From glamour to gunfire: the tourist city of Acapulco torn apart by violenceIn the 1950s Acapulco was a refuge for A-list celebrities; now the resort known as Mexico’s most violent city is struggling to cope under the strain of gang warfare. Is there anything the mayor can do to reverse its fortunes?Nathaniel Parish Flannery in Acapulco
Tuesday 13 December 2016
When mayor Evodio Velázquez’s sparkling white Jeep Cherokee SUV pulls up at the side of the road, patrols of soldiers and heavily armed federal police are waiting for him. Velázquez’s “tourist police”, a special unit of young female officers who wear light blue uniforms, stand in a small cluster by the kerb.
Nominally law enforcement agents, these young women are really part of Velázquez’s broader marketing effort for the city of Acapulco – to add some friendly faces as the first point of contact between visitors revelling on this famous Mexican resort’s golden beaches, and the security forces struggling to keep the city safe.
Mid-morning, the sun is rising over the glittering bay but the beaches are mostly empty. Machine-gun carrying police officers – veterans of a decade-long conflict with sophisticated organised crime groups and myriad splinter groups of local street gangs – stand on the perimeter, just out of view of the crowd of photographers who have assembled to document the mayor’s press conference.
Read More At:
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/dec/13/gunfire-tourist-resort-acapulco-mexico-torn-apart-violence
