Travellers from ‘Peg excited to fly to Mexico despite recent violence

Winnipeggers who were heading to Puerto Vallarta Tuesday said they plan to enjoy their holiday despite recent drug cartel-related violence in the Mexican tourist zone.

“I’m excited to be on the beach, honestly,” Jada King told the Free Press while printing her boarding pass at the Winnipeg Richardson International Airport Tuesday morning.

The federal government has advised travellers to Mexico to be cautious after flights resumed following the eruption of violence on the weekend. Mexican special forces captured drug cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes in the state of Jalisco; he died in custody while being taken to Mexico City on Sunday.

Jalisco New Generation Cartel members set businesses on fire and put up burning blockades in 20 Mexican states in retaliation.

On Tuesday morning, four flights left Winnipeg for Mexico: two WestJet flights and one Air Canada flight to Cancun, and a WestJet flight to Puerto Vallarta. Four flights from Mexico are expected to land in Winnipeg Tuesday night.

King and her partner were supposed to leave for Puerto Vallarta on Monday to visit King’s parents, who have been renting a condo in the area since Jan. 31, but their connecting flight in Edmonton was cancelled.

“Everything is kind of back to normal now, so I’m not as scared to go there anymore.”

Air Canada, Air Transat, WestJet and Porter Airlines all announced they would be resume flights to and from Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday after violence in Mexico led to diversions and cancellations over the weekend.

Locals and tourists alike were told to shelter in place Sunday after the leader of a drug cartel was reportedly killed as part of a government operation, sparking a wave of violence across the country, including shootouts and fires.

King said her parents were in “complete lockdown” from their condo and were able to see smoke from cars and buses being burned from their patio.

“But my dad was talking to a local, and (the cartel) just wanted to make their presence known, and everything is kind of back to normal now, so I’m not as scared to go there anymore,” she said.

King wasn’t alone Tuesday morning. Brandy Bodnarchuk and her husband were meeting friends at a resort in Puerto Vallarta for the week.

“From what my friends told me, it’s over-dramatized, and it’s not as bad as it’s made out to be,” Bodnarchuk said.

“From what my friends told me, it’s over-dramatized, and it’s not as bad as it’s made out to be.”

She said she was more worried that her Tuesday flight would be cancelled than she was about going to Mexico.

“It’s crazy wherever you go in the world, so it’s a chance anywhere,” she said.

Global Affairs Canada has issued a travel advisory for anyone headed to Mexico to “exercise a high degree of caution.”

More than 55,000 Canadians in Mexico had registered with Global Affairs Canada as of Tuesday morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Tuesday.

“The situation in Mexico is becoming more stable,” she told reporters, but described circumstances in some regions as “volatile.”

Lori Kiesman, from the community of Rivers, hunkered down with her husband in a condo complex in the village of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, about 20 kilometres from Puerto Vallarta.

“We’re sitting by the beach right now, across from Puerto Vallarta, and we can hear plane after plane landing,” she said Tuesday afternoon. “They’re all coming in.”

She said life is largely back to normal in the village she’s staying.

“Sadly, it’s a part of their life, the cartel, but they seem to deal with it, and once they’ve dealt with it, they move on.”

They have a flight to return to Winnipeg Saturday.

Martha Bradbury, who was at the Winnipeg airport Tuesday for a business trip to Toronto, had been in the Mexican resort community of Nuevo Vallarta 10 days prior.

She visits every year, and said the news hasn’t shaken her resolve or made her consider cancelling her next trip in November.

“We feel safe. We will continue to feel safe. We love going to Mexico … This is not going to stop us from going,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s the intent of these (cartel) attacks, but I am not going to let it scare me from going back to a place that I love to go to.”

— with files from The Canadian Press

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca