Dan Dicks Reports on Mexican Cartel Violence while Sheltering in Hotel Room with NO WAY OUT
Dan Dix reports from Puerto Vallarta during a cartel war after El Mucho’s capture, with Jalisco New Generation forces burning buses, Costco, OXXO stores, and a hospital while blocking roads. Flights canceled at both airports; Dix films chaos—burning cars and masked gunmen—before sheltering in a hotel with 700 anarchist allies. Despite personal safety, civilians face escalating threats, including power grid attacks and U.S. military rumors. Dix vows to return, prioritizing exposure over fear, but warns of deeper political consequences as governments fail to act amid coordinated violence. [Automatically generated summary]
One and only day I was supposed to spend it on the beach with my lovely wife, and we went out there and immediately noticed smoke, black smoke everywhere.
To the left of me, there was smoke to the right of me, behind me.
And I knew these are fires.
Something major is going on.
Quickly looked into what was happening, and sure enough, major cartel war kicking off.
We got this El Mucho guy being captured and I believe killed, and the cartel launching a full-out attack.
They were going into the streets and setting up blockades, pulling over cars.
Oh man, one heck of a day for me.
I didn't see it coming out like this.
All right.
Welcome, everybody.
This is Mike Adams here, interviewing Dan Dix, just an extraordinary freedom fighter.
Pressfortruth.ca is his website, and he is in Puerto Vallarta with real-time reports of what's going on.
So go for it, Dan.
What's happening?
Oh, man.
One heck of a day for me.
I didn't see it coming out like this.
I've been here working for the last five days.
I've been invited to speak at a conference.
So today was the one and only day I was supposed to spend it on the beach with my lovely wife.
And we went out there and immediately noticed smoke, black smoke everywhere.
To the left of me, there was smoke to the right of me, behind me.
And I knew these are fires.
Something major is going on.
Quickly looked into what was happening.
And sure enough, major cartel war kicking off.
We got this El Mucho guy being captured and I believe killed.
And the cartel launching a full-out attack.
They were going into the streets and setting up blockades, pulling over cars.
There were members of the conference that I was speaking at, attendees, who had their taxi taken over by cartels.
The driver was murdered in front of them, shot in the head, and then it was burned.
And all their luggage, including their passport that was in the luggage, was burned up in this taxi car.
So people who were just at the same conference that I was at were being directly affected.
And then they were pulling over, you know, stopping buses and lighting them on fire.
They have already set on fire a Costco, a number of OXO convenience stores.
They went into a hospital and there were people running and fearing for their lives.
The Guadalajara airport was under major attack from the cartel.
The Puerto Vallerta airport is currently shut down as well.
All flights have been halted.
I'm supposed to fly out of here tomorrow, but that's not happening anymore, Mike.
I just got the email saying my flight has been canceled due to this situation.
So it's pretty intense.
I got to say, I mean, I stepped outside of my hotel at one point to capture a little bit of footage, and it was like a destitute wasteland.
There was nobody out there except for burning, smoldering cars.
And at one point, some military men drove by me very, very slowly with big guns and ski masks.
And I got to admit, I was afraid for my life at that moment because I didn't know if this was cartel.
And even if it wasn't cartel, the military is the target right now of the cartel.
So things got really intense there for a moment there.
And they're still currently pretty intense.
Things have died down a little bit.
It's like 8 p.m. now.
But who knows if they're going to continue to strike in the night.
Okay, first of all, I want to encourage everybody to follow you on X. Also, give us your X handle, please.
Yeah, it's Dan DixPFT.
I used to have an account at Twitter.
That's currently, I mean, Press for Truth that's still suspended, believe it or not.
But my personal account is still going.
Dan DixPFT.
And yes, I've been uploading footage to that all day.
I have footage of me showing the smoldering cars on the beach, footage of myself walking around in the area around this hotel that I'm currently at, and also just documenting the events from my balcony here.
But we're basically on lockdown right now in this hotel.
They've told us not to go anywhere.
I did go outside of the hotel at one point today, and as I said, it was pretty terrifying at one point, you know, when I had the military staring me down.
And I cartel is known to dress up looking very militant, military-like here in Mexico.
So I don't know what I was dealing with.
We're being told that all Americans, and we'll include Canadians in the group here as well, are being told to shelter in place.
That's what you were just talking about.
But do you have any additional information on whether U.S. military sources provided the key intel to the Mexican military to kill that cartel leader?
Yeah, I do not, but I absolutely would not be surprised.
I mean, you know, these cartel gangs and stuff like that are often in bed with the government and they can be used to do the bidding of the government.
And is this escalating into a much bigger kind of situation?
It very well may.
I mean, Trump has mentioned taking out certain cartel members before in the past.
And so if there's military involvement coming from that area, I mean, this could escalate into bigger things.
But where this is actually coming from and who's behind it, I haven't had time to look at any of that.
I'm, of course, here just kind of documenting things on the ground, doing a number of interviews.
But I absolutely wouldn't be surprised if there's some shady things going on behind the scenes because that's how these guys often operate.
I have other sources who told me in the last two hours, sources who are very close to certain military bases in the continental United States that say there's a tremendous amount of traffic moving out.
There are soldiers being deployed south, not to Iran in this case, but toward Mexico.
I'm very concerned about that because that means Trump is anticipating something larger.
Well, you know, the cartel here have already warned that if their demands are not met, they are going to escalate this into going into private homes and potentially entering hotels and resorts and places like the place I'm in right now.
In fact, I do believe the government said they may be cutting the power.
And I don't know if that's just to try to stifle the efforts of the cartel or if it's just to add to the, you know, to the tension of the situation.
But at any state, I mean, it's not looking good right now for people in Puerto Vallerta, Mike.
I mean, we really need to pray for everybody here right now because lives have been turned, flipped upside down here.
You know, it's just, it's absolutely insane what's going on now.
Not to mention all the people who can't go home, who are stranded and stuck, but the people who have been killed.
I mean, like, we saw that there's so many cars that are on fire.
Like I said, motorcycles, buses, cars.
They went into a grocery store.
Like, there's footage of a Costco on fire, multiple convenience stores on fires, grocery stores on fire.
These guys aren't messing around.
I mean, whoever's behind the strings pulling this is absolutely dead serious.
And I don't know if this is just going to go away in a matter of 24 to 48 hours or if this is going to escalate and be the beginning of something much, much larger.
I guess we'll tell.
Is there, and by the way, thank you again for taking the time to speak with me.
And please keep in your mind here something.
Is there anything that we can do to help you and others there?
But let me ask you this other question first.
Is there any indication that, of course, tourism is a very big industry for Mexico, really critical.
Is there an indication that the cartel, and I think this is the Jalisco New Generation cartel, I believe it is, that they're trying to make this very visible, sort of an exaggerated visibility of fires.
Like I've seen footage of them setting gas stations on fire.
You know, strategically, that doesn't do much, but psychologically, it does a lot.
Are you seeing things like that?
It certainly feels like that.
And, you know, you're right.
When you're setting gas stations on fire, that's more so to cause a scene internationally.
And I've seen things like that before, you know, at the G20 in Toronto.
I made a documentary film about that back in 2010, for example, where it was police agent provocateurs who were set up, putting the police cars in the situation and lighting them on fire as a photo op for the media to be able to paint the picture and look, look how bad this situation is.
We need to go in.
We need to shut it down.
And I mean, that very well could be, you know, them thinking about the photo op opportunity to get just the fear in the minds of the masses about what's happening here, whether or not they want them to think that they are all mighty and powerful or that there's something bigger going on.
But when I was looking around on the beach and there was like massive fires on one side of me, massive fires on the other, the opposite side of the hotel, there's smoke billowing all over the place.
I mean, it's a horrifying scene.
And, you know, whether or not that's coming up organically or if it's all part of a photo op, I don't know.
But at any rate, it doesn't look good.
Well, I've noticed online that the Mexican embassy is engaged in a lot of damage control right now and trying to say it's not that big of a deal.
And it's mostly it's more under control than it was a few hours ago.
Are you seeing evidence of that?
For example, are you hearing any gunshots?
Are you hearing any bombs?
Or is that long gone hours ago?
That was hours ago.
It did seem like as soon as nightfall kind of happened, things quieted down a little bit.
But I mean, who's to say they're not going to launch attacks in the dead of the night?
I mean, they've already promised to go into private homes and potentially resorts and hotels.
And if they want to get the international press outraged, that's something they can certainly do.
So yes, it does seem to have temporarily quieted down a little bit.
And I hope that is the reality for the rest of this whole thing, that this was just a one-off, one-day kind of situation, and that's the end of it.
But something makes me feel like this isn't the end.
Something makes me feel that this is potentially going to escalate over time.
And we could just be seeing the beginning of something much, much larger, especially if the U.S. military is publicly getting involved.
I mean, as far as I know, Donald Trump has not really publicly said much about this.
I think the last thing he publicly talked about was Canada losing the hockey game in the Olympics, you know?
So he's kind of like, mum's the word right now.
Maybe he just doesn't want to show his hand.
Maybe he doesn't want to reveal his cards.
But it's tough to say where this is going to go.
This is also, politically, this is a huge opportunity for Trump to do something positive and humanitarian, which would be to bring in some C-130 cargo planes, land them at the airport there and evacuate Americans and Canadians and get them out of there.
I mean, that would be seen as a humanitarian rescue operation.
Yeah, and, you know, it kind of makes me want to investigate the Canadian consulate around here and maybe find out, like, hey, what sort of, you know, action plans do you have in place for things like this?
Are you prepared for things like this?
Do you know what to do when something like this happens?
Are you willing to save your own people in this kind of scenario?
Or are you just kind of sitting with your hands tied behind your back?
I mean, I may, you know, since my flight is canceled tomorrow, maybe I'll have an opportunity to contact the Canadian consulate in my area or at least find the closest one, head on down there, get them on the record, get them on film explaining their position on this and whether or not they're prepared for something like this.
But that could potentially be interesting, or maybe at the very least, I'll give them a phone call.
But we'll see.
We'll see if that seems a plan.
Very important.
And I'll be monitoring your ex account, by the way, during the day.
So keep us all posted.
But also, I would say, historically, for example, the way the U.S. treated its own citizens in Afghanistan doesn't bode well for at least the way the U.S. government does things.
Perhaps the Canadian government typically would be more compassionate.
Well, considering Canada is kind of morphing into a culture of death, you know, with over 100,000 people killed by assisted suicide in the MAID program.
You know, we've got transgender people shooting up schools like it's nothing.
It's the remotest shooting in the history of the country just happened like a week ago.
So, I mean, Canada is a mess right now.
So, I mean, like I said, it's evolving into like a culture of death that I wouldn't be surprised if they're not too, you know, overly concerned with getting guys like me out of here right now.
I hope I'm wrong.
I hope I'm wrong.
Well, I hope you're wrong too.
But also, of course, you're critical of the Canadian government, as I am, and I'm critical of my own government as well.
So it's not like we are the top rescue material for our own governments.
That's just the reality of the situation.
Let me ask you, are you aware of the cartel's demands?
What are they?
I'm really not sure, but as I understand it, and I'm just picking up a little bit of news here and there, and I haven't been able to verify much of this, but I think maybe they've captured the son of one of these top guys as well who was captured and are potentially going to be interrogating them soon.
And so if that is in fact true, and like I said, I haven't verified this yet, but if it is true, I mean, I think that's a sign that this isn't about to slow down anytime soon and that this could just be the beginning of something much, much larger.
Again, I hope that's not the case because we're kind of in the thick of it now.
Cartel Escalation Risks00:06:06
I did not know this was going to be happening today, obviously.
Like I said, I had one day to enjoy the beach, and sure enough, I had to get right back to work because the world was seemingly blowing up all around me.
But man, oh man, I'm going to obviously be here tomorrow and potentially much longer now.
I have no idea what's going to happen with my flight.
All I know is it's being canceled.
So we'll see.
How are you and others doing in terms of being self-reliant to be able to last for a couple of days in your hotel, especially if they take the power grid down?
And typically, I think they would do that in order to take down the cell towers so that the cartel members can't communicate with each other through the cell towers.
That's probably why.
Yeah, yeah, that is probably why.
But thankfully, thankfully, there is a really solid community here in Puerto Vallerta of activists, researchers, a number of journalists, friends I know actually live here.
And as I said, I'm just coming back from a conference.
Like in the last few days, I just spoke in front of 700 people, like-minded people who are fans of Press for Truth.
And many of them are residents of Puerto Vallerta.
So I think, and this is why community is so important and why we need to continue to network with like-minded people.
And so if things do go worse than I would hope they go, luckily, I'm in a place where I have a community who I can reach out to and I can contact and I can get in touch with them and not have to rely on getting into a taxi or an Uber or anything like that.
And I can probably have some people pick me up, take me to a safe home and things like that.
Because there is a good community of people here in Puerto Vallerta.
I just spoke at Anarchipoco.
It's a group of, you know, basically a bunch of, you know, anarchists, people who are very, very, you know, speaking out against what the government does.
They get it.
You know, they understand the boat that I'm in.
And thankfully, I've managed to make a lot of good friends in the last few days of people who live here in Puerto Vallerta.
So thankfully, I'm probably going to be okay should things get bad.
But the same can't be said for a lot of the other people who are here.
So again, I hope your viewers just pray for everybody in Puerto Vallerta because thankfully, I managed to make a good community of friends here.
And recently, just in the last few days, met a whole bunch of fantastic people who know what's up.
But that's certainly not this case for everyone around here.
Understood.
Yeah.
And people are praying for you.
I've seen many, many comments online.
But I also want to mention that apparently the cartel violence that was just triggered is spread across dozens of areas of Mexico.
So it is widespread.
It appears to be widely coordinated and extremely well funded.
So I think that kind of speaks to what you said earlier, that this might be just the beginning of some escalation yet to come.
Yeah, as I understand it, like the Guadalajara airport was completely taken over.
There's certain footage, not shot by me, but of people on rooftops in Puerto Vallerta with just multiple explosions and fires all over the place.
And I've seen the names of like six or seven different places all over Mexico, many of which I can't pronounce or not going to try to do that right now.
But yeah, this thing is widespread.
This thing is all over.
And when you engage with the cartel to this kind of an extent, it's going to be widespread.
It's going to be big.
They're going to have a massive response.
And that's exactly what we're seeing now.
God forbid the power gets cut.
I hope and pray that doesn't happen, but that still could happen.
I mean, it could happen in the middle of this interview.
I hope it doesn't.
But, you know, it's really tough to say where this is going to go from here.
But yes, widespread all across Mexico.
I really hope people take this seriously because, as I said, when I went outside today, it was pretty scary.
It's calmed down now, but hopefully this isn't just the eye of the hurricane with more to come tomorrow.
Right, right, exactly.
I've got a couple more questions for you.
We'll wrap this up soon.
I really respect your time.
But one of those questions is, and I apologize in advance if it seems like I'm prying, but does this change your outlook of returning to Mexico for future events?
Not really, to be honest.
I mean, I've been speaking at this particular event.
This is my seventh year, you know, and it's usually held in Acapulco, which is more famously, you know, everybody thinks it's a scary place to go, but I've never really let those kind of things dictate my life.
You know, I've got the armor of God and protection around me, and I don't necessarily concern myself with those things.
So, yes, this was bad.
This was bad timing for me, but I'm not going to let it scare me certainly away from coming back.
I'll probably be invited back to this conference next year and come again, whether it's in Acapulco or Puerto Vallerta or wherever they decide to host it next time.
But no, I'm not going to let this scare me because, you know, the moment you start doing that, the moment they win, whether that's the cartel or the government, you have to continue fighting the good fight in this battle in the new world order with no fear moving forward.
And that's what I'm going to continue to do.
Understood.
Okay, last question for you.
What about drones?
Dan Dix PFT's Call to Action00:03:47
Did you hear or see any drones by either side, the cartels or the government, today?
I haven't seen any drones.
Again, I was only outside briefly.
And when I was outside, it was very eerily quiet.
Like there was zero cars on the road.
Nobody was out there at all.
I was like the only guy.
And then the military drove by and my heart started pounding for a sec because I wasn't sure what they're, you know, they see me filming with my camera in front of a smoldering car.
And they're like guys with huge machine guns and ski masks in camo.
And I didn't know if it was the cartel or not, but that's the only thing I saw.
One pickup truck full of eight dudes with machine guns.
And that was the only thing I saw.
And then I came back into the safety of this hotel and haven't seen anything since.
So I'm not too sure about that, but I wouldn't be surprised if they're buzzing around out there right now.
Okay.
Well, you want to give us your website and your X handle one more time?
Sure.
Yeah.
I'm on all the major platforms.
You could find me on BitChute or Rumble or Odyssey or Minds or Hive or Band or YouTube.
But I mean, I've been banned from there and reinstated and banned again and reinstated again.
So I wouldn't necessarily rely on that one.
But the best place to go is pressfortruth.ca.
Or if you want to go to pressfortruth.ca slash subscribe, you can find all those platforms that I post on.
My Twitter is Dan Dix PFT, like the letters for Press for Truth, Dan Dix PFT.
If you want to follow me there, it'd be greatly appreciated.
And if anybody does want to contribute to my efforts to cover this stuff, you can go to pressfortruth.ca slash donate.
I don't know how I'm getting home yet or what this is going to look like.
But really sharing the content is first and foremost.
And also praying for the people of Puerto Vallerta, because it's not me we need to worry about here, guys.
It's the peoples whose lives have been completely flipped upside down.
And the families who have lost loved ones, that's who we need to worry about today.
Yeah, well said.
And I think you answered the last question, but is there anything else that our listeners can do to help resolve or de-escalate this situation?
Well, I mean, I would imagine that there's going to be some fundraising going on.
You know, hopefully it gets directed into the right direction.
But as it is now, the best thing you can do to help me is to share the content because I'm boots on the ground reporting and you're going to get the kind of stuff that you're not going to see from the mainstream media necessarily.
So the best thing to do is just continue to share the content.
And if I come across any links that I feel are important to share, especially when it comes to maybe raising funds for family members who have lost loved ones, I will certainly get that out as best I can.
Okay, sounds great.
Now stand by because I want to make sure that you can reach me directly.
I'll give you my information right after this, but let me just tell the audience.
So that's Dan Dix, everybody, pressfortruth.ca.
And you can follow more of my videos at brightvideos.com, where I'll continue to cover this.
And my handle on X is HealthRanger.
So thank you for watching and pray for everybody's safe return.
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