Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Sunday, August 27, 2017

Acapulco: Mexico's Murder Capital as Democracy Dies in Darkness


Posted by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from Wapo

Coroners remove a body from ColoniaBarranca de la Laja
The decapitated and dismembered corpse was buried beneath a floor

The faded resort city is a symbol of the skyrocketing violence in Mexico




Special Report By: Joshua Partlow 
Photos By: Michael Robinson Chavez
Aug 24, 2017
Republished in Proceso

Acapulco, Gro, Mexico: From the crescent bay and swaying palms, the taxi drivers of Acapulco need just 10 minutes to reach this other, plundered world.

Here, in a neighborhood called Renacimiento, a pharmacy is smeared with gang graffiti. Market stalls are charred by fire. Taco stands and dentists’ offices, hair salons and auto-body workshops — all stand empty behind roll-down metal gates.

On Friday afternoons, however, the parking lot at the Oxxo convenience store in this brutalized barrio buzzes to life. Dozens of taxi drivers pull up. It’s time to pay the boys.


When the three young gunmen drive up in a white Nissan Tsuru, Armando, a 55-year-old cabbie, scribbles his four-digit taxi number on a scrap of paper, folds it around a 100-peso note and slips it into their black plastic bag. This is his weekly payment to Acapulco’s criminal underworld — about $5, or roughly half what he earns in a day.

“They have the power,” said Armando, who identified himself only by his first name because he feared reprisal. “They can do whatever they want.”

A Cross rises above Colonia Santa Cruz  in Acapulco
As violence has risen, business owners and residents have fled, leaving abandoned storefronts and homes.

For each of the past five years, Acapulco has been the deadliest city in Mexico, in a marathon of murder that has hollowed out the hillside neighborhoods and sprawling colonias that tourists rarely visit. And yet, the term “drug war” only barely describes what is going on here.



The dominant drug cartel in Acapulco and the state of Guerrero broke up a decade ago. The criminals now in charge resemble neighborhood gangs — with names like 221 or Los Locos. An estimated 20 or more of these groups operate in Acapulco, intermixed with representatives from larger drug cartels who contract them for jobs. The gang members are young men who often become specialists — extortionists, kidnappers, car thieves, assassins — and prey on a largely defenseless population.

“They kill barbers, tailors, mechanics, tinsmiths, taxi drivers,” said Joaquin Badillo, who runs a private security company in the city. “This has turned into a monster with 100 heads.”

Mexico is halfway through what may become the bloodiest year in its recent history, with more than 12,000 murders i the first six months of 2017. June was the deadliest month in the past two decades of consistent Mexican government statistics.

There are many theories on why violence, which dropped for two years after the 2012 election of President Enrique Peña Nieto, has roared back: competition for the domain of captured kingpins; the breakdown of secret agreements between criminals and politicians; a judicial reform requiring more evidence to lock up suspected lawbreakers; the growing American demand for heroin, meth and synthetic opiates. Whatever the primary cause, the result has been terrifying — a disintegration of order across growing swaths of this country.

Violence is spreading to new places and taking many forms. In Puebla, south of Mexico City, a fight rages over the sale of stolen fuel. Beach towns such as Cancun and Playa del Carmen have been bloodied by drug killings. The battle for human-smuggling routes leaves bodies strewn along the migrant trail.

In Acapulco, the faded playground of Hollywood stars, where the Kennedys honeymooned and John Wayne basked in the clifftop breeze, drugs are no longer even the main story. This is a place awash in crime of all stripes, where criminals no longer have to hide.

Residents and tourists play in the Pacific Ocean at La Caleta, a popular Acapulco Beach
Hotel vacancies are higher and many establishments are in a state of disrepair.
The Spark:

When Evaristo opened his restaurant along Acapulco’s seaside strip 15 years ago, drugs were plentiful, and that was just fine with him. Acapulco has always been a party town, and became a transit point for U.S.-bound Colombian cocaine and the opium poppy that bloomed along with marijuana in the state’s highlands. The dominant traffickers were the Beltran Leyva brothers of the Sinaloa Cartel.

“What the Beltran Leyvas were doing was selling drugs,” said Evaristo, who identified himself only by his first name, for fear of reprisal. “But they left us alone.”

For Evaristo, and many other Acapulco residents, the city’s descent into lawlessness began with the events at La Garita. A brazen January 2006 shootout in that central neighborhood left flaming vehicles and bodies in the street and became part of the city’s lore, as much as the iconic cliff divers and the Hollywood stars who once passed through town.

That gun battle also made one thing clear: National-level cartels were active in Acapulco — in this case the Sinaloa cartel, allied with the Beltran Leyvas, and the expansionist Zetas. And they were willing to use tremendous violence against each other.  “That’s when all this began,”  Evaristo recalled.

Acapulco is considered one of the world's most dangerous cities,
Beyond the iron fence in the foreground are the city's most violent colonias.
Over the next decade, as then-President Felipe Calderón declared war on organized crime, Mexican security forces and their U.S. allies picked off cartel bosses and kingpins, splintering their organizations.

In Acapulco, the result has become a kaleidoscope of feuding criminals. After the killing of a powerful Beltran Leyva brother in 2009, rival factions emerged, with names like the Independent Cartel of Acapulco, the South Pacific Cartel and La Barredora. Contenders joined the fray from ascendant heroin-trafficking groups and crime organizations from other cities.

With the loss of all-powerful cartel bosses who had tightly controlled their criminal empires, drug gangs moved increasingly into other crimes, such as kidnapping and extortion.

Some 2,000 businesses have closed in the past few years, according to trade associations, driven away by crime and a withering economy. The bulk of the devastation has come in the poorer, inland neighborhoods, but the tourist strip has not been spared. Gone are Hooters and the Hard Rock Cafe, along with famed local spots such as El Alebrije nightclub and Plaza Las Peroglas, a shopping mall. An accountant whose clients included restaurant owners, doctors, and mechanics said that about 70 percent of them had closed their businesses in the past year because of extortion.

“Today, in Acapulco, this problem has given us mass psychosis,” said Alejandro Martinez Sidney, president of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Services and Tourism in Guerrero, which represents more than 8,000 businesses. “We are frozen, waiting for someone to come and demand our money.”

Last September, five gunmen walked into Evaristo’s restaurant, asking for the phone number of the owner. After he said he wouldn’t pay extortion, the men returned and put their guns to the heads of the staff, saying they would burn down the restaurant with everyone inside it, the restaurant owner recalled.

Since then, Evaristo has paid 40, 000 pesos per month (about $2,200).

He has cut back on advertising and maintenance to cover the payments. Two of his private security guards were riddled with bullets from a passing car one night in May and survived the attack. If this keeps up, he will close down.  “My life is at risk,” Evaristo said.

"The Tolerance Zone"
The once thriving Acapulco red-light district filled with nightclubs is now nearly abandoned
New Behaviors:

Mexico’s crime gangs have not just proliferated, they behave differently than in past decades. Cartels were once based on family ties and known for maintaining strict hierarchies that rewarded members’ loyalty with promotion through the ranks.

The newer generations of criminal gangs operate more like a “wheel network,” a web of contacts who ally at times but also work independently, said Cecilia Farfán, a scholar at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomy de Mexico, or ITAM, who specializes in organized crime and is doing research in Acapulco.

If these quasi-independent cells get disrupted, the larger network can still function, and “the intelligence that a cell can provide to law enforcement or rival organizations is limited,” Farfán wrote in her recently completed dissertation.

Criminals have begun to show less allegiance to a single organization — acting more like freelance subcontractors.

“They hire you for your expertise; they’re not going to develop you as a human resource,” Farfán said about how street-level criminals are used. “They’re not investing in you, and you’re not invested in them, either.”

The victims of Acapulco’s violence come in many forms: those caught in feuds between criminal bands; businessmen who don’t pay extortion; those who cross the invisible boundaries between drug gang territory. The situation has become so confused — with criminals staking out overlapping domains — that residents often complain about being forced to pay off two or three different groups. People die over mistaken identity or as bystanders.

Relatives and friends gather at an Acapulco funeral home where a wake was held for two young men
who were tortured and murdered in July.
Their grandfather says it was a case of mistaken identity
On one recent night, an overflow crowd waited silently on sidewalk benches outside an Acapulco funeral parlor. Gerardo Flores Camarena, 57, a hotel bartender, couldn’t stay seated. He paced back and forth in anguish as he spoke into his cellphone.

“The killers thought they were from another group,” he told a relative. “They got confused. Can you imagine: confused.”

The day before, his brother, Ricardo, 42, an ambulance driver, and Gerardo’s two teenage grandsons had been found in the trunk of their Nissan Sentra. They had suffered a type of torture known as the “tourniquet”: wires cinched around their necks to the point of suffocation.

A note left with the bodies said this is what happens to car thieves. But the Nissan had belonged to the family. “We feel powerless against what is happening in this city,” Flores said.

Gerardo Flores Camarena weeps at the morgue after identifying the bodies of his grandsons
"We feel powerless " said Flores
A Continuing Slide:

When Mayor Evodio Velázquez Aguirre took office in October 2015, he said, the municipal police force was “totally out of control.”

Half the 1,500 officers had failed federal vetting and background checks. The police had spent much of 2014 on strike to protest salaries and benefits, leaving state and federal forces in charge.

The mayor said that his administration has provided the police with life insurance, housing, new cameras and vehicles. There is also a new, separate tourist police force with jaunty uniforms to attend to travelers.

“Acapulco is on its feet,” the mayor said in an interview.

But last year, there were 918 killings in the city of 700,000, the most murders of any Mexican city for the fifth straight year. During the first half of this year, the government numbers track slightly lower — 412, compared with 466 in the same period in 2016 — although the local El Sur newspaper lists 466 murders for the most recent period.

Adm. Juan Guillermo Fierro Rocha, the commander in Acapulco for the Mexican navy, which has a critical role fighting cartels, told El Sur this month that criminals are lashing out because they are “cornered,” and that he expects a decrease soon.

But Mexican authorities have failed for years to halt Acapulco’s slide.

Some 5,000 security forces are in Acapulco, and the coastal sliver of hotels and restaurants brims with federal and state police, soldiers, marines and municipal forces. This attention to the tourist strip, however, leaves the vast majority of the city exposed, residents say.

Mexican police have been hobbled by corruption for decades, and Acapulco has been no exception. Alfredo Álvarez Valenzuela, who oversaw the Acapulco police for five months until May 2014, told the Mexican newspaper Reforma last year: “The municipal police don’t work for organized crime; the municipal police are organized crime.”

But the problem goes beyond corruption. Mexican municipal police traditionally have had little training, low pay, poor equipment and little capacity to do investigations. Federal police and the army often lack street-level knowledge of cities and their crime gangs.

Juan Salgado, an expert on police reform at CIDE, a Mexican research center, said that police are reluctant to visit some neighborhoods in Acapulco because they are outgunned and frightened.

“I’m not sure if crime would increase if the whole municipal police department in Acapulco disappeared,” Salgado said. “They are so inefficient in stopping crime I don’t think it would make a huge difference.”

Meanwhile, many people refuse to press charges out of concern the information will leak back to their tormentors. That makes investigating crimes all the more difficult.

On a recent afternoon, a man wearing a cowboy hat and carrying an assault rifle stood in plain sight on the main boulevard in the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood, five miles from Acapulco Bay.

At his feet on the pavement lay another young man, barefoot and curled in the fetal position, his hair matted with blood. The man with the assault rifle kicked him repeatedly and savagely, then walked calmly back to his white pickup truck. A federal police truck rolled past, but it didn’t stop.

Police looking for spent shell casings at the scene of a homicide in
Acapulco's Colonia Santa Cruz
Danger for Taxi Drivers:

Taxi drivers operate at the intersection of Acapulco’s troubles: They have a shrinking number of tourists as clients, and navigate more dangerous streets. Some have become part of the crime world themselves, working as gang spotters (voluntarily or under duress), or moving drugs or weapons in their cars. When a rival gang tries to take over a neighborhood, its members often kill taxi drivers “in an effort to blind the established organization,” Chris Kyle, an anthropologist and expert on Guerrero based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, wrote in an affidavit for an Acapulco taxi driver applying for asylum in the United States.

Acapulco Taxi Driver:
 8 times more likely to be murdered than an average city resident
More than 130 taxi drivers were slain in Acapulco last year, making them about eight times more likely to get murdered than the average city resident.

Teens with guns often commandeer taxis in Renacimiento for hours or days. They burn taxis to enforce their warnings. Guillermo Perez, 40, a taxi driver, putters around the neighborhood in a 1995 Volkswagen Beetle, its windshield cracked and upholstery ripped out, leaving his newer car hidden at home. He no longer picks up strangers, driving only clients he knows.

“People are terrified,” he said.

Years ago, ferrying around tourists used to be enjoyable, he said, even lucrative work­ —$100 for a day shift, more at night. “It was so different: It was Acapulco,” he said. “People were out in the streets. We all lived from tourism.”

The wealthy can leave or build homes with elaborate security systems, but the poor are exposed. And so Perez, like many of the 20,000 taxi drivers in Acapulco, pays his weekly fee for protection, even though he receives none.

“If 100 pesos a week is what it costs to stay alive,” he said, “I’ll pay.”

76 comments:

  1. Damn This article was in our national paper in New Zealand. It is almost unbelievable that such conditions exist in this world today. Very sad for the people of mexico

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    1. What's happening is that land in Mexico is rich in minerals and the corrupt gov will take it at all cost. To sell it to foreigners

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    2. There's MUCH worse happening all over the world (like modern day "witch" hunting and burning them alive in India & sub Sahara Africa) but there's not an accompanying blog to report it. Mexico is tame in comparison.

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    3. 12:28 there are a lot of minerals on the US too, even coal, but the american mining corporations refuse to pay the pinchis miners $60.00 US dollars an hour.
      even senate speaker mitch mc connell's father in law, a taiwanese businessman trafficks in colombian coal to europe because it is sooo cheap, one of his ships was found to have like 90 pounds of cocaine ready to be moved to europe, transportation secretary Elaine Chao can't bee too happy about that

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  2. Beautiful insight of what's been transpiring in Mexico for years now. A reality of violence and corruption plaguing society.
    However, majority of violence which recently surged Mexico is due the the takedowns of cartel leaders. A structure of disciplines has eroded from what's acceptable. Contracts with gangs for alliances and hired assistance to expand and protect drug trafficking operations have become more frequent. With no checks and balances. Rogue elements creating such unwanted behavior and practices.
    A time where order and discipline once applied in Mexico from cartels have come to an end.
    Chaos will continue to engulf in Mexico unless government or structural readjustments are implemented.
    Such a sad situation for the citizens of Mexico.

    Great reporting BB

    E42

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    1. You're so wrong E42.

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    2. 11:14 the 'rogue elements' are the paramilitary and private security mercenaries doing their dirty work for the mexican federal and state police and the military, that is why the mexican government can not capture any of them, they are all in cahoots

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  3. Incredibly shocking revelation regarding the historical affection we have always had for romantic Acapulco not to mention the fear and terror that the people live with knowing the police are as corrupt and criminal as the Cartels. Makes one think also how insolvable this is.......how can a policeman pursue a crime knowing he will enrage another policeman......it goes on and on and their is NO solution. Like Iraq, once you break up the organization splinter groups are free to further terrorize the community.

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    1. A country where chaos and disintegration of laws are susceptible in the aftermath of shifting powers. Like many countries where political power is undermined and transformed.
      Unfortunately,Transitions of stability will take time to emerge.
      Good comment 11:19 am

      E42

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    2. It's too late for a peaceful solution, it's going to take a revolution.. the people haven't had enough yet but when they do they'll have to take up arms and turn it into the old west for a couple years.. everyone knows who the criminals are but they are the only ones with guns, when these taxi drivers decide that it's better to take out the 3-4 gunman than to keep being extorted and then multiply by 50 million other examples across the country.. that's what it's going to take

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    3. 11:19; Yes and Chicago was like the worst of Mexico less than a 100 years ago with respect to the police and politician corruption as was NYC in the 1980s-1990s. As far as the violence Chicago, Baltimore, East Saint Louis, and about 20 other metro areas of US have murder rates close to or exceeding Juarez...and I assure you there is police corruption in these areas - are our problems unsolvable too?

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    4. 3:40 us murder rates are nowhere near Mexico's,go back to smoking crack dude.

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    5. 3:40 the difference is that in Chicago and the other US cities full of murders, it is mostly gangbangers doing the murdering for some very rich real estate investors.
      while in mexico most of the murdering is being caused by the state and federal police in cahoots with the military bent on stealing the drug trafficking business, because they want the money, not to end drug traafficking

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  4. “They have the power,”

    Their only power is terror; the fear that anyone can be killed at any time. A strong military presence, one that is not subject to corruption, would stop these rats in their tracks.

    It really is an embarrassment to the country to think that a small group of uneducated thugs can hold a resort town hostage.

    Then again....

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  5. The rats can't sell drugs in front of a group of heavily armed soldiers. They also can't kill a barber in front the same soldiers, unless of course they fear being shot by them, which they should. There is no other solution.

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    1. I know Acapulco very well and while this article is new, it's a story that should have been covered 6 years ago when it got this bad there. Also, often and I mean really often, they kill people broad day light in front of a police tower or just a block from soldiers and police, yet they NEVER get caught. It's all for show...trust me on that. A jetski pulls up on the beach shoots someone and takes off and you tell me they can't catch the ski? Give me a break

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    2. El problema es que son soldados de guerrero, Oaxaca, estados pobres, en la miseria ancestral, hasta se dice por ahi que para salir adelante o eres maestro o militar, mal alimentados mal pagados, los beneficios de las cuotas por dejar libres a traficantes se los llevan los altos mandos a ellos su silencio a fuerza y algo para que no digan nada. las mordidas a militares son millonarias en dinero o en especie, autos, casas, todo aculto en acuerdo mutuo, una nueva elite de abogados y militares nace en las ciudades del narco, los abogados cobran en dolares porque el negocio es en dolares dicen ...

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    3. @1:32 that's my whole point. An ACTIVE military prescense that is NOT for show would be a damn good solution. Just imagine 500 "El Thors" patrolling the hot zones and conducting actual counter-intelligence. A taco vendor with a walkie talkie doesn't stand a chance against military grade recon and a "sicario" high on meth would be Swiss cheese before they nailed their target.

      The Zetas in their prime were ex-special forces and modeled themselves after an active military regime. That says enough.

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    4. 12:23 yeah it says it was a VERY short sighted business model.

      Delete
  6. “What the Beltran Leyvas were doing was selling drugs,” said Evaristo, who identified himself only by his first name, for fear of reprisal. “But they left us alone.”

    Key point; BUT THEY LEFT US ALONE. CDS 4ever - that is Mayo, Azul, and Chapo way of doing business...and Menchos days are numbered.
    -^^-

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    1. 12:10 Not a fan of any cartel but as an annual traveler to Cabo and Mazatlan every winter for last 8-10 years I can say that there was never fear in the air until Chapo was arrested.

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    2. This has nothing to do with Mencho tonto. Now even the Beltranes extort locals as well as cds. They are all 👎

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    3. 10:27; i agree 100%. "But they left us alone."
      This seems to have been most plazas until Zetas and maybe before them AFO but I can't say. What I can say is i lived in Juarez and CDG plazas in 1980 and 1990s and yes everyone knew about who narcos are but THEY LEFT US ALONE. I have friends life and long friends from Sinaloa I met when studied in Guadalajara because many Sinaloense study in GDL. Back then (late 1990s/early 2000) we did not talk cartel problems but they tell me today that cartels in Sinaloa LEFT US ALONE. This is the biggest problem in Mexico. Instead of just delivering what gringos must have they now DONT LEAVE US ALONE.

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    4. Every cartel and organized crime group extorted someone at some point.

      What do you think "plata o plomo" is?

      Now a days it's out of control, since you have all these smaller local groups who need to squeeze everyone they can. It's how they stay afloat until the drug profits pour in.

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    5. 12:28 Well living in Mexico with español as my first language I'm quite aware of this term - but I'm sorry to enlighten you and ruin your well liked preconcepcion, but no - all cartels do not extort and walk around asking the overused phrase that describes your total understanding of life in Mexico. Growing up on border and today we all know families that move dope and they do not extort.

      But did you know every black man in USA that sells piedra participates in drive through shootings???

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  7. Devalued peso caused Inflation and people are starving. When people are starving they will literally eat you!

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    1. Jaja. Peso has devalued and certain staples are more pero no hay jente eating each other or any problem from de peso devalue. I am selling my USD and buying peso b/c once trump gone peso will make me huge profit just like selling mxn did when he run to the Presidente.

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  8. The drug war was a big mistake.

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    1. Agree and kind of a joke that they call it a drug war. Our country would riot if they couldn't get their drugs.

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    2. There is no war on drugs. There is only the drug pushers who are at war to gain and maintain control.

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    3. @12:29 am
      Never looked at it that way. But you do make a good point!

      E42

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  9. ...and I just watched VICE news, and they are building NEW million $ condos, restaurants & medical clinics in Mogadishu!! No lie!! Watch the episode. The PEOPLE from Mogadishu living abroad, from surgeons living in Canada to bricklayers living in London, have come home and kicked out el shabab, terrorists, etc. And this is a country that hasn't had a functioning gov for 25 yrs. FACTS!! So quit crying and FIX UR COUNTRY!! Start by posting this YAQUI!! Ur a little behind on comments from previous posts!!

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. E42,
      NOT off topic, everyone should always remember that.
      Thanks for reminding us.

      Delete
    3. @2:29
      Well, try and kill the messenger then, geeeeez.
      Administrators post comments not all the reporters,
      PLUS: We are all VOLUNTEERs, OK ?
      We have glitches like everyone else.

      Delete
    4. I know Yaqster!! Your awesome!! I just want to read about crazy outlaws runnin mass amounts of coke, but in a country where there are penalties, crazy dickhead cops like up here in the US, and still be able to come down on vacation and feel that narco vibe while lookin at honeys in thongs!! And not worry bout gettin my head chopped off!! Is that too much to ask Mr. Zambada?? Please clean Mexico up!! Miss ya!!

      Delete
  10. Is what happens when they let criminal organizations take full control of towns, cities, states... When those in charge of running crime get kill or imprisoned those places turn into hell, by the time the government tries to regain control is too late most of the time because they practically are left with rotten entities. They have to start from zero, but in places where they can't collect all the taxes needed due to rampant crime, how can they build those new entities that could put things back in order? In those places crime is definetely bad for local governments and civilians, maybe they should start applying the Duterte on all the culprits getting rich from all the destruction.

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    1. Correct!
      The tenacity of the governor of Guerrero to discredit such allegations of what's transpiring in his state.
      Statistics do not lie. Rather, do believe statistics are much higher than being reported.
      Poor citizens subjected to a bunch of idiot politicians!

      E42

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    2. 1:47; I think you meant to say audacity rather than tenacity. Tenacity is stamina and unwillingness to quit.

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  11. Ya incredibly shocking..... Iraq is Beverly Hills compared to Mexico. They got rid of Saddam and Isis in the time it took Mexico to find El chapo. 3 times.

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  12. We know for several decades now that repression alone will solve nothing, but the political economic elite are not interested in addressing the real issues: poverty and corruption

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  13. Off topic!
    Just wanted to share something so beautiful and important regarding what many people portray of Mexicans. Despite the violence and carnage facing Mexico today. Gatherings of Family time at restaurants or events are a delight. A blessing to have strong family bonding which continues to this day. We are family people and respectful.
    Such unwanted stereotyping from those individuals who truly give us a bitter taste to many.
    Can only hope for peaceful times ahead.

    E42

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    1. 6:23 the dead are famous for their stereotyped parties on the other side, some in hell, some in heaven, but all dead, while zombies mourn in parties and restaurants for those that need to go on living...

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    2. I'm feelin ya 42!! I wanna be at ABL's Christmas party where he's flickin 100's at strippers, late 90's rap boomin, Tupperware bowls of blow everywhere!! No need to kill the barber, or the taco delivery guy, just livin it up!!

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    3. @4:20 it wasn't long after that party that ABL had 12 guys chainsawed to death while he watched and laughed high out of his mind...

      Just imagine if you were one of those men.

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    4. 12:34 puros putos chismes, proove your gossip, honey

      Delete
  14. Iraq is a clear example where Mexico is going.

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    1. And what should that tell us?
      Maybe not to interfere like every former country America steps foot in to assist?
      Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and now Syria!
      A Never ending conflict with no clear victory nor resolution.

      E42

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    2. Iraq may have less murders per 100,000 than Acapulco

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    3. On one side there is some bunch of corrupted politicians on the other side there is some bunch of criminal gangs trying to live the wild wild west life, what could go wrong, nothing right?

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  15. Excellent article.Describes in a nutshell what really goes on in a lot of Mexico or rather in the worse places.

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  16. You know I am afraid to take my family anywhere in Mexico
    Mexican government When r u going to stop this criminal activity? Enough is enough. Do we need a Revolution?

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    1. 3:52 no revolution honey, what is needed is more exposure of crimes that make people think about what is going on, and proper UNMASKING OF THE PERPS, no matter who they are, see, GENERAL MICHAEL FLYNN did not last long after his ass got expossed to the light, and he is bringing down the side after FBI director Jim Comey got fired for "grandstanding and showboating" instead of following prezidential requests and cowardly suggestions of dropping the investigations of the russia ties 'nothing burger'...as if...

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    2. Revolution has a soothing melody tone to it. For those willing to listen. But that's as far as it will be. Too much vested interests from (governments) to allow that to transpire. Moreover, those illicit individuals who have made fortunes from plundering its country.
      Reality check!

      E42

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    3. If journalists are being slaughtered at an alarming rate for exposing corruption and violence. What makes you believe that such opposing figures will not meet the same fate!

      E42

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  17. Acapulco is making a rebound, Some small business owners are doing OK.

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    1. Ya pine box company's & funeral parlors

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    2. @10:40 NOW we have a real comedian here!

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    3. @ 1040...Nothing is doing well in Acapulco. A few restaurants that are very clean, affordable and have the service of yesteryear manage to cling to the few tourists that still come to Acapulco, the rest of the places are over priced, lousy food now and faltering. Many haven't been renovated since the 80's. It's really sad, all you see now are ugly taco joints with fatty tatty corona drinking slobs in wife beaters with their hoopty car out front with some shit music blasting. The upper class of yesteryear would die if they saw what the Condesa looks like now. During the week most bars on the strip are empty and closed by midnight. Just a decade ago, they were jamming until sun rise, not to mention, you really don't know when something bad may happen. Words can't describe how bad Acapulco has become. It was heaven on earth before...better than PV or anywhere in Mexico. It was the most romantic place on earth, best party town on earth and just awesome all around. Now some of us go once in a while just to try and hold onto the memories, but the decay all over the tourist zone is sad. There's no activity at all during the week. Walking along many parts of the Costera is very ghetto now.....So yeah taco joints are doing well, funeral parlors, and ironically some of the Starbucks. Even the 24/hr Walmart is closed by 11 now. Costco pulled out of Acapulco. I don't even think drug sales could be lucrative in that town anymore.

      Delete
  18. I'm going to the same colonia renacimiento en Acapulco in 3 months. Now I'm thinking about it

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  19. See the what happens due to the war on some drugs. Prayer works however. When sitting in jail, try silent prayer and listen to what good God tells you.

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    Replies
    1. There is no god at all. Especial in prison

      Delete
  20. The funeral and flower business owners are doing great.

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  21. Applause for those citizens aiding and assisting rescue efforts in Texas. America coming together as a nation without racial discrimination.
    Note: my mother and siblings are from corpus. Fortunately, departed to secondary home across the border days prior to hurricane.
    Prayers to all those who do not have the means to do likewise.

    E42

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  22. R.I.P to the best Secretary of Public Security that Guerrero has ever had Arturo Beltran Leyva after him no one has had the balls to put an end to the senseless crimes

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  23. Thanks Yaqui, I have read probably a dozen similar since Acapulco started it's descent in 2011, but this one hit me, and I was kinda frozen with sadness and anger for a few minutes. I'm thousands of miles away, but I was just struck, like what can I do, how do even go on with myself knowing the reality for these people? There ARE solutions, it's just people are too selfish and self involved, at the levels to make real change.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yaaaa, J and almost every other port city too. It has been going on forever but all the new hard drugs worth big bucks make everything worse. The mota / marijuana factor is almost a farce now.
      black and white images always get me.......

      As much as I hate to spread the word about the Travel Warning, I wish tourists would just come to grips with the realities of the Mexican Tourist mega push and boycott the whole scene until it hurts where it counts, and at the same time I hate to discourage what real paying "jobs" there are.

      Delete
  24. Almost incomprehensible that there were three times more murders in Acapulco than in Detroit in 2016. Mexicans, such good people, deserve better....

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  25. @ 7:47 A.M.

    In the Colosio, other barrios; Rena, Zapata, Sabana,even Progressive are still having problems.... Alot of people are under the consensus, vigilantes are out for reprisal.

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  26. With all due respect, "Democracy dies in darkness" is the slogan of the Washington Post newspaper.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, Washington Post is the source for this story. Link at top.

      Delete
  27. Good Read. Thanks Yaqui

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  28. Bit late commenting but this has to be responded to:

    "But last year, there were 918 killings in the city of 700,000, the most murders of any Mexican city for the fifth straight year"

    This doesn't make any sense as Mexico City has averaged around 3,000 murders a year from 2011 onwards. Yet, according to this piece, 1,000 beats 3,000?

    ReplyDelete

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