Turmoil in Puerto Vallarta
Locals say it won’t stop them from going back every winter
March 2, 2026, 9:08 am
Kara Kinna, chief editor
When cartels burned busses, cars and buildings in Puerto Vallarta on Sunday, Feb. 22 after the killing of cartel leader El Mencho by Mexican authorities, a number of local people were staying in the city and witnessed the destruction.
Both Murray Bruce and Randy and Cheryl Schiller from Moosomin were in central part of Puerto Vallarta.
They say, despite the destruction by the cartels that day, they never felt unsafe, and it seemed clear that the cartels were out to destroy property rather than hurt people.
They both say things started to get back to normal the very next day and they will continue to go to Puerto Vallarta every year for the people, food, weather, and social life it provides, despite the cartel activity that flared up on Feb. 22.
They both say they feel the destruction that day was an isolated incident.
“Sunday morning is when all the commotion started, fairly early Sunday morning. I’m right in Old Town, and that was the center spot for the for all the action,” says Muarry Bruce.
“We just stayed inside that day. All of Sunday, it was quite something. On the block that I was on, they burned every car on each side. And there were three trucks in the middle of the road, and they burnt them. There were 12 vehicles burnt in a block right beside where I was living.
“It was quite a day and for some reason they burnt the Oxxo corner stores. I don’t know what the deal was there, whether they don’t like the people that own them, but it was pretty crazy, they’re burnt all over the place, and the Kioskos, which is another corner store. They burned a few of them.
“And then busses, the darn the city bosses. They burned like over 30 city busses, which is a real shame, because that’s how that’s all the locals and tourists get around. That’s how they get to work and everything. It was kind of a shame.”
Bruce says he read about El Mencho dying early in the morning on Sunday, and then things started to flare up around 8 am.
“It just kind of spread all over. Basically what they did is they burnt vehicles. That was their goal was to burn vehicles and block roads. They used the vehicles to block the road so the police couldn’t chase them around and couldn’t follow them around. They would just stop vehicles, and they would tell the people to get out, and then they would burn the vehicle. The cartel was riding around on dirt bikes, and there would be one guy driving and one guy on the back, and he’d have either some bottles, like bottles of gas or a five gallon pail of gas. There were quite a few of them roaming around. I don’t know where they all came from all of a sudden, but they sure came in with a vengeance.”
Bruce says he stayed his condo that day.
“I didn’t have any food or anything in my in my condo, but the neighbor asked me to come over and have breakfast. So I went over there and had breakfast, and then came back and just spent the day inside. That’s pretty well what everybody did. The streets were empty and there were no vehicles moving around or anything.
“You could see all the smoke as it spread around, as they burned a vehicle. It would just turn black and there would be black smoke. And then it would die down a bit, and then there would be another big plume of black smoke going up. It was pretty wild.”
“The fire department came out the first fire or two to put something out, and then the cartel was shooting at them. It was quite a day. It was quite something. I have a bit of an understanding of what the Ukrainians feel like now being under attack for four years in a row. I have a bit of an idea what they feel like now.”
He says he doesn’t know of anyone who was injured.
“There was no word of any people getting hurt. Nothing happened to any tourists or people. They weren’t after people. They were just trying to make a point, just cause havoc.
“The cartels have never really been seen in Puerto Vallarta, and they don’t usually do stuff in Puerto Vallarta. They do it out in the country, but they’ve all always left Puerto Vallarta alone. This is the first time they’ve actually done this much damage.”
He says the flare up of destruction was short lived, isolated to Sunday, and by Monday people were starting to move around again and businesses were starting to re-open.
“On Monday everything was just kind of getting back. There wasn’t much open. There was the odd little Mexican store open, and people were lined up buying stuff, there were big lineups to the little stores. Everybody was getting water and food.
“There was no damage done on Monday at all. There was nothing. It was all over with by then.”
Bruce has been going down to Puerto Vallarto for two months every year since 2015, and says the incident with the cartel destruction on Feb. 22 will not deter him from continuing to visit each year.
“I think I’d keep coming. Everything’s right back to normal again. It’s just like nothing ever happened. There’s an odd little burnt patch here and there, and there’s about the odd bus that they haven’t got cleaned up yet, but the town has got everything all cleaned up.
“They’re wonderful people down here. They’re just straight tourist towns. There’s no other economy, no factories or anything like that. They rely on tourism, so they’re quite friendly people.
“To walk around now, you wouldn’t know anything happened. Everybody is out. The bars are all full. We’re walking around. On Monday, there wasn’t very much open, but by Tuesday, 80 per cent of the stuff was open. And then by Wednesday, it was full bore.”
Bruce says he loves that part of Mexico.
“I like the weather. It’s 28 every day, and 19 or 20 at night. It’s just the weather, and the and the food is great. The ocean’s nice too, because we don’t have many oceans in Saskatchewan,” he says with a laugh. “There’s quite a bunch of people down here now too.”
Randy and Cheryl Schiller were in a condo in the Versalles district of Puerto Vallarts, in the middle part of the city.
“We had a 360 degree view of the city from our rooftop and from our balcony,” says Randy. “And we’re on the fifth floor, so we had a pretty good view, and we noticed that smoke and fires actually started in the south of Puerto Vallarta in the Romantic Zone. The fires started there, and they slowly moved north. Next thing you know, the fires are getting a little closer the Versalles district, and then they’re on the 200 Highway.
“It was mostly vehicles and busses that were on fire and Oxxo gas stations. They burnt quite a few of them out.
“The whole thing started moving south to north, and they lit a bunch of vehicles fire in Costco. Costco was about five blocks from us.
“Out of all of this, we never, ever did feel unsafe or feel like we were in a war zone, and we still don’t feel unsafe. We’ve been out and about and it’s been just life as usual.
“I think the cartel was just trying to get the Mexican government to pay attention. They were saying ‘We’re not going to let you do this.’
“On Sunday we watched some TV and went up to the pool. And then on Monday morning, we walked around and looked at some of the burnt out vehicles and burnt out cars and some of the burnt out buildings. Even walking around on Monday. We didn’t feel unsafe.
“It was definitely an experience. But one thing about when the cartel was doing this, when they were burning the Oxxos, apparently they were going into the Oxxos and telling everybody to get out. And then they would fire bomb the Oxxo, and it was the same with the vehicles and the busses. The busses would be going down the street, and apparently they stopped the bus at gunpoint and told everybody to get out of the bus. Everybody got out of the bus, and then they fire bombed the bus.
“They didn’t want to hurt the people, and they didn’t want to hurt private business. There’s only a couple private businesses that I know that burnt.
One was a motorcycle place, and I don’t know why they burnt it. And then another one was a mattress store, but it was right beside an Oxxo. So I think the fire went from the Oxxo to the mattress store. But as far as private business goes, they sure stayed away from them. That’s what I’ve noticed.”
Schiller says they love Puerto Vallarta and will continue to visit the area every winter.
“We love the weather. Every day is perfect. And we like the people. The people are friendly, and they’re willing to help you and we’ve kind of fallen love with Puerto Vallarta.
“That’s the first time that I have ever seen any evidence of the cartel at all. You probably wouldn’t have seen any evidence of it if it wasn’t for them getting El Mencho.
“In the last few days, we’ve noticed a lot more presence of the police, the military here now. For a few days there was a helicopter flying around every once in a while, checking things out.”
He says they already have plans to go back next winter.
“Oh, we’re booked in for next year again. It’s not going to stop us,” he says. “Some people might have a different idea of it. But we’re going to come again next year.
“We’re coming home pretty quick on March 4, but we come here for two months every year—for January, February. And we meet up with Murray quite a bit.
Murray introduced us to a lot of his friends down here. Our social life in Puerto Vallarta is three times of what it is in Moosomin. We could go out every night if we wanted to. And the restaurants down here, and the food—the restaurants are endless. You could come here for three months and not eat in the same restaurant, and there are so many varieties of food. There’s a lot of Mexican, of course, but there’s also Italian, there’s Vietnamese, there’s Chinese—it’s pretty much whatever you want. And your attire is flip flops, shorts and T-shirts, even in the evenings.
“Puerto Vallarta is a great place to visit. I think what happened that day was just a one-day tantrum by the cartels.”
