{"id":177468,"date":"2026-02-24T04:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/177468\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T04:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:17:07","slug":"flights-from-mexico-land-in-austin-after-cartel-leaders-death-sparks-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/177468\/","title":{"rendered":"Flights from Mexico land in Austin after cartel leader\u2019s death sparks violence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Travelers arriving in Austin from Mexico on Monday described heightened anxiety and visible tension after a weekend of violence erupted across parts of the country following the killing of the leader of one of Mexico\u2019s most powerful drug cartels.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple flights from Mexico \u2014 including from Mexico City, Cancun, and Monterrey \u2014 touched down in Austin on Monday, with passengers saying they were relieved to be back in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Shawn Watkins, an Austin traveler who had been vacationing in Mexico City for five days, said conditions began to change toward the end of his trip.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCreating a lot of anxiety, obviously. A lot of random texts from people you don&#8217;t usually talk to,\u201d Watkins said.<\/p>\n<p>Watkins said he noticed \u201chigher police presence\u201d and that people were \u201cbeing a lot more skeptical\u201d as the situation escalated.<\/p>\n<p>Other travelers arriving in Austin said they were concerned for family members still in Mexico. Derek Locano, who said his mother and family live in Veracruz, described what he said unfolded there over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKind of dangerous. There were shootings and explosions,\u201d Locano said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/governor-abbott-orders-increased-dps-operations-after-killing-of-cartel-leader\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ALSO| Governor Abbott orders increased DPS Operations after killing of cartel leader<\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to the Associated Press, vehicles were set on fire and roads were blocked by armed individuals.<\/p>\n<p>Locano, who said he lives in Monterrey and was traveling to Austin for work, said he feels safer in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKind of, I mean, obviously I feel safer here,&#8221; He said. &#8220;It&#8217;s kind of sad. There&#8217;s nothing we can do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In response to the violence, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to enhance public safety and homeland security operations across the state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWorking to maintain the safety and security of our fellow Texans who are currently in Mexico and making sure we get them home safely,\u201d Abbott said.<\/p>\n<p>FlightAware showed a private charter flight from Puerto Vallarta to Austin on Monday afternoon, but its landing location could not be accessed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Travelers arriving in Austin from Mexico on Monday described heightened anxiety and visible tension after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-177468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}