Six different attacks resulted in the deaths of 25 Mexican National Guard members after the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was killed by special forces in Western Mexico.
Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, who was also known as ``El Mencho’’ ran one of Mexico’s fastest growing criminal networks that’s primarily been known for trafficking various illicit drugs to the U.S. and attacking government officials.
The death of Cervantes in a shootout near Puerto Vallarta saw cartel members respond by committing various acts of violence like burning vehicles.
Former BellMedia employee Janine Kraft was a resident of Northern BC. She currently lives in Puerto Vallarta and described her experience of when the attacks took place and what she’s heard about them since;
“We started hearing gunfire close and explosions of vehicles close to our neighbourhood. I’m sure a lot of people have seen Costco and the damage done to vehicles. To give you an idea, Costco’s just across the street from us so when the explosions started, all you saw was smoke. All we could hear was artillery fire and we went on lockdown in our homes. It was about six hours of nonstop explosions and gunfire. We were basically told that the cartel was running around on motorcycles. There’s still spot fires that they’re putting out in the City and it wasn’t just our area, it was the entire City. It was also on complete lockdown all over the City. There was ten states affected by yesterday’s issue. To hear the explosions and the gunfire so close was very scary. We just kept praying that it was going to end. I was expecting people on motorcycles or the Military to come storming down the street but they never did. It was limited to specific areas targeting businesses, not civilians or tourists. We have heard that civilians were targeted here in Puerto Vallarta and that’s not true at all.”