Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told Americans planning spring break trips to Mexico to stay home, issuing a blunt warning after the Mexican army killed one of the world's most wanted drug lords and cartel retaliation plunged parts of the country into chaos.
Mullin didn't mince words during an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday:
Anybody that's planning on going to Mexico for spring break … I mean, my chiropractor called me yesterday and said he's still planning on going to Cancún, I said, 'Are you crazy?'
The senator followed that up with a broader warning aimed at every American with a booking south of the border:
No one should be going down there right now, it is very volatile and the United States is laser-focused on watching what's taking place.
He's right. And the facts on the ground make the case better than any talking point could.
Mexican troops conducted operations on Sunday in Tapalpa, Jalisco, targeting Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho," the leader of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación. The operation killed him.
El Mencho carried a $15 million U.S. bounty. A former police officer, he rose to power following the arrest of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel, and built CJNG into a sprawling empire. Over roughly the past 15 years, the cartel expanded from a regional criminal group into a global trafficking organization operating from its stronghold in Jalisco, with an estimated 19,000 members running operations across 21 of Mexico's 32 states.
According to the New York Post, the Mexican Defense Department said the operation was conducted as part of bilateral coordination and cooperation with the U.S., and that American authorities provided complementary intelligence that contributed to the killing. That detail matters. It reflects the kind of pressure the Trump administration has placed on the cartels since designating CJNG as a foreign terrorist organization.
What followed El Mencho's death was predictable. Cartel members burned cars and blocked roads in several Mexican states. Violent clashes were reported across parts of western Mexico. The U.S. government issued a shelter-in-place order for Americans in Mexico, though that order has since been lifted.
The Mexican Embassy in the U.S. moved quickly to reassure tourists. Their statement painted a picture of calm returning:
The security situation has now stabilized following targeted operations in Jalisco.
The embassy also said that federal and state authorities were working to reopen transit corridors and restore public services, and that Puerto Vallarta International Airport had reopened to domestic traffic with international carriers resuming flights.
If traveling through Jalisco, some local security measures remain in place, while authorities are restoring airport operations to full capacity. We are working with international partners to ensure safety and stability at all transit hubs and tourist destinations.
"Some local security measures remain in place" is doing an enormous amount of work in that sentence. When a government has to announce that airports are reopening and roads are being unblocked, the situation was not stable. It was a war zone with a press release.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department's travel advisory for Mexico remains in effect. If Washington isn't convinced it's safe, spring breakers shouldn't be either.
To his credit, Mullin didn't stop at issuing travel warnings. He framed El Mencho's death as a turning point, not just a crisis. With the cartel's leadership fractured, Mullin argued this is a strategic opening:
Now, are we going to eliminate all the drug trafficking in the world? Absolutely not. But can we get a handle on it again? Absolutely.
He called the moment a "great opportunity for us, and Mexico, to take them all out," referring to the splintering cartel factions now scrambling for control.
This is the posture Americans should expect from their leaders. Not hand-wringing about "root causes." Not lectures about how border enforcement is somehow the real problem. Cartels are terrorist organizations that traffic drugs, weapons, and human beings. When their leadership structure cracks, you press the advantage.
Every year, thousands of college students and families pour into Mexican resort towns convinced that the violence is somewhere else, that Cancún and Cabo exist in a bubble separate from the cartel wars raging a few hundred miles inland. That illusion gets people killed.
An organization with 19,000 members operating across two-thirds of a country's states doesn't limit its retaliation to convenient locations. When cartel leadership is eliminated, the power vacuum creates chaos that respects no tourist corridor.
The shelter-in-place order may have been lifted. The airports may be reopening. But a country where the military just killed the head of the most powerful cartel, and that cartel's foot soldiers responded by burning vehicles and barricading roads across multiple states, is not a country where you should be sipping margaritas on spring break.
Sen. Mullin asked his chiropractor if he was crazy. It's a fair question for anyone still holding a plane ticket.
