By all reports, it was a usual Sunday morning in the wealthy Pacific port city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico when gunshots began to ring out and sirens began to blare. Mexican cartel bandits scattered across the city, lighting vehicles on fire and ambushing Mexican police and national guard. Scenes more reminiscent of a Middle East insurgency than a Mexican resort town began to circulate online. 

The culprits were members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Mexico’s most powerful and well-equipped cartel that has carried out several attacks against Mexican government forces in the past. The attacks followed the death of the cartel’s leader, Ruben Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” in a Mexican military operation last weekend. 

Mexican officials said 25 members of the National Guard were killed in six separate attacks and at least 73 people died overall, including security forces, suspected cartel members and others.