Brian McDonald
Five people died and others were injured on Thursday in an armed attack in Acapulco, Mexico, prosecutors said, just three days later Another 10 bodies were found in the tourist city plagued by cartel violence.
The latest attack took place at a grocery store located in a crafts market near the main tourist avenue of the famous Pacific coastal city.
The prosecutor’s office in the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, said in a statement who was investigating the attack that left four men and a woman dead and another person injured.
FRANCISCO ROBLES/AFP via Getty Images
Authorities said on Tuesday that 10 bodies were found scattered across the once-glamorous resort town, which has been engulfed in violence linked to organized crime.
Six of the bodies were left on Monday night on an avenue near a market, according to the local public security agency.
City media reported that the bodies were thrown from a car.
A shooting in the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood left three other people dead and another person was shot dead in the city’s tourist area.
Recent violence in Acapulco
Acapulco was once a playground for the rich and famous, but it has lost its luster over the past decade as foreign tourists have become frightened by the bloodshed that has made it one of the world’s most violent cities.
Last month, the head of Acapulco’s traffic police was shot dead when the attackers opened fire on him on a street relatively far from the resort’s beaches.
In February, the strangled bodies of two men were found on the popular Condesa beach in Acapulco. Prosecutors said the men’s bodies showed signs of “ligature torture” with “signs of neck torture.”
Around the same time, at least three people were shot dead on the beaches of Acapulco, one of them by armed men who arrived – and escaped – on board a boat.
The city is also still struggling to recover after being hit by Category 5 Hurricane Otis in October. Otis left at least 52 dead and destroyed or damaged most of the hotels.
The state of Guerrero is one of the most affected by drug trafficking in Mexico. Disputes between cartels have led to 1,890 murders in the state in 2023. Guerrero is among six states in Mexico that the U.S. State Department advise Americans should avoid it completely, citing crime and violence.
The spiral of criminal violence has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in the country since the government of then-president Felipe Calderón launched a military offensive against drug cartels in 2006.
Criminal gangs are involved not only in drug trafficking but also in other illegal activities, including human smuggling, extortion and fuel theft.
Mexico was also recently hit by a wave of political violence ahead of the June 2 elections. More than two dozen politicians have been killed since September last year, according to the NGO Data Civica – including a candidate for mayor who was shot dead last month as soon as she started the campaign.
