Many flights in and out of Puerto Vallarta and other Mexican cities were canceled on Sunday, amid a wave of arson fires and other activities by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and American tourists were told to shelter in place and avoid areas of law enforcement activity.

It was a scary day Sunday in many parts of Mexico, particularly around the coastal state of Jalisco, where a cartel was taking their revenge out on the public at large following the killing of their leader, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” in a military operation.

Puerto Vallarta, the popular tourist city with a significant LGBTQ draw, is typically spared from cartel violence, however that changed Sunday, with reports of businesses set on fire, cars disabled by spike strips and then set on fire, and noxious smoke filling beachside resorts.

As the New York Times reports, many major US airlines suspended flights into and out of Puerto Vallarta's airport Sunday, however some flights appear to have resumed on Monday. A look at United Airlines flights Monday morning showed several inbound flights to PVR, leaving from SFO and Denver, already in flight.

Shasta Townsend, a Canadian who lives in Puerto Vallarta, tells the Times that "order has been restored" as of Monday, though it may be temporary. Others described seeing locals lined up at the remaining grocery stores that were undamaged, hoarding staples like loaves of bread, prepping for worse things to come.

El Mencho was killed in an operation Sunday morning that was carried out by Mexican special forces. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt subsequently announced that the US had provided intelligence that aided the operation, saying in a statement, "‘El Mencho’ was a top target for the Mexican and United States government as one of the top traffickers of fentanyl into our homeland."

David Mora, analyst for International Crisis Group in Mexico, explains to the Associated Press, "Ever since President [Claudia] Sheinbaum has been in power, the army has been way more confrontational, combative against criminal groups in Mexico. This is signaling to the US that if we keep cooperating, sharing intelligence, Mexico can do it, we don’t need US troops on Mexican soil."

Per the AP, the DEA believes the Jalisco cartel to be as powerful as the larger Sinaloa cartel, which has been weakened by the loss of its leaders, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who are both in US custody.

The US issued a security alert covering a wide swath of Mexico, including the Cancun and the Yucatan peninsula on the east coast of the country. That alert was modified on Monday, and the US government said "the situation has returned to normal" in Quintana Roo, the state that is home to Cancun, Tulum, Cozumel, and Playa del Carmen.

In Puerto Vallarta, however, the government said Monday that "flights continue to be disrupted due to availability of flight crews."

Top image via heddalettuceofficial/Instagram

Top image: A group of people wait in the street for the end of a 6.5 earthquake on January 2, 2026 in Mexico City, Mexico. According to initial reports, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter in San Marcos city of Guerrero state, shook southern and central Mexico without causing significant damage. (Photo by Cristopher Rogel Blanquet/Getty Images)

Emergency officials have issued dire warnings to residents of Southern California as Tropical Storm Hilary, previously a hurricane, bears down on the region. Hilary made landfall Sunday morning on the Baja California peninsula and is expected to continue its path north throughout the day, after Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Saturday. He said over 7,500 emergency workers are on the ground, actively working to safeguard communities in the storm's path.

Although downgraded to a tropical storm from a hurricane over the weekend, Hilary is expected to unleash heavy rainfall, powerful winds, and life-threatening flooding, according to the Chronicle. Already on Saturday, one person was reported dead from drowning Mexico on the peninsula’s eastern coast, as NBC reported.

Hilary is reportedly projected to target Southern California by the afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center. In California, a flash flood warning has been issued for Los Angeles County, including Long Beach, Glendale, Santa Clarita, Lancaster, Palmdale, and Malibu, on Sunday until 7:45 p.m. P.T. Evacuation orders were issued for various neighborhoods in San Bernardino County, as ABC reported. The storm's path is predicted to trigger mudslides, landslides, and dangerous debris flow across the region, with the impact extending through Monday morning.

The southern coast is expected to experience record rainfall, according to the National Weather Service.

Residents are reportedly flocking to grocery stores, eager to stock up on essential supplies like food and water in anticipation of the storm. Meanwhile, airports across the region have encouraged travelers to verify their flight statuses with their respective airlines, as cancellations and delays are anticipated due to the severe weather conditions brought on by Tropical Storm Hilary, according to the Chronicle.

Luckily, forecasters say that the Bay Area doesn't expect an impact.

Feature image of Hilary over Southern California viewed Sunday via NOAA/GOES-18 Satellite.

San Mateo resident Monica De Leon Barba, who was kidnapped in Mexico eight months ago while she was out walking her dog, has been found safe and is coming home, the FBI said Saturday.

In a statement issued on Saturday, officials from San Francisco's FBI division confirmed that De Leon Barba, 29, is currently en route to the U.S. following her release by her unidentified captors.

The agonizing ordeal began on November 29, 2022, when De Leon Barba was last seen being forced into a van while walking home from work with her dog in Tepatitlán, a city about an hour northeast of Guadalajara, as KPIX reported. According to Hoodline, she had grown up and lived most of her life in California, before moving to Mexico to pursue job opportunities in photography.

Shortly after the kidnapping, the FBI launched an investigation into her disappearance. As SFGate reported, FBI agents determined that she was the subject of a “targeted kidnapping” who was abducted by at least 5 people. The FBI had released surveillance videos of the kidnapping and offered a $40,000 reward for information.

Robert K. Tripp, the special agent in charge of the case, said that he felt “relief and joy” at her return.

“The FBI investigation is far from over, but we can now work this case knowing an innocent victim is reunited with her family," Tripp stated. "On behalf of the FBI, I want to extend my sincere thanks to our law enforcement partners, to the family, and to the San Mateo community for their continued engagement and advocacy. They never forgot Monica, and neither did we."

No arrests of her captors have been made yet, but De Leon Barba’s family is grateful. Her older brother made a heartfelt post on Facebook on Saturday expressing his overwhelming excitement upon learning of Monica's return, according to the Chronicle.

"Hello everyone, for the first time in a very long time, we have good news! I need to thank every single person that helped my family and me through this entire ordeal. We can all finally close this chapter in our lives and work on the long road of healing we have ahead. Thank all of you so much," it read.

Feature image of Monica De Leon Barba via FBI.

An ecologist and field biologist who was in graduate school at UC Berkeley was found dead last week in the Mexican state of Sonora, killed in his car in what sounds like a cartel-style hit while he was out collecting plants.

Gabriel Trujillo, 31, was found dead on June 22, sitting in his SUV, after he had gone out on a plant-collecting day trip in a remote part of Sonora. As the Associated Press reports, Trujillo was studying a flowering shrub called the common buttonbush, and he was interested in how it thrived in so many varied habitats across North America.

The last anyone heard from Trujillo, he had spoken to his fiancée, Roxanne Cruz-de Hoyos, on the morning of June 19. He had driven into Mexico from Arizona two days earlier, crossing at Nogales, and he was staying in an Airbnb while he did his field work. As Cruz-de Hoyos tells the AP, she was undergoing fertility treatment and the couple was going to try to start a family — and this was to be Trujillo's last trek before they got married and started trying to get pregnant.

Cruz-de Hoyos says that she immediately flew down to Mexico after she couldn't get ahold of Trujillo — they normally would talk multiple times in a day — and when his Airbnb hosts said his belongings were still at the place but he had not returned.

On June 22, Trujillo's body was found 62 miles from the Airbnb. Mexican authorities have not revealed anything about a cause of death, nor have they called this a murder, the AP reports. The NY Post, however, refers to his "bullet-ridden body" being found.

"Evidently he was in the wrong place," said his father, Anthony Trujillo, speaking to the AP. The elder Trujillo also flew down to Mexico after his son's body was discovered, and on Thursday he was flying back to Michigan with his ashes.

On a GoFundMe page to raise funds for his funeral services, Cruz-de Hoyos writes, "Gabriel was and is beyond what words can express. He was brilliant, genuine, talented, adventurous, brave, generous, and above all unfailingly kind and loving to everyone. He was a son, brother, cherished family member, fiancé, and friend. He was a deeply spiritual Danzante and was reconnecting to his Indigenous Opata and Nahua ancestry."

She also shared that there would be an upcoming Danza Azteca ceremony in the Bay Area to celebrate his life, which "Gabriel would have wanted deeply." Another funeral is being held in Michigan next week.

UC Berkeley's Department of Integrative Biology issued a statement saying, "Gabe was a passionate ecologist, field biologist, and advocate for diverse voices in science. We all face a world that is less bright for this loss."

Cartel violence is fairly rampant in Sonora, and a war is raging between two of the cartels over the fentanyl and meth trade there. As InSight Crime reported in March, the Caborca Cartel and the Chapitos have been engaged in bloody confrontations along drug routes into Arizona, and seven people were killed in one such confrontation on March 20.

29 people were killed in a bloody battle between a cartel and the military in January in Culiacán, in the state of Sinaloa, which borders Sonora to the south.

Civilians are sometimes victims as well, as the AP notes. Nine U.S. citizens — three women and six children — were killed in an ambush attack in November 2019 in Sonora. The women were later identified as being part of a polygamist Mormon sect that was living in Mexico at the time.

Top image via AskaCABotanist/Twitter

Given the loss of their franchise quarterback early in the season, injuries, and nagging questions about the depth of their rebooted quarterback, this has been a season of fits and starts for the San Francisco 49ers. Even the acquisition of Christian McCaffrey, one of the most dynamic players in the league, was seen by a small, sullen few as a "desperate" move.

But when the red-and-gold machine is healthy, the Niners are a team full of potent weapons.

In the high-altitude and drizzly conditions of Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on Monday Night, the 49ers looked fabulous, winning a game they should have won against the admittedly unspectacular and Kyler Murray-less Arizona Cardinals, 38-10. Despite the relaxed degree of difficulty, it was a big Week 11 win, vaulting the Niners to a 6-4 record and a tie for the lead in the admittedly unspectacular NFC West.

It's always fun to take the show on the road and listen to ESPN announcer Joe Buck pronounce locations and proper nouns in Spanish. (¡Muy Bien, José!) At an altitude of 7,200 feet, the massive, multi-purpose Estadio Azteca sits a full 1,920 feet higher than mile-high stadium in Denver. Maybe it was something about the altitude that made the game feel closer than it actually was.

Led by backup-quarterback journeyman Colt McCoy, the Cardinals came out slinging and kicked an early field goal, while the Niners' machine that was destine to fire on all cylinders had yet to get out of first gear. (I'm trying out a bunch of different metaphors for this story.) It wasn't until the end of the first quarter that the 49ers got it going with George Kittle and Deebo Samuel, and then a 20-ish yard Christian McCaffrey run to start the second quarter, taking San Francisco into the red zone for an eventual Brandon Aiyuk touchdown catch.

The next Arizona possession led to a tipped ball and interception. A few catches up the middle from Kittle made it 14-3 shortly thereafter.

I'm writing this like all of the 49ers mentioned were taking the snaps themselves. What of the conductor of this orchestra?

Jimmy Garoppolo threw for 228 yards last night with four touchdown passes, matching a career high — it was the first time he's gone three straight games without an interception. But it was Jimmy G's efficiency on third down that had Joe Buck and analyst Troy Aikman singing his praises.

Even with the W last night, however, it's not exactly smooth sailing for Garoppolo through the sport-media waters.  "If the 49ers do not make it to the Super Bowl, it will be because of Jimmy G," said Stephen A. Smith. The monkey on Jimmy G's back — or the notion that Garoppolo is the monkey on the 49ers' back — remains hard to shake.

But watching last night's game, you'd never know these narratives existed.

The Cardinals scrapped their way to a touchdown with about four minutes left in the second quarter, but it would be all Niners for the rest of the game. Christian McCaffrey continued to pound for his average 5.6 yards a carry for his 39-yards total (including seven receptions).

The 49ers kicked a field goal near the end of the second, and a Nick Bosa sack iced the first half at 17-10 Niners.

Oh, hey, remember Elijah Mitchell?

After going out with an injury in Week 1, he had a solid game against the Chargers last week, and ran for 59 yards last night with a lot of action to start the third quarter. That set up my favorite play of the game, a 40-ish yard reverse to Deebo Samuel who ran it in for the touchdown. It was 24-10 Niners, and it started to smell like a blowout.

The Cardinals converted a bunch of third downs, but they eventually turned it over on downs, leading to another touchdown for Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle. The 49er's weapons had their way with Arizona, scoring with impunity, and looking like a high-octane team ready to run straight into the playoffs.  

How did the win feel?

A 19-year-old from Hayward went missing a week ago while he was visiting a sister in Mexico, and U.S. authorities are now pressing local police to locate him.

Manuel Reyes left his East Bay home in early April to visit his sister in the city of Lagos de Morena. The city is in the state of Jalisco, outside of Leon, and is about equidistant from Puerto Vallarta and Mexico City.

Reyes, along with a 36-year-old friend, Jesus "Jessy" Ramon Corona, were last seen on the night of Sunday, May 2, around 10:30 p.m. As Newsweek reports, according to Reyes's sister, Norma, the pair were going out for tacos on Orozco y Jimenez Boulevard, which is the main drag in the center of Lagos de Morena.

She told local media outlet Cuadrante7 that after messaging with Reyes via WhatsApp, she became worried when he had not returned home by 4 a.m. At that point, she said, it appeared both his and Corona's phones were turned off.

No friends or family have heard from either man in the week since.

As NBC Bay Area reports, residents of Lagos de Morena say that "many people disappear in the region and the majority are young people between 13 and 22 years old."

Back in Hayward, Reyes's mother is distraught, and she says her son had told her in their last phone call that he would be home last Thursday.

"That's why I don't want to enter his room at all, other than pray, but I don't want to see his clothes or anything like that, because it reminds me of when he used to go out," she tells NBC Bay Area.

At least 73,000 people have gone missing in Mexico in the last 15 years, according to an official government update last summer. As Reuters reported at the time, while some of the missing turn up dead, a large proportion of the cases — the majority of which are missing young men — are people who have been abducted and forced into work for drug cartels. Young women are often sex-trafficked, and women make up about one quarter of the missing.

Because Reyes is an American citizen, the case is getting widespread attention on local television in Mexico, and pressure is mounting on local authorities to solve the case.

As the Trump Administration looks to gut, or just possibly renegotiate portions of the 23-year-old trade agreement with Mexico and Canada known as NAFTA, I point you toa 2015 piece from NPR's food blog discussing a notable benefit that Americans have enjoyed from the deal without necessarily realizing it. The agreement, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, "unleashed a dizzying array of market forces on agriculture," they report, not only giving US farmers new bigger markets in which to sell their crops, but also giving Americans cheaper and more plentiful produce year-round. Another nice side-effect of the deal: Mexico turned into a huge exporter of beer, with cervezas in fact being the country's largest agricultural export to the US.

In 2013 alone, we apparently bought some two million tons of Coronas, Modelos, and Tecates from Mexico, and what was once a specialty treat you'd only find in Southern California, a Corona with lime is now commonplace in bars from Boston to Duluth.

And that's another thing: limes. Florida used to be America's primary source of limes, but as Time reported during 2014's lime shortage, that all changed not because of NAFTA, though concurrent with NAFTA, largely because Florida's lime trees were decimated by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. While the US's demand for limes was only growing (we now consume 10 times as many limes as we did in 1980), Florida took about seven years to reestablish their lime crops, and in that time Mexico stepped in to fill the void, with cheap limes thanks to the trade deal. Florida limes could have made a comeback were it not for a small outbreak of citrus canker, a deadly tree disease that caused much of the newly replanted lime crop to be destroyed on the state's orders, lest the disease spread by wind and rain to valuable orange and grapefruit orchards. Thus we ended up with a nationwide shortage on limes and some astronomical prices on Mexican limes in the spring of 2014, when several factors including weather and disease ravaged Mexico's crop.

Under NAFTA, the US now imports twice as much fruit and three times as many vegetables from Mexico and Canada than we did twenty years ago, with half of our avocados, a fifth of our watermelons, and many millions of bushels of berries all coming from south of the border, helping even the most down-market supermarkets in the chilliest states carry strawberries at all times of the year.

This is all information from a February 2015 report on twenty years of NAFTA's impacts from the USDA. And while we can talk for days about the deal's benefits, and the ways in which it's made food and other goods more affordable for American consumers, there are negative impacts that Trump and his camp will talk about for months to come, including the loss of some US manufacturing jobs — jobs that some economists will say would probably have left the country anyway, NAFTA or not.

As the New York Times explains in this analysis, "NAFTA may have increased overall G.D.P. and average incomes in the United States — but at the same time contributed to the decline in well-paying U.S. manufacturing jobs that tended to be concentrated in certain cities and among certain groups of people, mostly blue-collar men."

And for all of Trump's big talk, making a rash decision and declaring the US's withdrawal from NAFTA would cause major, immediate problems for the US auto industry, corn farmers, and many vital areas of our economy. And such a symbolic move doesn't guarantee job creation either when all these industries have been doing business symbiotically with Canada and Mexico for over two decades, not to mention outsourcing all kinds of labor to China, Malaysia, and beyond during that same period.

More likely is that Trump will get Mexico and Canada back to the bargaining table and alter certain parts of the deal. But if Tecate is your cheap beer of choice, you better call your congressperson, because it might not be for much longer.

Uber wants to be your number one choice when it comes to drunkenly deciding to go to Tijuana. The ride-hail company just announced that for the first time, customers can hail a ride from San Diego and head — across the US/Mexico boarder — to Mexico without ever leaving the sweet luxury of their black car. So reports the San Diego Union Tribune, which notes that the new service, called "Passport," is only one-way. Meaning, of course, Uber will take you there but you better find your own damn way home.

The service, which is not available through UberX, launched today.

“It's very exciting for us because there are a lot of places where we could have launched a cross-border product, but we recognize the importance of the largest border crossing in the world and the unique relationship between San Diego and Tijuana,” Christopher Ballard, general manager for Uber in Southern California, told the Tribune. “These are cities whose families, cultures and economies are closely linked.”

Bloomberg reports that this unidirectional nature of Passport is not because Uber doesn't want to shuttle wasted bachelor parties back from Tijuana (well, at least not officially). Rather, it has to do with how the ride-hail company is regulated — it all depends on the point of pick-up, not drop-off. The publication notes that Uber is working on getting its return-trip ducks in a row.

Related: Uber, Lyft Drivers Struggle With Onerous Terms Of Partner-Leased Cars

Presidential hopeful cum recently-axed Macy's clothing "designer"/reality television star Donald Trump has been cordially invited to a huge San Francisco celebration that kicks off next week. But will the billionaire be interested in an event intended to showcase "the best performing arts, culture and ideas from Mexico"?

As you know because you have access to the internet, Trump made headlines earlier this month after releasing a three page, 881 word statement containing remarks like "tremendous infectious disease is pouring across the border. The United States has become a dumping ground for Mexico and, in fact, for many other parts of the world."

Trump turned his focus to San Francisco just a few days after that, when a man who'd been deported from the US to Mexico five times shot and killed Kate Steinle at Pier 14. In a statement, Trump said "This senseless and totally preventable act of violence committed by an illegal immigrant is yet another example of why we must secure our border immediately."

SF Mayor Ed Lee's office shot back at the real estate magnate swiftly, saying "A woman's life was tragically taken away, and right now Mayor Lee is focused on understanding the circumstances and facts around this tragedy and this man's release...Mr. Trump's opportunism and offensive anti-immigrant rhetoric have nothing to contribute to that effort."

However, Andrés Isaac Roemer Slomianski, Mexico's consul general in San Francisco, thinks his event, the MEX I AM festival, might have something to contribute to Trump.

No, not money — though, with a reported personal fortune of over $10 billion, it's not like Trump needs any more cash for his campaign. Roemer (who is also "a political analyst, attorney, economist, think tank founder, author of 16 books and two award-winning plays," per a 2014 report from the Chron) says that he believes attendance at the fest will turn Trump's perception of the Mexican people around.

According to the MEX I AM website, the fest will feature "some of the best performers from various genres and traditions, as well as presentations from some of the most influential Mexicans in their fields of expertise around the world."

Trump, Roemer told ABC7, is "more than invited" to the event, which runs from July 19-16.

(And hey, if Trump came, maybe he could finally contact Kate Steinle's family, too?)

While SFist's attempts to reach any Trump campaign spokespeople to see if Trump would accept the invite to the fest were unsuccessful, Roemer sounds so hopeful that we almost don't want to burst his bubble.

"We are just bringing a sample of creativity, bringing the best of Mexico which is its people, its flavors, its colors, all around the world," Roemer says.

"I would love that he comes."

Related: Scott Wiener: 'Fox News Is A Fringe Propaganda Machine'

The following post is from our advertiser, Corona Extra.

How's your Wednesday so far? The bad news is, it's raining. You probably have a bunch of work to catch up on, you spilled coffee on your shirt this morning, and you have a pounding headache. OK, maybe you aren't experiencing all, or any, of these unfortunate things. But regardless, we're sure you'd much rather be relaxing on a beach in Mexico with an icy cold Corona Extra in your hand.

Corona Extra partnered with popular L.A. based band Everest to bring a fresh take to the "Find Your beach" campaign. Shot in an L.A. theater and on location at the Corona beach in Riviera Maya, Mexico, the spot features Everest's enigmatic song, "Let Go." It proves for us once again that when you grab a Corona Extra, no matter where you are, you can find your very own beach.

Please Share Responsibly.

In an attempt to snare the golden Latino vote, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom took a PG&E-sponsored trip to Mexico today. There, he stopped being polite, and started getting auténtico. Here are some images from his day south of San Diego. Enjoy.

Speaking of Newsom and Mexico, did anyone catch this week's Weeds? Did you see the part where Nancy Botwin, our personal Lord and savior, told her husband, Esteban (drug lord, mayor of Tijuana, and presidential candidate) that he was "sexier than Gavin Newsom" (former drug user, mayor of San Francisco, and gubernatorial candidate)? Spooky.

While Gavin Newsom's daily itinerary is typically (and aggressively) detail-free, today's public schedule is brimming with loads of information, stuff you might find during a showcase showdown on the Price Is Right. Today, according to SFBG, Mayor Newsom is relaxing in high style in Mexico "on a PG&E-sponsored trip that has nothing to do with San Francisco." (Aside: we are so jealous. We haven't had a vacation in eons, especially one that involved us not having to think about the city of San Francisco every other second. Lucky bastard.)

During his south-of-the-border trip, Newsom will go on a bike ride with the country's Secretary for the Environment, take a tour of the "Virtual Center of Climate Change" with someone named Carlos Gay (hee), and meet with El Presidente for body shots and chips/salsa. Fun!

Check out Newsom's envious schedule after the jump.