The internet is currently exploding with rumors, flight cancellations, and widespread panic regarding travel to Mexico. Following a massive military operation on Sunday, February 22, the U.S. Embassy issued a widespread Security Alert, and a wave of fearmongering has tourists scrambling to contact their airlines and cancel their upcoming vacations.
If you have a trip booked to Mexico this week, you need to step away from social media and look at the actual boots-on-the-ground intelligence. Mexico is a massive country, and this alert impacts different regions in entirely different ways.
Here is a breakdown of what is happening in Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, and Cancun, and whether your vacation is actually in jeopardy.
Puerto Vallarta: The Epicenter
On Sunday, a federal military operation in the western state of Jalisco resulted in the death of a major cartel leader. In immediate retaliation, organized crime groups launched a coordinated wave of disruption to slow down authorities.
If your itinerary has you landing in Puerto Vallarta this week, your logistics are severely compromised. According to the official U.S. Embassy update, roadblock activity has caused the cancellation of most domestic and international flights out of Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta. Furthermore, all rideshare services in Puerto Vallarta are currently suspended, and some local businesses have halted operations entirely.
The Verdict: Do not travel to Puerto Vallarta right now. The situation is a massive unknown and highly volatile. Contact your airline and rebook your trip until the regional security infrastructure stabilizes.
Cabo San Lucas: The Safe Zone
While the mainland Pacific coast is dealing with real disruptions, the Baja California Sur peninsula is completely unaffected by this specific operational fallout. Cabo San Lucas and the surrounding resort corridors were not included in the U.S. Embassy’s security alert.
Operations at the Los Cabos International Airport (SJD), the tourist zones, and the local transit systems are functioning completely normally today.
The Verdict: Keep your trip to Cabo. Canceling a vacation to an unaffected, isolated peninsula because of an incident hundreds of miles away across the Sea of Cortez is a massive overreaction.
Cancun & The Mexican Caribbean: The Diplomatic Precaution
Update 3:16 PM February 23rd, 2026
The U.S. Embassy has officially lifted its shelter-in-place order for the state of Quintana Roo. If you have a vacation booked for Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, or Cozumel this week, the diplomatic lockdown has ended and the region is operating under normal conditions.
The mass panic for Caribbean travelers online today stems from being included in the U.S. Embassy’s response. Because the retaliatory blockades spread to multiple states on Sunday, the Embassy issued a blanket security alert out of an extreme abundance of caution.
This alert explicitly directed U.S. government staff in Quintana Roo (Cancun, Tulum, Playa del Carmen) to shelter in place and work remotely for Monday, February 23.
This was a sweeping precaution, not a reaction to active conflicts or disturbances in the Hotel Zone. Embassies cast wide nets during national security events if there’s even a small chance of a threat. Here is where you need to apply common sense and look at a map: Puerto Vallarta and Cancun are separated by over 1,200 miles of landmass. Canceling a trip to the Mexican Caribbean because of violence in Jalisco is the geographic equivalent of canceling a vacation to Miami because there is a riot in Los Angeles. The physical events of Sunday have not had impact on the resorts, highways, or beaches of Cancun.
The Verdict: Keep your trip. While you should monitor your airline app for any logistical ripple-effect delays across the North American aviation network, the Mexican Caribbean remains secure.
The Ground Truth: The Traveler Safety Index
When governments issue blanket alerts, the media panics. To cut through the viral noise, we rely on hard, verifiable data. We operate the only live, on-the-ground Traveler Safety Index in the industry—a real-time tool that allows tourists who are physically in these destinations to report their current safety status.
The Final Verdict: Know Your Geography
As the live data above clearly illustrates, your current threat level depends entirely on where your plane is landing.
If your itinerary has you heading into the Puerto Vallarta epicenter, you must cancel and rebook. The Code Red lockdown is real, and the area is not viable for tourism right now.
According to travel sentiment data on the ground, if you are flying into the clear zones like Cabo San Lucas or the Mexican Caribbean, do not let a vast geographical distance ruin your vacation. The vast majority of Mexico’s top tourist destinations remain completely open for business. Check the latest travel advisories and safety scores for your destination.
You can read the full alert by the US Embassy here.
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