Students are rethinking their spring break travel plans to Puerto Vallarta because of the death of a prominent cartel leader. <\/p>\n
The Mexican military shot and killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or \u201cEl Mencho,\u201d the leader of Jalisco New Generation Cartel (JNGC) on Feb. 22. Cervantes was killed in Jalisco State, which set off retaliatory violence, including roadblocks and burning vehicles.<\/p>\n
More than 70 people died in the attempt to capture Cervantes in Tapalpa, Mexico, authorities said Monday. Victims included security forces, suspected cartel members and others. <\/p>\n
This comes as many USC students are planning to travel to Puerto Vallarta, Cabo and even the state of Jalisco. <\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of State currently advises Americans not to travel to these Mexican states: Colima, Guerrero, Michoaca\u0301n, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas. These areas have high levels of cartel and gang violence, kidnapping risk and limited capacity for U.S. authorities to assist travelers in an emergency.<\/p>\n
Connor Tuite, a senior at USC majoring in communications, said his group chat, once filled with dinner reservations and activity plans, has shifted to conversations about safety alerts and travel insurance. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t buy anything until a week ago, and we didn\u2019t get any travel insurance because we thought, \u2018What could go wrong?\u2019\u201d Tuite said. \u201cIt was honestly comical how the timing worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder no circumstances will you be going to Mexico for Spring Break,\u201d said one of the moms in Tuite\u2019s spring break group. <\/p>\n
Mat\u00edas Levan, a USC senior double-majoring in film and television production and theater, said he initially did not realize the seriousness of the situation. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn Colombia, I grew up hearing about events like this in the news,\u201d Levan said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a little different for me because sometimes something big happens and it\u2019s over in a week, which is why [the] mentality is more like we need to wait a week to see how the situation evolves before making a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, he acknowledged the uncertainty facing students. <\/p>\n
Nearly 4.2 million international travelers visit Mexico during March, according to Mexico\u2019s national statistics agency INEGI<\/a>. According to the most recent data<\/a> from the Mexican Secretary of Tourism, over one million travelers flew into the Puerto Vallarta airport in the first half of 2022. <\/p>\n While students debate refunds and rescheduled flights, for residents of Puerto Vallarta, like Natalia Osuna, the situation is not about a vacation \u2013 it\u2019s their livelihood. <\/p>\n Osuna\u2019s parents own Xalli Club, a restaurant and beach club in Puerto Vallarta. She explained tourism is the backbone of the local economy, particularly during \u201chigh season.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cSpring break has always been one of the biggest periods that local businesses rely on,\u201d Osuna said. \u201cDuring the off-season, the slow business days, we know it\u2019ll pick up come March through April.\u201d<\/p>\n Osuna emphasized the violence on Feb. 22 was unexpected and \u201cnot representative of daily life in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n She called her parents, who explained that most of the unrest occurred on Sunday, and residents were instructed to stay home. <\/p>\n \u201cFor people to see this and understandably be scared to travel there, we don\u2019t want them to think this is what the city is,\u201d Osuna said. \u201cIt\u2019s so much more than that.\u201d <\/p>\n For local business owners, the stakes extend beyond a single week in March. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re lucky that we have the option to just stay in L.A. if we want to,\u201d Tuite, the student traveling to Puerto Vallarta, said. \u201cSome people don\u2019t have the choice to just cancel their travel plans.\u201d<\/p>\n As students wait for updated travel advisories, many remain in limbo. <\/p>\n For students like Tuite and Levan, their spring break plans come with perspective. <\/p>\n \u201cOf course, part of me thinks, \u2018That sucks if we can\u2019t go on our trip,\u2019\u201d Levan said. \u201cBut then we\u2019re very privileged to be here and be safe. There are people who live in Puerto Vallarta, and this isn\u2019t spring break for them. It\u2019s their reality.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students are rethinking their spring break travel plans to Puerto Vallarta because of the death of a prominent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,2457,89289,89182,95765,3533],"class_list":{"0":"post-214465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-la","9":"tag-la-headlines","10":"tag-la-news","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","13":"tag-los-angeles-news","14":"tag-mexico","15":"tag-nemesio-oseguera-cervantes","16":"tag-puerto-vallarta","17":"tag-spring-break","18":"tag-usc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}