Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, is a wonderful place, said a Wyoming resident who rents a vacation home there. But on Sunday it erupted into a violent hellscape, as vengeful drug cartel gangsters went on a rampage after the government killed their leader.
“Sunday was a day from hell. We didn’t know what was going on. There were explosions and smoke and fire and gunfire,” Lindy Be Hughes told Cowboy State Daily.
She and her husband, Matthew, rent a house there. They were enjoying a quiet day at home, until the city erupted into a war zone.
Tourists and residents were ordered to shelter in place. But the Hughes defied the curfew and went out after dark to deliver food to a group of seven Canadian college students, who were trapped in an Airbnb rental, with only three packs of Ramen noodles between them.
‘They Were Enacting Their Revenge’
Puerto Vallarta is one of Mexico’s most popular tourist destinations, with a busy airport and cruise ship docks. It was one of the hardest-hit locations by the cartels after the government killed a kingpin on Sunday.
Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the head of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was killed in a Mexican military strike, aided by U.S. intelligence. The cartels struck back with violent attacks across the country.
The cartels seemed hell-bent on “terrifying tourists” and disrupting infrastructure, Hughes said.
“They took over the buses and lit things on fire. They were enacting their revenge and trying to hit the Mexican government where it hurts, because tourism is the lifeblood of the government’s economy,” she said.
“They crashed a bus through the wall of a restaurant” near her neighborhood, she said.
OXXO convenience stores are a favorite among residents and tourists. Hughes said there are several in her neighborhood, and the cartels targeted them.
“They burned every single one of them,” she said.
OXXO convenience stores are popular in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where Thermopolis residents Lindy and Matthew Hughes rent a vacation home. The stores were a favored target of cartel gangsters seeking vengeance for their leader’s killing on Sunday. (Courtesy Lindy Be Hughes) 
Parts of the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, after drug cartel gangsters went on a rampage in the wake of the government killing their leader. (Courtesy Lindy Be Hughes) 
Parts of the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, after drug cartel gangsters went on a rampage in the wake of the government killing their leader. (Courtesy Lindy Be Hughes) 
Parts of the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, after drug cartel gangsters went on a rampage in the wake of the government killing their leader. (Courtesy Lindy Be Hughes)
Told Not To Go Out
The local community of Puerto Vallarta shatters negative stereotypes of life in Mexico, Hughes said.
The people are friendly and neighborhoods are close-knit, she said.
“I have girlfriends who are single, who walk home alone at night with no fear at all,” she said.
Hughes said that she and her husband had relatives over for an extended visit, and they had only just gone back home. So, she was relaxing and cleaning the house, expecting a quiet day on Sunday, when plumes of smoke started popping up everywhere.
Then came the sounds of explosions, and “rapid-fire gunshots” as gangsters and government troops clashed.
The word came out that everybody was ordered to hunker down where they were. Hughes said she felt thankful to have been at home.
Some of her neighbors were at a nearby shopping center and “were trapped there for hours,” she said.
Americans were cautioned not to venture out.
“We were told that if they (cartel members) saw Americans on the street, they would shoot you,” Hughes said.
Tow truck crews were out early this week Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, hauling off burned-out vehicles set ablaze by vengeful drug cartel gangsters, after the government killed their leader. (Courtesy Lindy Be Hughes) 
Parts of the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, after drug cartel gangsters went on a rampage in the wake of the government killing their leader. (Courtesy Lindy Be Hughes)
‘Yay, We Get To Eat!’
Hughes said she keeps her house “well stocked” with food and was more than happy to share as the neighborhood went into lockdown.
She got word that the father of a Canadian college student was worried, because his daughter was stuck in an Airbnb with no food.
That night, as things started to calm down a bit, the Hughes decided to risk venturing out, to bring the student some food.
“We drove there in the dark, with the headlights off,” she said.
Initially, she was expecting to find “a couple of teenage girls.”
It turned out, seven famished students were holed up in the Airbnb.
One of them was Savannah Rossouw of Vancouver, British Columbia.
“Lindy was so nice. My dad found her somehow and told her that we needed help,” she said.
The students had gone to Mexico on spring break and were planning to catch a flight out at 3 p.m. on Sunday, so they had almost no supplies.
“We had only three packs of Ramen, and we were splitting a pack of Ramen between seven of us” when the Hughes showed up, she said.
They realized more food was needed and made a second run.
“She came over again, when they weren’t even supposed to leave their house. And she brought over so much food. It was great. We were like, ‘Yay, we get to eat!’” Rossouw said.
By Tuesday, things had calmed down enough that some of her friends caught flights back to Canada. She and the others planned to fly out Thursday and Friday.
Thanks to Hughes, they have plenty of fresh food, Rossouw said.
“She’s so sweet,” she said.
‘They Are Rapidly Cleaning Up’
By midday Tuesday, the city was nearly fully reopened, Hughes said.
She spoke to Cowboy State Daily while on her way to a salon to get her fingernails done.
Despite the gangsters lashing out, Puerto Vallarta has hardly missed a beat, she said.
“They are rapidly cleaning up,” she said, as tow truck crews were busy hauling off the burnt-out husks of vehicles.
“The restaurant wall where they drove the bus through is already being rebuild and repainted,” she added.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
