Suzanne and Ted Herman, parents of 101.3 The River host Clinton Herman, are in Puerto Vallarta amid the violence in the streets.

By Tommy Osborne

Puerto Vallarta

Family of Prince George radio host impacted by Puerto Vallarta violence

Feb 24, 2026 | 3:54 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Violence erupted in the streets of Puerto Vallarta and across Mexico following the killing of Mexico’s most-wanted drug leader known as “El Mencho” in a military option. It began on Sunday morning, and has seen a notable impact for many in British Columbia and Prince George, who are in Puerto Vallarta or have family there. Among them is 101.3 The River’s radio host Clinton Herman, who’s parents Ted and Suzanne saw the violence break out.

“We heard some explosions which were cars blowing up, which created the black smoke and all that sort of thing. They were blowing up busses and cars and taxis,” Ted said.

“They were lighting them on fire, there were no bombs involved or anything like that. My concern was whether the situation would escalate beyond that,” Suzanne added.

Ted and Suzanne explained they were actually watching the Olympic men’s gold medal hockey game on Sunday morning before the explosions began, and they initially believed it to be smoke stacks before realizing something was wrong.

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“I said to Ted, ‘I think you should pull yourself away from the game.’ And he’s like, ‘no, I don’t want to, it’s too intense, and I’m like ‘no, I think we’re under siege,'” Suzanne said.

Suzanne says she’s happy the violence didn’t severely escalate, noting she and Ted are in a safer area of the city. Amid the explosions and fires, she adds navigating misinformation was a notable challenge too in an uncertain and scary time.

“People were writing stuff like ‘they’re taking hostages from hotels,’ and ‘they’re going to enact a curfew and if you’re out in the street, the cartel will gun you down,’ and all kinds of crazy stuff. So we got a little scared for a while there because we were getting this misinformation, having a lack of information from anywhere else,” Suzanne said.

“We were seeing photos of things that weren’t happening,” Ted added.

The situation appears to be winding down, as Global Affairs Canada has changed the advisory from “shelter in place” to “exercise a high degree of caution,” with some airports like Vancouver reopening some flights. As for the Prince George to Puerto Vallarta flight, the Prince George Airport Authority says this wasn’t impacted, as it’s a once-a-week flight on Saturday, but the situation was definitely worth monitoring locally.

“It’s always concerning because it means that people from our region are in an area that’s impacted with some form of issue. So from that perspective, yes, it is of concern, but from an airport operational piece, as long as we can maintain the service and we can move people that want to go in and out safely, then that’s our right,” said Prince George Airport Authority President and CEO Geoff Ritchie.

Global Affairs Canada says 26,000 Canadians are registered as being in Mexico, and it’s likely a decent amount of them are from Prince George, as Ritchie says this flight is one that usually sells out incredibly quickly every year and is only gaining in popularity. He hopes, and expects, there won’t be any significant challenges in the upcoming Saturday return flight to Prince George.

“We’re hopeful that they’ll be back safe and this issue will resolve itself, but we want to give people the opportunity to be able to travel back and forward and have their vacations in Mexico in a safe manner. And we, as an airport authority, will do the best we can to make sure that at least our end of the operation is safe,” Ritchie said.

If you aren’t taking the direct flight to Prince George though, you may face other delays. The Hermans hope to fly back this upcoming Sunday, and they note for some people they know the additional days in Puerto Vallarta have come with additional challenges besides the obvious concern for your safety.

“A lot of people are stuck on the ground here. There’s no hotel rooms available because it was 98% occupancy in the city. So we actually have a friend who’s couch surfing, he and his wife are from the Toronto area, and they have nowhere to stay, and they can’t get a flight out until Thursday,” Ted said.

Ritchie adds if you would like the most up to date information surrounding flights and travel advisories, the best place to go would be directly to the flight provider or Global Affairs Canada.