Sense of normalcy slowly returning to Mazatlán after cartel violence, B.C. travellers say
Global News
Tourists and residents were urged to stay off the streets amid gunfire and fighting in the state of Sinaloa Thursday, and travellers are still being urged to be cautious.
British Columbians in Mazatlán say things appear to be slowly returning to normal after an outbreak of violence Thursday following the arrest of a high-profile cartel leader.
Tourists and residents in the popular vacation hub were urged to stay off the streets amid gunfire and fighting in the state of Sinaloa, and travellers are still being urged to be cautious.
Most of the violence was focused in the city of Culiacan, about 2.5 hours away, but travellers Global News spoke with reported seeing columns of black smoke and trucks on fire in the Mazatlan area as well.
A Canadian government travel advisory for the entire state remained in effect on Friday. People on the ground say the situation has since calmed down.
“My stress level or fear level is pretty much flatlining at zero. To me, it hasn’t affected our life at all,” Harry Chandler of Vancouver, who has lived on and off in Mexico for the last 16 years, told Global News.
“People are going about their business. There was a period yesterday when the government, which obviously has given up on being able to control anything … basically threw up their hands and said everybody should stay home. Obviously you take it a little bit seriously,”
Chandler said there had been no reports of anyone hurt in Mazatlán, and that locals were starting to return to business as usual on Friday.
Dominique Carole Maraj, who moved from B.C. to Mazatlán and operates a Facebook page for expatriates in the city, said that while people had followed the government’s direction to stay home on Thursday, the mood had since changed.
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