A Humber College journalism student says a February vacation in Cancun turned tense and confusing after news broke that a powerful Mexican cartel leader had been killed, triggering unrest in parts of the country.
Allison Waytowich, a post-graduate journalism student, was in Cancun from Feb. 17 to Feb. 23 when Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho" and the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was killed during a Mexican military operation in the western state of Jalisco on Feb. 22.
Mexico’s federal security officials confirmed the killing was followed by retaliatory violence in parts of western Mexico, including vehicles set on fire and road blockades in Jalisco and nearby areas.
Waytowich said she did not initially grasp the severity of what had happened.
“It was the second-last night of my trip,” she said. “We were walking around trying to find a restaurant to go to for dinner, and we noticed it was like a ghost town outside. Nobody was on the streets, and usually it was pretty busy in the area.”
She said restaurants appeared to close early and businesses that would normally be open were shutting down.
“I went into a restaurant to try to sit down and eat with my family. The staff couldn’t speak English and gestured that the restaurant was closed for the day. It was the middle of the evening. It shouldn’t have been closed.”
Waytowich said she and her family were initially unaware of how serious the situation was until people back home began contacting them.
“We were oblivious to it at first,” she said. “We had no idea it was happening. It was when our friends and family started texting us to see if we were OK. That was unsettling because they were obviously getting news that we weren’t getting at the time.”
Soon after, she began receiving messages about a security alert circulating in Cancun. She described it as a shelter-in-place advisory connected to unrest following the cartel leader’s death. Although confirmed reports of violence were concentrated in western Mexico, Waytowich said the atmosphere in Cancun shifted quickly.
“There was a visible change,” she said. “No one was outside. The streets became dead.”
She was staying outside the hotel zone rather than at a resort. She said she noticed increased patrols around her accommodation that night.
“They had security patrolling the perimeter all night,” she said. “I could hear them outside with flashlights, moving around and checking things. That’s when I started to get pretty scared.”
Waytowich said her family became increasingly anxious as rumours circulated about cars being set on fire and possible blockades near Cancun.
“We’d heard that three cars had been set on fire pretty close to us,” she said. “We didn’t know if things were going to escalate in Cancun.”
Her flight out of Cancun was delayed multiple times. She and her family went to the airport at 6 a.m., hours earlier than necessary, out of concern that roads could become unsafe.
“The biggest threat was getting from where we were staying to the airport,” she said. “We didn’t know if roads were blocked or if cars were being set on fire.”
She said anxiety was visible at the airport.
“At the airport, people were crying and visibly anxious,” she said. “All the flights out of Cancun were delayed because of this. It was just high stress.”
The Canadian government’s travel advisory for Mexico advises Canadians to “exercise a high degree of caution” due to high levels of criminal activity and notes that security operations can result in road closures and disruptions in affected regions.
Waytowich said what unsettled her most was not direct violence, but difficulty accessing reliable information.
“For some reason, CBC was blocked on my phone,” she said. “A lot of the sites I normally get news from wouldn’t open.”
She said she does not know why the sites were unavailable, suggesting it may have been related to being outside Canada or using an international eSIM while travelling. She relied heavily on social media and Spanish-language local reporting, translating posts in real time as she tried to piece together what was actually happening.
“I was awake all night refreshing Twitter, now known as X, with Cancun as a keyword before flying out,” she said. “It was mostly people saying cancel your trip, don’t go to Mexico, the cartel will get you. Very fear-mongering.”
She said much of what she saw online warned that violence was “coming to Cancun,” even though she did not experience direct violence there.
“Honestly, nothing really dangerous happened to me,” she said. “It was mostly the fear around it and the widespread panic, especially at the airport and online.”
Waytowich said confirmed reporting showed significant unrest in western cities such as Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara, but in Cancun, on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, the impact was largely psychological.
Nevertheless, Global Affairs Canada suggests using a high degree of caution when in Mexico and avoiding all unnecessary travel in Jalisco.
“In Puerto Vallarta, it was chaos. Buildings on fire. Cars on fire. Airports getting shot at in Guadalajara,” she said. “But where I was, it was mostly mass panic.”
She returned to Toronto on Feb. 23 without incident. She said the experience highlighted how quickly fear can spread when verified information feels limited.
“We were kind of in the dark,” she said. “It felt like watching the country unravel on my phone without knowing whether we were in its path.”
