Sixteen gun-men killed in Acapulco

[Cathyb]

Online USA Today has article -- happened in hotel zone....

 

[pittle]

Actually, it happened in the old hotel zone about a mile from where the cliff divers are. It was a private home within a 100 meters of the resort that John Wayne and Johnny Weismueller went to regularly. Many city tour drivers take you to this resort for lunch. This part of town has gone downhill over the years.

The news media as usual has sensationalized events so that American toursists will be panicked and not go to Acapulco.

 

[lprstn]

Well it's freakin me out, and I want them to stop. I go in Sept. and am hoping things have settled down.

 

[tombo]

The news media as usual has sensationalized events so that American toursists will be panicked and not go to Acapulco.

How do you not sensationalize a 4 HOUR GUNFIGHT in a TOURIST SECTION of Acapulco where 18 PEOPLE WERE KILLED? This was not a mugging where someone stold an elderly woman's purse. These drug lords had 13 grenades and 2 grenade launchers along with 49 rifles, handguns, and 3000 rounds of ammunition. This was a major event and should be reported as such.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090608/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico

Roughly 3,000 shots and 50 explosions marked the four-hour battle late Saturday that left 16 gunmen and two soldiers dead. Nine other people were wounded, including three bystanders.

Although foreign tourists very rarely get caught in the violence, shootouts and kidnappings have become more frequent in resort areas such as Acapulco and Cancun. In 2007, a couple from Canada was wounded when someone fired into a hotel lobby in Acapulco.

 

[pittle]

When you go to Acapulco, you need to realize that it is a HUGE city and with that, there is often a lot of crime and poverty. Acapulco is the first place that I had ever been that had street beggars.

This did not happen near the nicer timeshare resorts and hotels where we all go. When we go to Acapulco, however, we generally consider it a destination resort and go to a few nice restaurants where the same taxi driver takes us and picks us up. We stay at the MP/GM in Acapulco and they have many taxi drivers who have been assigned to that location for years. They depend on recommendations from guests so they watch out for you. We have two that I keep their cards and contact when we are going. We only use them to get around and feel quite safe.

Whenever you go to a different city or country, you must be aware of your surroundings and be careful. We drove to Mazaltan from Phoenix last week and are here for a month. We are cautious, but still have fun. We are cautious in Phoenix too. We live in a great area of the city, but there are some that are probably like the area in Acapulco that had the gun fight.

Illegal drugs are a terrible thing and the people who sell them can be violent because they want the money above all.

When that article first came out yesterday, it said "Shootout kills 16 in Mexico's Acapulco resort". That was not true - it was in a private home and in what was the hotel zone in 1950. This is now mostly a residential area with some abandoned hotels and others have been turned into rental housing. The area is old and "seedy" - across the street from the house is an old hotel that rents rooms for 3 hours cheap. The last time a tour driver took us to the one resort for lunch, I was quite miffed, but we were with others so we had to go there for lunch. (I now take private tours with taxi drivers so that we can go where we want.) It may have been nice 50-60 years ago, but I knew that I did not want to be in that area in 2007.

 

[pgnewarkboy]

When you go to Acapulco, you need to realize that it is a HUGE city and with that, there is often a lot of crime and poverty. Acapulco is the first place that I had ever been that had street beggars.

This did not happen near the nicer timeshare resorts and hotels where we all go. When we go to Acapulco, however, we generally consider it a destination resort and go to a few nice restaurants where the same taxi driver takes us and picks us up. We stay at the MP/GM in Acapulco and they have many taxi drivers who have been assigned to that location for years. They depend on recommendations from guests so they watch out for you. We have two that I keep their cards and contact when we are going. We only use them to get around and feel quite safe.

Whenever you go to a different city or country, you must be aware of your surroundings and be careful. We drove to Mazaltan from Phoenix last week and are here for a month. We are cautious, but still have fun. We are cautious in Phoenix too. We live in a great area of the city, but there are some that are probably like the area in Acapulco that had the gun fight.

Illegal drugs are a terrible thing and the people who sell them can be violent because they want the money above all.

When that article first came out yesterday, it said "Shootout kills 16 in Mexico's Acapulco resort". That was not true - it was in a private home and in what was the hotel zone in 1950. This is now mostly a residential area with some abandoned hotels and others have been turned into rental housing. The area is old and "seedy" - across the street from the house is an old hotel that rents rooms for 3 hours cheap. The last time a tour driver took us to the one resort for lunch, I was quite miffed, but we were with others so we had to go there for lunch. (I now take private tours with taxi drivers so that we can go where we want.) It may have been nice 50-60 years ago, but I knew that I did not want to be in that area in 2007.

I truly appreciate the fact that many tuggers (including myself) think Mexico is a great tourist destination. Further, I appreciate the fact that many tuggers own in Mexico. That being said, what is happening in Mexico now is a war. This is not street crime. It is an actual war between the "federales" and powerful, well-armed, well-organized, "drug lords". As a tourist you don't want to get caught in a war zone. The war zone in mexico is always moving. It is not a matter of good and bad neighborhoods. It is a battle for the very existence of the Mexican civil government and society.

I just hope that it isn't headed to this country. Phoenix kidnappings is a very troubling development.

 

[hvacrsteve]

We should all be vigilant!

We should all be watching out for the areas we live in and enjoy vactioining in. Crime has no boundaries, it can sneak up on any of us at any time.
We as a nation must defend our freedoms or we are destine to loose them!
The Police are not the answer, in many cases only a fine line separates good from evil, it is hard to tell which side whom is on sometimes.
Mexico is a place I love to visit, but right now I am supporting the US economy as much as possible, if we support each other and purchase thngs locally, we are helping our own neighborhood survive this downturn.
If we all just try to give the business people in your own local area the opportunity to do your job you are gving them money to further improve your neighborhood!
A few more dollars will not break you when pretty soon we want have any local businesses to help at all!

Just think about what it takes to support your neighbors!
Then go for it, pretty soon everyone will be doing the same and we have then really rebuilt the US from the ground up.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

We should all be watching out for the areas we live in and enjoy vactioining in. Crime has no boundaries, it can sneak up on any of us at any time.
We as a nation must defend our freedoms or we are destine to loose them!
The Police are not the answer, in many cases only a fine line separates good from evil, it is hard to tell which side whom is on sometimes.
Mexico is a place I love to visit, but right now I am supporting the US economy as much as possible, if we support each other and purchase thngs locally, we are helping our own neighborhood survive this downturn.
If we all just try to give the business people in your own local area the opportunity to do your job you are gving them money to further improve your neighborhood!
A few more dollars will not break you when pretty soon we want have any local businesses to help at all!

Just think about what it takes to support your neighbors!
Then go for it, pretty soon everyone will be doing the same and we have then really rebuilt the US from the ground up.

It strikes me that that one reason why a battle such as this took place is that Mexico is a lot more serious about grappling with and battling drug gangs than we are in the US.

If in the US we made a serious push to clear out drug gangs in our cities where they have become deeply entrenched and insinuated, I wonder if we wouldn't see similar levels of warfare involving local police and the gangs. To what extent are we spared the violence simply because there is a kind of tacit understanding that as long as our drug gangs are mostly killing each other, not engaging in all out shoot-em-ups in the streets, keeping the violence inside gang turf locales, they will be allowed to exist?

 

[pgnewarkboy]

It strikes me that that one reason why a battle such as this took place is that Mexico is a lot more serious about grappling with and battling drug gangs than we are in the US.

If in the US we made a serious push to clear out drug gangs in our cities where they have become deeply entrenched and insinuated, I wonder if we wouldn't see similar levels of warfare involving local police and the gangs. To what extent are we spared the violence simply because there is a kind of tacit understanding that as long as our drug gangs are mostly killing each other, not engaging in all out shoot-em-ups in the streets, keeping the violence inside gang turf locales, they will be allowed to exist?

An excellent question. A question that is not likely to be answered anytime soon.

 

[John Cummings]

It strikes me that that one reason why a battle such as this took place is that Mexico is a lot more serious about grappling with and battling drug gangs than we are in the US.

If in the US we made a serious push to clear out drug gangs in our cities where they have become deeply entrenched and insinuated, I wonder if we wouldn't see similar levels of warfare involving local police and the gangs. To what extent are we spared the violence simply because there is a kind of tacit understanding that as long as our drug gangs are mostly killing each other, not engaging in all out shoot-em-ups in the streets, keeping the violence inside gang turf locales, they will be allowed to exist?

There is a major difference between the US and Mexico. That is institutionalized corruption that is so prevalent in Mexico. More often than not, the law officials are in cahoots with the cartels and gangs. That is why the Mexican government has had to use military troops.

We just sit here and worry about our vacations. All of my wife's family lives in Mexico and they have to deal with it. Her nephew was kidnapped and had his fingers cut off. No, he has nothing to do with the drug business. He owns a furniture store. There have been other incidents. You are fine if you stay in your resorts and go on organized tours etc. However, I would be very careful about venturing out on my own. Mazatlan is one of the cities I would be very careful of where I went. I know Mazatlan well and my wife has many relatives that live there.