Winnipeg couple spends night at Puerto Vallarta airport after violence explodes, flight home cancelled

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This article was published 23/02/2026 (249 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tony and Cathy Mariani ducked for safety when gunshots echoed inside Puerto Vallarta’s airport Sunday amid a wave of violence after Mexican special forces killed a notorious drug cartel leader elsewhere in the western state of Jalisco.

The Winnipeg couple was among thousands of Canadians who were stranded by the turmoil, which led to the airport being temporarily locked down, flights cancelled and tourists in some areas ordered to shelter in place.

“We don’t know who, what, where and why right now, but we do know we can’t sit here until Sunday,” Tony Mariani said from the airport Monday morning, after the couple slept in a lounge overnight.

“We will have some coffee — maybe some Kahlua and a bloody Mary — and begin to sort things out.”

Mariani said they are now scheduled to fly home Sunday after WestJet rebooked them on the earliest available flight.

He was going to check other airlines’ flights for availability and look for a hotel room. WestJet promised to reimburse the cost of the room, he said.

The situation at the airport was calm and there was some flight activity when he spoke to the Free Press.

Four direct flights from Winnipeg to Mexico on Tuesday — one to Puerto Vallarta and three to Cancun — were still scheduled to depart as of Monday afternoon. Four flights from those destinations are scheduled to land in Winnipeg Tuesday night.

More than 26,000 Canadians in Mexico had voluntarily registered with Global Affairs Canada as of Monday morning, an increase of 8,000 since Sunday, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand told reporters.

The actual number of Canadians vacationing or living in Mexico is likely much higher, she said.

Canadians were told to be vigilant and follow the advice of local authorities. Mexico’s government expects the situation to “normalize” in the coming days, Anand said.

The wave of retaliatory violence, including shootouts and car and bus fires, erupted after the Mexican army killed Nemesio (El Mencho) Oseguera Cervantes, 59, who led the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, during a U.S.-backed attempt to capture him in Talpalpa, about 300 kilometres southeast of Puerto Vallarta.

Mexican authorities said at least 73 people, including special forces and cartel members, died in the military operation and aftermath, the Associated Press reported.

The Marianis were scheduled to fly to Winnipeg Sunday after a three-week vacation. Tony Mariani said they were loading their luggage into an Uber vehicle outside a condominium complex when they noticed federal police officers driving down the road behind a motorbike.

The motorbike crashed and the occupants ran through the condo complex. Unaware of the chaos that was unfolding, the couple saw plumes of black smoke on the way to the airport.

The Marianis waited inside the terminal, while the situation deteriorated in and around Puerto Vallarta, a city of nearly 600,000 on Mexico’s Pacific coast, and a winter destination for tens of thousands of Canadians.

“That’s when all of a sudden we heard gunfire,” said Mariani, who estimated there were five or six gunshots. “People were diving and screaming and running. It was like a Hollywood movie in slow motion. It was pretty traumatic.”

He didn’t know who fired the shots, nor where or why.

Staff moved the Marianis and other travellers into a hallway until it was deemed safe to come out.

The couple had visited Puerto Vallarta several times before the latest trip.

“This is a lovely place. We’ve loved coming here and, hopefully, we can come back,” he said.

Lori Kiesman and her husband Myles Wotton, from Rivers, were sheltering in place at a condo complex in the coastal fishing village of La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, about 20 kilometres from Puerto Vallarta.

“Things are really calming down,” Kiesman said Monday morning. “We saw police out in the streets, checking. We’re hearing some restaurants have opened, and some little grocery stores.”

The calm was in stark contrast to events 24 hours earlier, when vehicles were set on fire near the condo Kiesman and Wotton were renting.

They were at a beach when they heard a “huge bang,” and saw plumes of smoke in the distance.

“We all said, ‘That sounded like an explosion,’” Kiesman said.

In a surreal moment, resort staff soon “herded” the couple and other tourists to safety, she said.

“We didn’t have time to take it in. Things were happening so quickly,” she said. “The Mexican people started telling us, ‘The cartel is here, the cartel is here.’ You could tell in their manner and their eyes how much the cartel frightens them.”

Streets were deserted Sunday night, creating an eerie feeling, Kiesman said.

The couple was already scheduled to return home Saturday after a month-long vacation. Kiesman praised local residents and staff who are taking care of tourists while worrying about their loved ones’ safety.

“They are so protective and so good,” she said.

Former Free Press books editor Morley Walker was keeping an eye on the news and checking WestJet’s website to find out if a flight from Winnipeg to Puerto Vallarta will go ahead as scheduled Wednesday.

Walker and his wife booked a trip to meet family and friends in Bucerias, about 20 kilometres north of Puerto Vallarta.

“We’d kind of like to go if it’s safe,” he said. “From far away, we really can’t tell what is happening.”

Airlines and travel agents were inundated with questions from customers who are in Mexico or due to travel soon.

CAA Manitoba, for example, said it is closely monitoring the situation in areas where the federal government’s travel advisory is level 2 (exercise a high degree of caution).

“CAA Travel consultants are reaching out to travellers who booked travel with CAA and are currently in affected areas to check on their well-being and offer support,” spokeswoman Nadia Matos said.

She said CAA is helping customers with flight changes, alternative options and understanding what airlines are offering. Airline response times may be longer than usual, she cautioned.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca