Sonoma County Supervisor, D.A. Recount Escape From Mexico Cartel Violence: Report

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Among those caught in the turmoil in Mexico, Sonoma County Supervisor Rebecca Hermosillo described a tense escape Monday from her family’s home in Jalostotitlán with her 89-year-old mother.

Violence tied to the reported killing of cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes — who once lived with his family in San Francisco — triggered widespread arson and road blockades across western Mexico, forcing North Bay residents to shelter in place, reroute travel plans, and make risky trips to airports, according to reports.

Hermosillo was one of them. She told the Press Democrat that she and her mother endured a nearly three-hour drive to the Guadalajara airport after cartel violence made the toll highway impassable.
“We took a chance, mostly because my mom would run out of heart meds,” Hermosillo told the Press Democrat while waiting for a flight home. “It looked like a war zone.”

Authorities and local reports said unrest linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel — whose leader is widely known as “El Mencho” — spread across parts of Jalisco and neighboring Michoacán, with buses, cars, and businesses set on fire in cities including Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara. Hermosillo said burned buses and cars blocked stretches of roadway, forcing drivers to detour around charred vehicles along the route.

As carriers suspended flights to Puerto Vallarta, the U.S. State Department urged American nationals in the area to shelter in place, leaving tourists scrambling to rebook flights or shelter indoors while violence unfolded.

Jeffrey Holtzman, a retired Sonoma County deputy district attorney who lives near Sebastopol, told the Press Democrat that smoke from multiple fires spread across Puerto Vallarta during his vacation.
Holtzman said he and his wife first noticed a smoky haze over the Bay of Banderas before seeing large plumes rising across the city.

“Looking east over the city, it was totally engulfed in smoke,” he told the Press Democrat.
Santa Rosa native Pedro Cardona said he was visiting relatives in Uruapan when car burnings blocked major roads near his family’s neighborhood.

“There were multiple car-burnings throughout the city, blocking major arteries and entrances,” Cardona told the Press Democrat. “It lasted from morning all the way to midnight.”

Petaluma resident Jana Cosgrove told the Press Democrat that she sheltered at an Airbnb south of Puerto Vallarta’s Zona Romántica and struggled to access basic supplies. “We were told lines are an hour, two hours to get into grocery stores.”

Hermosillo told the Press Democrat that cartel activity also reached her hometown in Jalostotitlán, where attackers burned a vehicle at a main roadway entrance and set fire to a bank serving people with disabilities.

“The best correlation would be, imagine this kind of attack on a town like Sonoma,” she told the Press Democrat.
By Monday, residents and travelers reported that conditions had begun to stabilize, though public transportation and businesses reopened slowly.

George Manes, a retired newspaper editor who has lived in Puerto Vallarta for 12 years along the Rio Cuale, told the Press Democrat that he saw several smoke plumes rise across the city while military aircraft flew overhead. Manes and others emphasized that working Mexican families faced deeper uncertainty because many lacked access to large grocery stores during the shutdowns.

Despite the violence, Manes told the Press Democrat that he has no second thoughts about retiring in Puerto Vallarta.