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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2007 
2 Canadians Hurt by Gunfire in Acapulco
 Ioan Grillo - Associated Press
| | Mexican soldiers inspect a vehicle at a military checkpoint in the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco. President Felipe Calderon, who took office in December, has dispatched thousands of troops to the border city of Tijuana and to his home state of Michoacan, both swamped by waves of killings, as rival drug cartels fight for control of trafficking routes. (Reuters) |
Two Canadians were wounded when someone fired into a hotel lobby in Mexico's Pacific resort of Acapulco, police said Sunday.
The victims, identified as a couple from Ontario, both suffered minor injuries to their legs late Saturday and were treated in a local hospital, said Edgar Bautista, a spokesman for the state police of Guerrero.
Phone calls to the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City to confirm the identity of the victims went unanswered Sunday.
Bautista said police were investigating who fired on the hotel in the heart of Acapulco's tourist zone.
Several other Canadian residents have been hurt in Mexican tourist resorts recently.
Last month, Adam DePrisco, 19, from Woodbridge, Ontario, was killed in Acapulco.
Guerrero state officials said he died from injuries sustained when he was hit by a car. However, DePrisco's family believes he was beaten and have cited doctors saying DePrisco's injuries "did not indicate that it was a hit-and-run accident."
In February 2006, Woodbridge residents Domenic and Nancy Ianiero were found dead with their throats slashed in their hotel room in Cancun on the Caribbean coast. The killings have not been solved and family members have accused Mexican authorities of botching the investigation.
Also Sunday, police said the dismembered corpse of an unidentified man was found dumped in plastic bags in a slum outside Acapulco.
The city has been hit by a wave of killings blamed on rival drug cartels fighting over smuggling routes along the Pacific coast and a burgeoning local drug market.
Last year, at least six heads of decapitated police officers and alleged drug smugglers were found in the resort and nearby towns. One washed up on a popular beach in the tourist zone, while the rest were dumped on the streets.
President Felipe Calderon, who took power in December, has sent more than 24,000 federal police and soldiers to fight drug gangs in regions ravaged by drug violence. More than 7,000 troops arrived in the Acapulco region last month.
Mexican Shooting Victim Unafraid
TORONTO/AM 640
While everyone's complaining about the safety of Canadian vacationers in Mexico, one of the victims in the latest shooting incident says it's no big deal.
Rita Calara and another traveller on a group trip she was with were shot while they were waiting in the lobby of their Acapulco hotel this weekend. Both are going to be alright.
Calara tells AM 640 Toronto's John Oakley show she's already looking forward to going back for a Mexican vacation. She says she's not scared and this could just as easily have happend in Toronto.
Calara also says police and hospital staff treated her well.
She and the other victim, said to be a man in 70's, are from the Niagara region.
Earlier reports suggested they were from Woodbridge. |
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