In February 2026, I spent a few weeks in Puerto Vallarta before traveling to Oaxaca for work. I woke up on the Sunday that I was scheduled to fly from Puerto Vallarta to Oaxaca and like most of my mornings, I opened the patio doors, made breakfast. I noticed a dark cloud in the air and thought, I was lucky that my entire trip to Vallarta was rain and cloud free. I walked out on the patio and saw black smoke raising up in the barrios of the mountains.
I thought okay, not clouds, but possibly an Easter Sunday religious practice?
Nope... - soon I realized that the Mexican government had killed Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes of the CJNG cartel. The local members began disrupting daily activities in the city by setting cars and buses on fire.
These images are taken from the my apartment roof in Versailles neighborhood. They look ominous, but two things happened that made this event more safe than people realize.
One - weirdly there was no wind that day. This meant all the toxic smoke rose straight up allowing people to stay in their apartments rather than get forced out by toxic air.
Two - In PV, I didn't hear of much violence against people in general. The cartel's goal seemed to be shutting down the economy for a couple of days vs going after people.
For me personally, it became an inconvenience that I was unable to fly out on my scheduled departure day and nothing more.
