Pregnant tourist in second trimester trapped in Mexico after cartel violence grounds flights

“We can certainly see smoke on all sides … we're just hoping that everybody stays safe and that we can travel home shortly.”

Violence and unrest have swept across some regions after Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” was killed in a military operation in the western state of Jalisco on Sunday, officials said.

In the ensuing hours, videos and reports emerged of roadblocks with burning vehicles, shoot-outs and gas stations being set ablaze in allegedly retaliatory attacks.

Mahoney and her husband had been due to fly out that day, she said.

“We were actually packing up to get ready to check out and head to the airport this morning, when family friends who are also staying here in a different part of the city, they let us know that there are some fires around and to stay put if we could.”

They decided to shelter in their Airbnb; her husband planned to go shopping at a nearby convenience store, but their host strongly advised against it.

“And that was fortunate because that convenience store was actually burned, just down the road from us, about an hour later,” Mahoney said.

Also trapped in Puerto Vallarta was Eugene Marchenko, 37, of Charleston, South Carolina, who told Fox News he woke up to blaring horns and cars ablaze not far from his balcony.

"I looked down and they're completely engulfed in flames," Marchenko said. "It was six cars in total that burned and one fuel tanker."

Marchenko described a video from a neighbour in which men he believed were cartel members forced people out of their vehicles.

"They told the people to leave," Marchenko said. "Then they were taking the gas and pouring the gas on the vehicle and waiting until everybody was clear before they were setting it on fire."

Dallas resident Adryan Moorefield, who was also supposed to travel home from Puerto Vallarta on Sunday, told CNN that the violence had been a “complete shocker.”

“We’ve been to PV before and thought that this would be a no-brainer place to come and do a quick, easy beach vacation,” he said.

Katy Holloman, of El Dorado Hills, California, was already on her way to the airport on Sunday when she was suddenly told to shelter in place at her Puerto Vallarta hotel.

“The road is closed due to the cartel,” she told the New York Post. There’s no flights going out of the airport to the States. We’ve rescheduled them for tomorrow afternoon, really hoping we make it home.”

Those who did make it as far as the airport on Sunday morning weren’t able to fly out, with tourists locked down in the terminal and “surviving off of granola bars,” traveller Adriana Belli told Fox News.

Another tourist told Fox News that he and his wife, travelling away from their 4-year-old son for the first time, had called home to tell them the news.

"I had to call my mom today and, you know, just tell her, ‘Look, here's where my will is. We just created this. I don't want you to panic, but I may need you to stay a couple days extra with my son.’"

The U.S. Department of State Consular Affairs has urged Americans in several parts of Mexico to shelter in place “due to ongoing security operations and related road blockages and criminal activity,” according to the agency.

Regions under the advisory include the states of Jalisco, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, Guerrero and Nuevo Leon.