El Chapo's Son Among Group Kidnapped From La Leche

On our 2010 cruise to Mexico's western coast, I was comforted knowing the area was under the imperial sway of El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel, the world's most powerful criminal organization. Tourists were generally safe. There was order and a sense of normality.

The kidnapping of El Chapo's son in Puerto Vallarta this week may signal the end of that. Empires end, after all:

A son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was among a group of men hauled at gunpoint from a restaurant in the Mexican beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, authorities have confirmed. The abduction was seen as a possible sign the power of the imprisoned drug lord is waning and a new cartel is trying to take his place.

Officials in the western state of Jalisco, where Puerto Vallarta is located, originally said that as many as 12 men had been taken early on Monday morning, but prosecutors later clarified that six were abducted during a celebration at La Leche restaurant on the city’s main boulevard.