Does a viral panoramic image really show Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, during the unrest that followed the killing of drug lord Nemesio Oseguera? No, that's not true: What looked like a Google Earth image was digitally modified to add fires. According to Google and two online detectors, the picture with buildings on fire was created using generative AI tools.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on February 22, 2026. The Spanish-language entry read:
Hermosa panorámica de Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco nos regala esta mañana de narcobloqueos. Ahí está la consecuencia de tolerar la expansión del poderío del crimen organizado: Se saben impunes para sembrar el terrorismo. Los culpables son AMLO, Claudia y todos los de MORENA.
As translated to English by DeepL, it said:
A beautiful panoramic view of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco greets us this morning of narco-blockades. This is the consequence of tolerating the expansion of organized crime's power: they know they can sow terror with impunity. The culprits are AMLO [former president of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador - Lead Stories], Claudia [likely current president Claudia Sheinbaum - Lead Stories] and everyone in MORENA [a Mexican political party founded by López Obrador in 2011 - Lead Stories].
This is what the image attached to the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at x.com/EmilioVallejoRL)
On the day of the post's publication, Mexican drug leader Nemesio Oseguera was killed in an operation (archived here) carried out by that country's army. In the aftermath, videos and still images depicting burnt vehicles and fires in the city of Puerto Vallarta in the Mexican state of Jalisco emerged on the internet (archived here).
The picture reviewed in this fact check, however, was not an authentic photo of that location.
According to Google's "About this image" tab, it was made by Google AI:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at google.com)
The features of the church from the picture matched those of Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe) in Puerto Vallarta. This is what it looked like in a 2022 photo (archived here), taken from a higher vantage point, on Google Maps:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at google.com/maps)
In the trending picture, however, the bigger yellow dome was missing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of post at x.com/EmilioVallejoRL)
What was reused in the post we analyzed in this article appeared to be an image from Google Earth that was digitally modified to add fires:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from Google Earth)
AI detection tool Hive assessed that it was 99.9% likely the image was generated using AI, most likely by Google's Gemini:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of page at hivemoderation.com)
Another detector, AI or Not, said that the probability of the picture being a product of generative AI was 100%:
