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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2007 
Hundreds Protest Acapulco Violence
 El Universal
| | A lone tourist walks along the water's edge in the resort city of Acapulco, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2007. (AP/Gregory Bull) |
Aacapulco - About 500 residents of Acapulco marched with banners and placards to demand an end to violent crime on Sunday, just 10 days after gunmen burst into two police stations and killed five police officers and two secretaries.
Businesspeople, community activists and families with children - many dressed in white to symbolize their call for peace - took part in the march through Acapulco´s hotel zone as passing motorists honked their horns in support.
However, march organizer Sari Enríquez said many residents live in fear. In the past 14 months, 250 people have been killed, many as the result of turf battles between drug gangs.
"That is why the march is taking place, because here we all live in fear ... even people who can hire private security services," Enríquez said. "It is sad that it has to come to this, because we spend a lot of money for public safety."
Enríquez said tourism in the once-vibrant resort is suffering because of the violence. Last month, a Canadian man was killed under disputed circumstances - authorities say he was hit by a car but relatives say he was beaten to death at a night club. And this month, two more Canadians were wounded by gunfire.
"We are losing a large part of tourism ... because of the lack of safety," Enríquez said.
Sunday was fairly calm in Acapulco, although violence continued elsewhere in Mexico.
Near the northern city of Monterrey, a 1-year-old girl was shot in the head by a bullet and her father wounded by unidentified assailants who fired on the vehicle they were traveling in, the government news agency Notimex reported.
The infant was listed in critical condition at a local hospital, and her father had three gunshot wounds and was listed in serious condition. The motive of the attack was not immediately known.
In the northern state of Chihuahua, police said Sunday that they had found the bodies of three young men, all shot in the head, in the trunk of a car abandoned near the city of Madera, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of the border with New Mexico.
Acapulco Is a Focus of New Military Campaign to Combat Cartels
Ron Claiborne & Andrew Morse - ABC News
Acapulco, Mexico - The Mexican military is waging a new war on drugs by sea, air and land.
It's an unprecedented effort to crack down on the violent drug cartels that export an estimated $13 billion worth of cocaine into the United States every year.
Shortly after taking office in December, Felipe Calderon became the first Mexican president to don military fatigues in nearly a century. It was a symbolic gesture, but an important one, as he launched the new campaign to wipe out the cartels.
Calderon said he would deploy more than 20,000 soldiers, sailors and marines to trouble spots across the country, to do the job local police and government officials have been unable to do. Past efforts to fight drug trafficking here have failed, largely due to corruption.
So far, the new campaign seems to be working.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty praises Calderon's new operation.
"We've seen great, courageous, bold action, and it's really unprecedented," he said.
The campaign is reaching across the country, even to the tourist resorts like Acapulco, where some 7,000 additional troops have been deployed.
Tourists notice a difference. Chicago native Ira Rosenthal has vacationed in Acapulco for the pas 20 years. He says the drug problem is now more obvious than it once was.
"There's a lot of security walking around, with armed men, which years ago you didn't see at all," he said.
That is part of the strategy. Projecting force is a key deterrent - or so the government hopes. It has launched raids on marijuana crops, stepped-up street patrols, established dozens of roadside checkpoints, and ordered navy ships to intercept suspicious vessels at sea. Perhaps most importantly, the Mexican government has begun to extradite drug kingpins to the United States.
McNulty said that is crucial.
"Extraditions are key to breaking-up the drug cartels, because these leaders of these drug operations genuinely fear being sent to the U.S," he said. "It's the one thing they dread most."
The drug kingpins are responsible for a wave of violence that has plagued Mexico in recent years. Last year, there were more than 2,000 drug-related murders in Mexico.
After one deadly shoot-out between cartels last September, drug lords took revenge on local police, killing several officers and decapitating them, placing their heads on stakes outside the police stations.
More recently, cartels have been posting video of their murders on YouTube as a taunt to their rivals.
Just days ago, gunmen opened fire on a police station in the village of Renacimiento, just outside of Acapulco. A resident named Maria witnessed the shooting. So did her two young grandchildren. Maria says she fears for their safety.
"They could end up killing one of my grandchildren," she said. "Everyone is in danger."
Unless the government campaign can stamp-out corruption, that danger will not go away.
Acapulco Mayor Felix Salgado says he is struggling with the drug problem in his city.
"It's a difficult situation, very complex," he explained.
But just days after ABC News interviewed Salgado, he was accused of links to drug gangs. He denies it, but he is now under investigation. |
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