Violence—generally held to be drug-related—is spreading across Mexico at an alarming pace. The Pacific resort of Acapulco, in the conflicted southern state of Guerrero, has seen some 30 killings this year—many in the disco and restaurant zone frequented by tourists. The incidents have included grenade attacks on police stations and the killing of several officers, although no tourists have been injured. More than 100 federal police agents have been stationed in the city to combat crime and disrupt the drug gangs' turf wars. (Hartford Courant [1], Sept. 25)
On Sept. 11, seven people were killed and 19 others arrested in a new wave of violence affecting several regions of the country—including Acapulco, where a police agent was shot dead. Other victims included three guards of a prison near Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. In neighboring Tamaulipas, a police agent and a gunman died in a shootout in the state capital of Ciudad Victoria. Another officer was injured and 19 suspects were detained after the skirmish. In the city of Buenavista Tomatlan, Michoacan, a drug smuggler was killed during a shooting with police. (Xinhua [2], Sept. 12)
July 31 saw a particularly grisly incident in the Guerrero coastal town of San Jeronimo de Juarez, where former soldier went on a murderous rampage that left 10 people dead. Oscar Flores, 35, killed his wife and nephew with a knife before commandeering an assault rifle from a police officer for an apparently random shooting spree on the town's streets. Municipal police shot Flores in the abdomen on the town's central square before machete-wielding residents overwhelmed the officers and finished him off. (San Diego Union-Tribune [3], Aug. 1)
See our last posts on Guerrero [4] and border crisis [5].
