehicles and clashes between federal authorities and armed groups.
Winnipeg resident Lorenzo Dufrane told CBC News he was checking out of his hotel when he noticed the commotion.
“The maids were coming in and they were crying,” he said.
“We get in our Uber and then in our Uber we had to keep … turning all these corners and stuff because in the distance we’d see cars and buses on fire.”
Dufrane said he could see men on motorcycles armed with machine guns as he tried to get to the airport.
The Uber driver “was like, ‘No. Everything is shut down. The airport is shut down. We can’t drive you there,'” Dufrane said, later adding he was sheltering inside a restaurant with about 11 other people, mostly locals.
“Everyone’s been kind of waved off the street.”
‘Lots of confusion’
Michael Blashko said every guest at the Airbnb where he’s staying at are remaining in their rooms.
“Heard sporadic gunfire throughout the day,” he said. “Just lots of confusion. Lots of guests who realized they didn’t have any food in their rooms or anything.”
Flights between Winnipeg and Puerto Vallarta have been cancelled amid the surge in violence, including a WestJet flight set to depart from Richardson Airport on Sunday afternoon.
Two flights that were to arrive in Winnipeg Sunday evening and early Monday morning are currently listed as cancelled.
