Flights from Mexico resume as Bay Area tourists seek to escape cartel violence

By John Ramos

The chaos in Mexico continued on Monday following the Mexican government’s killing of the head of the Jalisco cartel, with reports that the arson attacks may be widening. But at the same time, a Bay Area resident trapped in Puerto Vallarta said there may be good news for people trying to get out.

As Joe Santini scanned the flights in and out of Mexico from his office, it looked like they were few and far between. And that’s not what American travelers trapped in the country wanted to hear.

“If the flights are cancelled and the flights are not operating, yes, you’re trapped,” Santini said. “You have to hide. You cannot leave the hotels. And the hotels have to increase security so they are not coming to take the guests hostage.”

Santini, owner of Santini Tours and Tropical Travel, has been a travel agent in Berkeley for more than 40 years and said there is always some place in the world where travel is too dangerous, usually because of a drug trade fueled by extreme poverty. This time it’s the state of Jalisco in Mexico.

“For instance,” he said, “I would not tell somebody ‘go to Mexico right now,’ at all, because of liability. You know, the liability that you have saying, ‘Well, I’m selling Mexico no matter what.’ No, that doesn’t make sense. Stay home, go to Hawaii, or somewhere else. You don’t need to go to Mexico.”

Across the country, travel advisors have been posting online videos with varying advice.

“I’m quite sure that the cruise lines probably will avoid that area, if you have a west coast cruise,” said one advisor. “But I would be very, very cautious, even getting off on Cabo San Lucas. To be honest with you, I’d be very cautious about even Cozumel or Costa Maya.”

“Stop letting viral videos and clickbait dictate your vacation plans!” said another. “Jalisco is over 1,500 miles from Cancun. That’s like something happening in New York and you cancelling your trip to Los Angeles. Different state, different coast, different situation.”

But Santini said even Cancun is now seeing acts of unrest after the killing of the drug cartel kingpin, “El Mencho.”

“It is happening in Cancun,” he said. “I just saw pictures of bus burnings in Cancun.”

The problem in Puerto Vallarta was not the airport or the hotels, but the road closures between them. Lefty Karkazis is a Bay Area resident trapped in his hotel near the city. He said there has been lots of misinformation spreading among the guests, but late Monday afternoon, the signs suddenly seemed more positive.

“I was looking outside today, and I saw some taxis going through, and some buses from the hotel to the airport. So that is very, very encouraging,” said Karkazis. “About an hour and a half ago, we just got a text from Puerto Vallarta airport telling us that actually it opened and it’s resuming flights, departures. I think there was about four or five flights that took off already.”

Karkazis said he and his wife have been regular visitors to Mexico for years, but they’re willing to put that on pause until things cool down a bit.

“It was kind of nail-biting for a minute, because of misinformation, not knowing what’s going on,” Karkazis said. “And now, we see what happened. In the immediate future, we’re not coming back. But I know eventually we will come back.”

Santini said spring break could be a problem. Those who have already booked vacations in mid-March probably have about a week until they should cancel. And he said he doesn’t recommend anyone sending their kids to Mexico this year. 

In the meantime, as of Monday, the State Department continued to warn Americans against traveling anywhere in the state of Jalisco at this time.