Canadian expat and former professional boxer, Richard Souce, was watching the men’s Olympic gold medal hockey game in his condo with friends in the Centro (Downtown) region of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, when smoke started rising from the streets below.
While Souce was absorbing Canada’s heartbreaking loss to the U.S., angry narcos were lashing out following the killing of their notorious leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes ‘EL Mencho,’ at the hands of the Mexican military.
“We were watching the hockey game with some friends and as soon as that ended I went out on my balcony and there was all this smoke and stuff,” he told CityNews in a phone call Wednesday.
Maybe it was his time in the ring facing the likes of Hector ‘Macho’ Camacho that gave him his steely nerves, but Souce, who spends the bulk of his winters in Puerto Vallarta, didn’t abide by shelter-in-place orders.
“Even the day of, when it was all going on, I went down to the store, a couple blocks down and grabbed some eggs and cheese and stuff,” he said.
On Monday, he ventured out to document the destruction while downplaying the risks to tourists and snowbirds.
“I’m not worried about it,” he said. “The government took one of their top guys out and they were just showing a sign of force.”
Souce said cartel members seemed to be specifically targetting government-owned businesses and property.
“They torched government stores, they are like 7-11’s that are all owned by the government here, they’re called Oxxos. They torched all those Oxxos because they are government-owned and there was a few city-run buses that were set on fire. They told all the people to get off. And they torched some cabs and stuff just to block access into the city and kind of disrupt traffic, especially for the army getting in.”
Despite the carnage, Souce says he has no immediate plans on leaving, saying he’s staying until April, but admits he’s worried for locals who may be impacted by a loss of tourism money due to travellers’ fears.
“Everything is back to normal, it was a little blip,” he maintains. “I’m not worried about it unless something continues. Today everyone is out on the water, and people are sailing again.”
“I’m really sad because the locals here are great,” he added. “The Mexican people are so awesome, especially in Puerto Vallarta.”
“It hurts them more than anything.”
All photos by Richard Souce
