Puerto Vallarta: tensions linger after brazen narco attack

MGR photojournal report -
Theories differ about what was behind the events of Oct. 15, but most agree, the city was changed

On an overcast afternoon, a placid Bahía de Banderas extends to the horizon. But the tranquil waters conceal an undercurrent of fear in the legendary resort, made famous in 1964 by Night of the Iguana.

*Updated June 20 - Puerto Vallarta sweats through the dog days of summer*
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco -
The corner of Insurgentes and Lázaro Cárdenas in old town Puerto Vallarta has nothing to distinguish it from thousands of such crossroads in Mexico. A visitor, looking around, might be almost anywhere.

The streets are a mixture of old bricks, rough stones and long crumbled asphalt. They suit Vallarta's historic charm, and its laid back, care free mood. People come here to swim, beach comb and soak up the sun, far from the bitter winds, ice and snow of northerly latitudes. They come here to eat and drink, with old friends and new ones just made. They come to forget about life back home for awhile.

On one corner of the intersection stands the ubiquitous Oxxo - easily one of several dozen in town. The convenience store is Mexico's answer to 7-11 (although the country has plenty of those, too). Diagonally across the street, on the second floor, is the San Lucas. It's a very decent restaurant, with a good menu selection, prompt service and fair prices. With most cervezas listed at just 25 pesos, the San Lucas underbids many competitors. Everybody's trying to reel in tourist dollars in this town.

On Calle Insurgentes, only a few meters south of the intersection, a traveler from afar can find almost anything he or she might want. A modern pharmacy. A peluquería which will cut anyone's hair, man, woman or child, starting at 70 pesos. A nightclub called Fantasías, with seductive female silhouettes plastered on the windows to lure in the curious. Another watering-hole-plus-restaurant right next door.

For those seeking a moment of spiritual reflection or solitude, the Church of the Holy Cross is one block up on Cárdenas. One wonders whether Roberto Rodríguez Preciado, Puerto Vallarta's former chief of police, noticed it as his armored Suburban pulled up to the intersection 99 days ago today.

All things considered, the corner of Insurgentes and Lázaro Cárdenas would seem a most unlikely place to encounter the staccato bursts of an AK-47 and the roar of detonating hand grenades.

But that's exactly what happened at 7:45 a.m. on Monday, October 15, 2012 in old town Vallarta. The din of street combat subsided within seconds, but for many the memories will last much longer.

The core facts of the case are not in dispute. Chief Rodríguez, in the company of two escorts, was northbound on Insurgentes, on his way to an early morning appointment. The three were traveling in an unmarked city vehicle. Near the crossroads with Lázaro Cárdenas, gunmen wielding AK-47s and AR-15s suddenly appeared on the street and opened fire on the Suburban. To ensure that it stopped, they lobbed grenades - three of them. All hell broke loose at the sleepy corner.

Chief Rodríguez and his escorts scrambled out one side of the bullet ridden Suburban, desperately crawling along the rough stones as the rounds whistled overhead and ricocheted off buildings. They escaped. A witness who saw them barrel around the first corner told MGR he'd never seen anyone running so fast.

The gunmen appeared from nowhere and opened fire on Chief Rodríguez' Suburban as it approached the broad intersection. Vehicles burned furiously where the taxi is parked in this image. Condos and rental properties are in the distance. Many are occupied by foreign tourists or long term residents.

At least five passersby were hit by shrapnel from the exploding fragmentation grenades, and some suffered serious injuries, including children. Several vehicles were destroyed. The attackers fled the scene in a pickup truck. No one knows who they were or where they went. Puerto Vallarta police chief survives hand grenade attack.

The gunmen's vehicle was founded abandoned minutes later. It contained an AK-47, another hand grenade and multiple rounds of 7.62 ammunition, a rifle cartridge commonly used by military forces.

Within hours, in a way sure to capture the community's attention, the Los Zetas drug cartel said the assault was its handiwork. Narcomantas claiming responsibility for the ambush were displayed at four prominent locations in the city, signed by the "Zs." The signs carried death threats, "sowing panic among the citizenry," reported the Milenio network in an Oct. 16 story which recapped the terror.

The city did its best to put on a brave front. Local business and tourism associations condemned the events, and expressed complete confidence in the municipal government and regional security forces. A spokesman for the Jalisco Secretary of Tourism said, "Puerto Vallarta is safe. Most assuredly, the tourist's experience there, as always, will fulfill the highest expectations."

A MGR reader commented, "And they said it would NEVER happen in P.V." Zetas strike Vallarta.


Most people in the neighborhood whom MGR approached about the events of Oct. 15 offered a standard if not predictable response: No lo vi yo nada. "I didn't see anything" - emphasizing the nada. One man quietly added, Gracias a Dios. "Thank God." But a few were willing to talk, understandably on condition of anonymity. Their names have been changed in this story.

Salvador was on his way to work that morning. He was crossing Calle Insurgentes on foot, about half a block away, when the first grenade went off. Shrapnel grazed the back of his neck, enough that he began to bleed profusely. A friend drove him to a hospital, where he was treated and released. "My blood pressure went through the roof," he remembers. "But it's a good thing it happened at 7:45. An hour later, and the streets would have been packed. A lot more people would have been hurt."

Salvador has no doubt that the police chief was mixed up in some kind of organized crime trouble. "But it wasn't here, in Puerto Vallarta. The general opinion is that he had problems in another town - probably over in Guadalajara, where the cartels are very powerful. They came looking for him."

Roberto, who did not witness the attack, strongly disagreed. "No, I don't think it had anything to do with drug cartels. I think the chief had political enemies, and they were just trying to scare him away. If they had wanted to kill him, they could have easily done so. Everybody knew where he lived. The sicarios would have just waited outside his house, and nailed him when he came out."

"And the machine guns, the grenades?" asked MGR.

"Well, that's just the way some people deliver messages around here."

The day after the ambush, Rodríguez himself - who had held his post only 15 days - said he believed the attack was directed against him because of "important arrests" in recent days, and because of "internal modifications" he had implemented in the department. Not all were comforted by that claim.

But a taxi driver, who is firmly convinced that organized crime was behind the ambush, said there is nothing to fear in Puerto Vallarta. "Drug trafficking is a business here, as it is everywhere, including your own country (the United States). There's nothing to fear. Los narcos no te van a molestar. Those guys aren't going to bother you. Unless, of course, you do something to them first, or you owe them money. Then you really should pay them. It's the best thing to do. And as quickly as possible."


Over on touristy Olas Altas street (the name means "high waves"), the real estate is jam packed with restaurants, bars, coffee houses and shops of every description. Everything and everybody is focused on keeping the foreign visitor happy. Whether the effort has been successful is a matter of opinion.

MGR asked Dean, an 80 year old barber originally from Fargo, North Dakota who could easily pass for a man in his late 60s. Perhaps that's because he still cuts hair three days a week in his adopted Wisconsin - when he's home, that is. Dean spends five months a year in Puerto Vallarta, to escape the icy Canadian blasts which batter his hometown in the States. He doesn't head north until the first of May. Dean has been coming to Vallarta for years, and he knows the local scene well. Lingering over his breakfast and coffee he said,

"Things are very busy here now, unusually busy. But they're all Canadians. The Americans won't come to Puerto Vallarta any more - at least the ones I know won't."

"Why? Because of the attack on the police chief last fall?"

"Yes, a lot of folks do know about that. But it's more. People in the U.S. read and watch all of the news about the terrible things which happen every day in Mexico, and the ones I know, Americans I mean - they just don't want to come here anymore. There are plenty of other places they can go."

Hours after the attack, Chief Rodríguez said nothing would deter him from carrying out his duties. Five days later, he abruptly quit. The city's explanation, in a press release, was that he stepped down so prosecutors could conduct a thorough, uninhibited investigation of the case, free of political pressures or the claim of such. No one has seen him since.

Asked where Vallarta's former police chief might have gone, one local man echoed the thoughts of many: ¿Quién sabe? ¿Y a quien le importa? Se fue. Lo único que todos saben es que él salió, y ya no regresa. "Who knows? Who cares? The only thing everybody knows is that he left. And he won't be back." Puerto Vallarta police chief resigns.

Feb. 14 - An MGR source who has lived part time in Puerto Vallarta for years reports this morning the city is as dead as he has ever seen it. "I don't know where the tourists are," he said. "Cabbies, business owners, everybody is complaining. This time of year the town should be booming."

Meanwhile, Mexico's Secretary of Tourism announced yesterday that it will launch a new campaign to promote Vallarta and the Riviera Nayarit (just up the coast) as "one product, as a single destination." The two used to be competitors of sorts, but not anymore. Both are hungry for visitors and the dollars they bring with them.

Aug. 21 - Poor tourism prognosis concerns Puerto Vallarta official
Aug. 20 - "No clues" a common response with Puerto Vallarta P.D.
Feb. 11 - Rising insecurity along Mexico's Pacific coast
Feb. 6 - International press bombards Acapulco: "a death zone"
Feb. 4 - Spanish tourists raped, robbed on Acapulco beach front
Feb. 1 - Yucatán safety continues to be subject of hot debate

Related content
Jan. 20 - Narco executions continue in the heart of Guadalajara
Dec. 28 - Local police resign or desert posts in Jalisco, Michoacán
June 22 - Playa del Carmen police officer executed, after hit men arrive by taxi
Dec. 11, 2011 - Former municipal police officer in Playa del Carmen executed
Sept. 11, 2011 - Chief Of Tourist Police executed in Playa del Carmen

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Early morning street vendors and Mass-goers scrambled at the sound of automatic weapons fire

90 days after the attack on their chief, unarmed officers stand watch at the corner where it unfolded

A block from the scene, heavily armed state police stopped by to have a mid-morning snack. They left within 15 minutes. No other special security was visible in the area, or anywhere else in Vallarta.

Puerto Vallarta, Oct. 15, 2012