B.C. travel agents navigate aftermath of cartel violence in Mexico<\/p>\n
Published 1:30 pm Wednesday, February 25, 2026<\/p>\n
The recent outbreak of cartel violence in Mexico has many tourists rethinking their holidays.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Feb. 22, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio \u201cEl Mencho\u201d Oseguera, was killed in a shootout with the Mexican Army in Tapalpa, Jalisco. El Mencho\u2019s death sparked a wave of cartel violence, with gunmen targeting law enforcement, barricading roads and setting vehicles on fire in several cities across the state of Jalisco. This included major tourist cities such as the city of Puerto Vallarta, a popular destination for Canadian tourists.<\/p>\n
During the violence, hundreds of tourists were stranded at the Puerto Vallarta International Airport as flights were cancelled across the state. In the midst of all this confusion, travel agents like Melonie Eva and her team at the Travel Agent Next Door stepped up to help their clients.<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers of my team, like Joni Davis based out of Quesnel, was on the phone not just with clients in country, in Puerto Vallarta and in Mexico, but also advocating for what\u2019s happening. She was contacting (politicians) in the regions to sort of say \u2018ok what is the Canadian government doing, is there someone who has a little more power to contact the airlines to find out if the government is helping?\u201d Eva said. \u201cAs travel agents, we are not just there to help our clients and book their vacation for them, we advocate for them and we continue, right until you come home, to hold your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eva said that she doesn\u2019t feel it\u2019s appropriate for her to comment on the ongoing political situation in Mexico at this time. As of Tuesday, Feb. 24, the situation has seemingly stabilized thanks to an increased military presence in Jalisco. However, it is unclear if this incident was an isolated event or the start of something larger.<\/p>\n
Regardless, Eva said this situation is an opportunity to remind travellers about the best practices for travelling abroad, no matter which country they go to. Eva noted that in her 30 years in the industry, the best thing you can do is be prepared for the unexpected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go prepared, it saves a lot of stress in country,\u201d Eva said.<\/p>\n
Having travel insurance and trip cancellation can be key, Eva said, if there is an unexpected cancellation of flights, as there was on Sunday. She noted that she tells her clients that insurance is really mandatory if you want to be safe while travelling the world.<\/p>\n
Eva recommends that you always register on the Government of Canada\u2019s Registration of Canadians Abroad service. By pre-registering before your trip and listing your destination, the government will be able to notify travellers of emergencies, local disasters or civil unrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will get alerts in case of an emergency. You will get step-by-step instructions on what to do in an emergency before it reaches social media and the press,\u201d Eva said. \u201cRight in the chaos (on Sunday) people were trying to register on the government site and the site was overloaded. It couldn\u2019t take the capacity and it basically froze for hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Researching the area you\u2019re travelling to beforehand is also key. Eva said that if you are already familiar with local governments or new stations, you can stay up to date on local happenings while you\u2019re there.<\/p>\n
Finally, Eva said whenever she travels, she always brings a head lamp, a power bank to charge her phone if needed and a little solar-powered light. She also always ensures she\u2019s informed someone of her travel plans.<\/p>\n
In the short term, Eva noted she and her team have already had several clients approach them about cancelling their trips to Mexico during Spring Break. Long-term, she doesn\u2019t think it will seriously impact Mexico\u2019s tourism industry, likening it to targeted shootings in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cIts a group of individuals making a statement. I\u2019m really grateful no tourists were harmed, injured or taken hostage. There is always that thought that crosses one\u2019s mind,\u201d Eva said. \u201cAt the same time, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to stop Canadians from going to Mexico. There are a lot of Canadians who reside in Puerto Vallarta for six months of the year or have homes there. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to stop them from supporting Mexico and the local Puerto Vallarta economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"B.C. travel agents navigate aftermath of cartel violence in Mexico Published 1:30 pm Wednesday, February 25, 2026 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-500703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}