Acapulco Anguish 9 State Police Dead in Ambush

Borderland Beat

Still reeling from the barrage of negative press following the recent violent robbery and rape of six Spanish tourists staying at the Babaji Bungalows (Borderland Beat), Acapulco residents have now heard even more bad news. Early Wednesday, the wave of violence plaguing Guerrero left nine policemen from the State Public Safety Secretariat dead after they were ambushed in the town of Aplaxtla de Castrejon.

According to an official report, the officers were conducting a surveillance, a double patrol operation in the area Tepoztepec when they were attacked by a group of heavily armed gunmen.

In addition to the slain officers, one other fellow officer was seriously injured.

The slain state officers were identified as:

 

Adrián García Mosso, Mario Ramírez Villasana, José Alfredo Navarrete Marín, Gilberto Ortiz Sánchez, José Castro Morales, Nicolás de Loya Urrutia, Modesto Muñoz Galicia, Juan Aguilar Santana y Mario Osvaldo Arellano Olea.

 

Before the ambush, a suspect allegedly linked to organized crime was killed during a clash between gunmen and federal agents in the nearby town of Teloloapan.

 

The fact was reported in the morning, in the community of El Pochote, adjoining Apaxtla, where authorities also reported the seizure of weapons and two vehicles reported as stolen.

On Monday, the political head of Acapulco, Mayor Walton Aburto, offered at a press conference about the rapes of the 6 Spanish tourists,  "it is very unfortunate what has happened, but hey, that happens anywhere in the world, "according to the newspaper Reforma.

On the verge of breaking into tears, the mayor of Acapulco, Luis Walton Aburto on Wednesday, asked the federal government to help with security problems and violence affecting the state's main tourist destination.

In his message, Luis Walton Aburto criticized the lack of support from the federal government in helping reverse the negative image of the port, although President Enrique Peña Nieto had committed to this endeavor during a visit in December.

"We're doing what's right and this misfortune affects all Acapulqueños. We will work to get beyond. Here I stress, publicly to President Enrique Peña Nieto, that he came to Acapulco and offered that he would give support."

Then he added: "Today we have not seen the support of President of the Republic and we are demanding that you return to see Acapulco, which is also part of the Republic. We support all Acapulqueños," he told residents of Barra Vieja. 

Therefore, the mayor asked residents of Barra Vieja to denounce the alleged perpetrators of the attack on the Spanish tourists, to resolve the case and get out of this crisis that impacts the image of this resort.

Officials Interrogated suspects

The Director of the State Ministerial Police (PME), Marcos Juarez Escalera, reported that so far eight people have been questioned about the case of the six raped Spanish tourists. However, the state official did not specify the status of the subjects interviewed.

There was a meeting in San Andrres near Barra Viejo between officials of the federal government and local officials to discuss aspects of the investigation.

The meeting was led by the local prosecutor, Elba Marta Bernal Garzón, who withdrew from the area without giving statements.

Enrique Peña Nieto president on Thursday urged the Interior Ministry and the Attorney General to support the government of Guerrero to clarify what happened this week in Acapulco, where six Spanish tourists were raped.

Peña Nieto said that all governments are working together since they met. He condemned the aggression.

"It is unacceptable what happened recently in Acapulco where six women of our sister nation of Spain were raped, cases like these, must occupy the authorities of the three levels of government to take full responsibility and take actions to prevent these events from happening, the public safety agencies must work effectively,"said Peña Nieto, as published by Excelsior .

According to the Mexican NGO, Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, released, Thursday February 7, 2013, the Mexican city of Acapulco and the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula are the populations of the world where most murders were committed in 2012,

The Mexican port increased from 128 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2011 to the 142 recorded last year, but it did not exceed the statistical San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with 169.3 deaths indicates.

Jose Antonio Ortega, the president of NGO JOHAN ORDONEZ Photo

The group's director, José Antonio Ortega, submitting this report referred to the situation of Acapulco to complain to Mexican authorities in general to both state and local tourism promotion in the area.

 

"They should be ashamed of the authorities of the three levels of government to have a city like this and invite tourists to go there to suffer the consequences of rape, killings, kidnappings," he told a news conference.

Ortega was referring to the attack and rape of six Spanish tourists attacked last Monday morning by several armed individuals with their faces covered who entered the bungalow located on the outskirts of Acapulco where they were staying with others of the same nationality and one Mexican.

 

"There is no authority, not to prevent the crime, not to investigate the crime, not to prosecute the crime,  impunity, and the lack of punishment, is what has led  Acapulco to have the highest number of violent  homicides in our country and the second most violent the world," said Ortega.

 

 

"The authorities, instead of doing their jobs, crimes, like rape, happen all over the country no one assumes responsibility, " he said, referring to statements the mayor, Luis Walton Aburto, made after the assault, for which he had to apologize publicly.

Acapulco's Mayor Luis Walton Aburto

 

 

According to the president of the NGO, increasingly Acapulco "is closer to the status of a failed state", which is when the authority of the country "begins to lose the monopoly of the security forces" and the collection of taxes, and "it yields to the criminals. "

In contrast, Ortega considered paradigmatic case of Ciudad Juarez, which last year was second on this list and prior headed it, and now went to down to number 19, with 55.91 murders.

The key, he explained, was that the police started arresting criminals and "abate impunity, identify people who lost their lives, to know who they were, who killed them, stop them, persecute them, make them available to a judge to be processed and prosecuted. "

The report of the Mexican NGO considers all world cities of over 300,000 inhabitants,  should have homicides statistics available online, and make a list of the 50 with most severe.

This fifty, nine are Mexican cities: Acapulco, Torreón, Nuevo Laredo, Culiacan, Cuernavaca, Juarez, Chihuahua, Victoria and Monterrey. Yet Brazil is the country that has cities in this regard, with 15, followed by Mexico, Colombia with 6, and the United States and Venezuela with 5.

Among the top five most dangerous cities in the world that top this list are the aforementioned San Pedro Sula and Acapulco, followed by Caracas, Central District (Honduras) and Torreon (Mexico).

 

Info: from Proceso, Proceso, Borderland Beat, NY Daily News. 20 Minutes