Newly captured satellite imagery shows widespread fires, roadblocks, and cars burning in a Costco parking lot after cartel violence rocked the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta, the company that took the photos said.
The imagery, captured Sunday by US spatial intelligence firm Vantor and analyzed by Business Insider, underscores the scale of the chaos gripping Puerto Vallarta, nestled along the Pacific Ocean in Mexico’s Jalisco state, and its hundreds of thousands of residents.
Fires and smoke can be seen across the city, including along a coastal road, in a Costco parking lot, at a shopping mall, and at an Autozone. Roadblocks are also visible in the imagery. Puerto Vallarta is a major tourist destination, especially in the winter.
Mexican forces carried out an operation Sunday that killed Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the notorious leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel who had a $15 million US bounty on his head.
President Donald Trump designated the cartel as a foreign terrorist organization just last year. Karoline Leavitt, a White House spokesperson, said the US provided intelligence support to Mexico to assist with the operation, although she did not specify how.
The Trump administration has made it a priority to combat Latin American cartels, encouraging heads of state to have a tougher stance against them and even using military force against alleged drug boats in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea.
Three additional cartel members were killed, three were wounded, and two more were arrested in the operation, which took place in Talpalpa, a town in the Jalisco state, Leavitt said. Mexico said three soldiers were hurt in the raid.
Retaliatory violence erupted in cities across Mexico following the raid, with organized criminal groups and suspected cartel members clashing with security forces and setting fire to cars and buildings.
The US State Department urged American citizens in some locations to shelter in place and said most domestic and international flights were canceled in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, where scenes of the violence were shared widely on social media.
Dozens of suspected cartel members and security personnel have been killed in the violence, with Mexican authorities scrambling to regain control of the chaos.
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