“The tourist bubble didn’t just pop, it was incinerated.”
A couple of belle epochs ago, I spent the loveliest two weeks surfing a “secret” lefthander near Puerto Vallarta, a vibrant – read wildly gay friendly – resort city on Mexico’s Pacific coast in the state of Jalisco, right there on Bahía de Banderas, one of the largest and most beautiful bays in the world.
Every day we, and the we included the pioneer of the alley-oop, Tim Curran, a sullen boy although very good on the guitar, would board a small vessel for the thirty-minute ride to the secluded point that homed this lefthander.
The waves never got over three feet, the water temperature never under eighty, and the photo opportunities were innumerable. I have a vivid memory of walking past a dirty lil shanty home and a man in a white singlet was illuminated by a lamp as he prayed to Mary, the mother of Jesus, a popular religious figure in these parts.
Anyway, Puerto Vallarta has been plunged into turmoil following the death of Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, the longtime leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of the country’s most powerful and violent criminal organizations.
Mexican security forces announced on Sunday that Oseguera, better known as bad ol “El Mencho,” was killed during a military operation in the town of Tapalpa, Jalisco. The 59-year-old former cop, who had a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head for trafficking vast quantities of fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine into the United States, was wounded in a clash and died en route to medical treatment in Mexico City.
The killing triggered widespread retaliation by apparent CJNG affiliates. Across Jalisco and neighboring states, armed groups set vehicles ablaze, erected burning barricades on highways, narco-blockades as they call ’emthere, and disrupted transportation networks.
In Puerto Vallarta, plumes of thick black smoke rose over the city as cars, buses, and commercial sites were torched. Footage shows cartel soldiers throwing grenades down the aisles of supermarkets.
The U.S. State Department and Canadian government issued urgent advisories for citizens in Jalisco to remain indoors, maintain a low profile, and monitor developments.
Very bad etc but excellent online viewing.
The kingpin El Mencho is dead, and his soldiers have turned Jalisco into a cage. If you’re in a Puerto Vallarta resort right now, The main road is choked with the skeletons of burning buses. That’s your exit, and it’s on fire. Airlines are already pulling the plug, leaving thousands stranded in the terminal while the cartel hunts on the streets. This is the brutal math of the Mexican vacation: you save for years to get in, but you’ll pay anything to get out. The “tourist bubble” didn’t just pop, it was incinerated. Shelter in place. There is no “five-star” protection against a power vacuum
The CJNG came into mainstream relief back in 2017 when cartel members decapitated a captured police officer before flaying his 15-year-old son alive while mocking his screams.
Last time I was in Mex, 2017 or thereabouts, with Pip Toledo of all people, it was the Sinaloa cartel making everyone jump every time the door bell rang.
And it ain’t just PV.
Ever surfed around Puerto Vallarta?
Are you sad by death of El Muncho and resulting fireworks?
Or is it high time for the Mex gov to strike back against evil cartels etc.