Mexican tourist town erupts into war as cartel clashes with army, foreigners warned to seek shelter

This is extraordinary. Mexico's most powerful drug cartel, cartel bosses, has been killed in a military operation. His name is Nemi Cio Oseguera, commonly known as El Mencho, who was targeted by Mexico's military in an operation in the state of Jalisco. Multiple vehicles and shops across the state have been set on fire in response to the killing of the drug lord.

Now, members of organised crime have also been clashing with authorities as waves of violence that have spread over five other states. And this is just the beginning, it would seem. Joining me now is Ryan Vojti-Lanin. He is from Vancouver, from British Columbia, but he is a tourist staying in this area of Porto Vallarta, which many people would know. Ryan, good to see you. What did you see?

What's happening right there now? Are you trapped?

We're essentially trapped. This morning, we were actually, my partner and I were supposed to be flying out of Porto Vallarta back to Vancouver. And we were actually notified by a friend of ours, because we're in an Airbnb that kind of faces

at an inner courtyard. So it's fairly quiet where we are, only to find out from our friend about exactly what was going on. No sooner did we do that, we went outside and checked through from the rooftop because we weren't allowed out the front door, that there were multiple fires going on in Puerto Vallarta, including where I am in the zona romantica, which is the old town Puerto Vallarta.

Right, so have you been told by your airline that they are still running flights out of there? I mean, what's the advice from the authorities?

At this point, my understanding from the local airport authority that all flights have now been cancelled. It was actually the carriers themselves that were cancelling flights first. But the airport actually, when I'm following them, was actually saying that they're open. Just allow extra time to get here.

Since then, all of the major carriers, the Canadian carriers that I know of anyway, have all cancelled their flights into tomorrow so far. And I'm hearing some people are getting reservations now or rebookings until at least Thursday, if not farther into the future.

And that's if this unrest that's currently occurring kind of winds down.

Wow, I haven't been where you are right now, but it's certainly a beautiful place of the world. Many tourists go there. And Mexico has always tried to keep the cartels and the tourists separate and the cartels I guess is this kind of unwritten law that you know tourists are off limits it's important part of the economy but this seems to be a point at the moment where

worlds have collided. We're hearing reports of burnt out buses, burnt out cars, but not just the one or two we're showing you right now on the screen, but littered all the way from where you are, which would be the main thoroughfare to get to the airport. Have you heard anything about that?

I have heard about that and apparently this is all part of their strategy to stop people from stopping people movement. And I've seen while I was up on the roof, there was actually a point where I saw a group of people on motorbikes that actually pushed a car into one of those intersections here in Old Town and set it alight, as well as the bus that was right next to the OXO, which is a local kind of a corner store supermarket, which I understand a whole

bunch of them were actually targeted throughout the city. And just before I went live on air with you guys, I was hearing helicopters overhead and a friend of mine, who was also supposed to be flying home today, who's at a hotel nearby, just let me know that the local pharmacy, the big one that's in Old Town here, has also now been set ablaze and it's currently on

fire as well. Ryan thanks so much for bringing us, well joining our live broadcast today and bringing some insights there because it is hard to get information out of Mexico at the moment. So we really appreciate you painting the picture and safe journey home. information out of Mexico at the moment. So we really appreciate you painting the picture and safe journey home.

Certainly, thank you so much.