tourist killed in mexico recently

4 bodies found in a lot near one of Cancún’s beachside hotels, officials say

MEXICO CITY — Authorities in the Mexican resort of Cancún said Monday they have found four bodies in the city’s hotel zone near the beach.

There was no immediate information on the nationalities or identities of the victims. The announcement of the deaths came less than a week after a U.S. tourist was shot in the leg in the nearby town of Puerto Morelos.

Prosecutors originally said three bodies were found Monday in a lot near one of Cancún’s beachside hotels along the Kukulkan Boulevard. They then added that a fourth body was found in the undergrowth on the same lot, bringing to four the number of victims.

Prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo said two suspects had been detained in the killings. They said the deaths were under investigation but did not give a cause of death.

Last week in Puerto Morelos, a U.S. tourist was approached by several suspects, and they shot him in the leg. The motive remains under investigation. The wounded man was taken to a hospital in Cancún for treatment, and his injury was judged to be not life-threatening.

The U.S. State Department recently issued a travel alert warning travelers to “exercise increased caution,” especially after dark, at Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts like Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, which have been plagued by drug gang violence in the past.

There have been a series of brazen acts of violence along the Caribbean coast, the crown jewel of Mexico’s tourism industry.

In 2022, two Canadians were killed in Playa del Carmen, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs.

In 2021, farther south in the laid-back destination of Tulum, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German — were killed when they apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.

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Four found dead in Mexico’s Cancún beach resort

No immediate information on nationalities or identities in latest violence to hit popular holiday destination

Four dead bodies have been found near a beach in the Mexican resort city of Cancún, in the latest incident of violence to hit the popular holiday destination.

There was no immediate information on the nationalities or identities of the victims. The announcement of the deaths came less that a week after a US tourist was shot in the leg in the nearby town of Puerto Morelos.

Prosecutors originally said three bodies were found on Monday in a lot near one of Cancún’s beachside hotels along the Kukulkan Boulevard. They then added that a fourth body was found in the undergrowth on the same lot, bringing to four the number of victims.

Prosecutors in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo said two suspects had been detained in the killings. They said the deaths were under investigation, but did not give a cause of death.

Last week in Puerto Morelos, a US tourist was approached by several suspects, and they shot him in the leg. The motive remains under investigation. The wounded man was taken to a hospital in Cancún for treatment, and his injury was judged to be not life-threatening.

The US state department issued a travel alert earlier this month warning travelers to “exercise increased caution”, especially after dark, at Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts like Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, which have been plagued by drug gang violence in the past.

Cancún and the Mayan Riviera to its south, are the crown jewels of Mexico’s tourism industry, attracting millions of tourists each year.

But the region has been plagued by violence as drug cartels dispute extortion rackets and local drug markets.

In 2022, two Canadians were killed in Playa del Carmen, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs .

In 2021, farther south in the laid-back destination of Tulum, two tourists – one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German – were killed when they apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.

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Suspect arrested in death of Mexico ‘tummy tuck’ tourists as US vows ‘justice will be done’

The group was taken hostage on friday after entering the state of tamaulipas in matamoros – an area dominated by the gulf cartel, article bookmarked.

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The FBI and Mexican authorities have made an arrest in the deaths of two American citizens killed in the state of Matamoros.

The tragic news was revealed on a televised call between Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villarreal and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday. Another person was found wounded while a fourth was unharmed — they are back in the US, according to the Tamaulipas Attorney General.

The group was identified by family on Monday as Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown, who were killed in the abduction, and Eric James Williams and Latavia “Tay” McGee . They were taken hostage on Friday (3 March) after entering the state of Tamaulipas in Matamoros – an area dominated by the Gulf cartel.

Ms McGee was unharmed while Mr Williams suffered a gunshot wound on his leg but is expected to recover. They’ve both returned to the US.

A suspect, 24-year-old Jose “N,” has been arrested. The man was tasked with making sure the victims didn’t escape during the three-day kidnapping and he was captured at the scene on Tuesday, Mr Villareal said.

• Mexico kidnapping — live: Two Americans kidnapped in Matamoros on ‘tummy tuck’ trip are found dead
• Four Americans kidnapped at gunpoint in Mexico identified as group of friends who travelled for tummy tuck
• Two of four Americans kidnapped in Mexico ‘tummy tuck’ trip are found dead

The American citizens came under fire from a group of armed men and were then bundled into the back of a pickup truck. A family member of one of the victims has said that they travelled from South Carolina to Matamoros because one of them was getting a tummy tuck there.

US officials familiar with the investigation told CNN that authorities believe a Mexican cartel mistook the victims for Haitian drug smugglers.

They were found at a stash house in a rural area east of Matamoros called Ejido Longoreño on the way to the local beach known as Playa Baghdad, a source close to the investigation told the AP. Pictures by the AP showed the rescue.

Mr López Obrador said that one person has been arrested and the FBI continues to work along with Mexican authorities in the case. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby decried the attack on the American citizens and vowed to get justice for their families.

“We appreciate the hard work of the Justice Department the FBI and the DEA and the Department of Homeland Security … we’re grateful for their swift response to this dreadful incident and for their continued collaboration with Mexican authorities,” Mr Kirby told reporters.

“We’re going to work closely with the Mexican government to ensure that justice is done in this case.”

When asked whether the White House was considering policy changes in response to the attack, Mr Kirby said that there were no immediate remedies but insisted US authorities are working extensively to get the fatal victim’s bodies and the survivors back on American soil.

”Right now our focus is very squarely on these four Americans and the families that have been affected by the attack and I think you’ll hear more from the Justice Department as they learn more and can have more to share,” he added. “But it’s just too soon for me to be able to speak to any policy changes or, or vectors as a result of this attack.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that any attacks on American citizens under any circumstances were unacceptable.

Ms Jean-Pierre said more information will be released after family members of the two fatal victims and two kidnapping survivors are updated by US officials on any developments made in the case.

She also noted that the Biden administration remains committed to “disrupting transnational criminal organizations including Mexican drug cartels and human smugglers.”

“We remain committed to applying the full weight of our efforts and resources to counter them,” Ms Jean-Pierre said.

“Right now. our immediate concerns are for the safe return of our citizens, the health and well-being of those who survived this attack, and the support which must be rendered to the families of those who need it.”

Mexican officials said that the two surviving Americans are back on US soil.

Mr Lopez Obrador also claimed that the tragedy will be seized by the American media to portray Mexico as a dangerous country, in stark contrast with their “silence when Mexicans are killed in the US.” He went on to say that GOP politicians will also use the crime as an opportunity to push “their agenda.”

“We continue to work every day towards peace and are very sorry that this has happened in our country,” President López Obrador said during the press conference.

“We send our condolences to the victims’ friends and family and the American people. And we will continue to work towards peace.”

The group of four were travelling in a white minivan with North Carolina licence plates when they crossed the US border into Mexico on 3 March.

Ms McGee’s mother Barbara Burgess said she was worried about her daughter going and warned her it might not be safe. But, her daughter brushed off her concerns telling her: “Ma, I’ll be okay”.

Ms Burgess last heard from Ms McGee on Friday when she called to say that they were just 15 minutes from the cosmetic surgeon’s office where she was scheduled to have the procedure that day. She never heard from her daughter again.

Ms Burgess said she tried calling Ms McGee later that day but her phone went straight to voicemail.

Not long later, she said she received a visit from an FBI agent, revealing what had happened.

Mr Brown’s sister Zalandria Brown told the AP that the situation felt like a “bad dream” as she revealed that her younger brother had voiced concerns about travelling to such a dangerous place.

“Zindell kept saying, ‘We shouldn’t go down,’” she said.

But Mr Brown, a 28-year-old living in Myrtle Beach, still went on the trip with his three friends – in part because they had all agreed to help share driving duties.

“This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from,” said Ms Brown. “To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable.”

Mr Brown’s mother Christina Hickson told WPDE she “immediately” recognised him in the disturbing video circulating on social media.

The video, which has not been verified, shows armed men loading four people into the bed of a white pickup truck.

While one individual is moving and sitting upright, the other three are merely dragged limp into the vehicle.

Mr Williams’ North Carolina diver’s license was found at the scene of the abduction, reported ABC News.

The US State Department is advising Americans not to travel to Tamaulipas due to the risk of crime and kidnapping. The region is on the “Level 4: Do Not Travel” list.

The border city of Matamoros is largely controlled by the Gulf drug cartel, with violence and migrant smuggling rife.

A reward of $50,000 had been offered for information leading to the return of the victims and the arrest of the kidnappers.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the FBI San Antonio Division at 210-225-6741 or to submit tips anonymously online at https://tips.fbi.gov

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8 bodies found in wooded lots, sinkhole ponds in Mexican resort area of Cancun

Authorities said they were trying to identify eight bodies found dumped in the Mexican resort area of Cancun.

Oscar Montes de Oca , attorney general of Quintana Roo, said Tuesday that police found the bodies during weekend searches in wooded lots and sinkhole ponds, according to The Associated Press . He said authorities estimated they were dumped there anywhere from one week to two months ago.

The head prosecutor of the Mexican state pledged to carry out more searches and identifications.

Five bodies were found at an abandoned building site, Monte de Oca said, according to the AP. Three of them were identified as already reported missing persons. At another site in a wooded area on the outskirts of Cancun, he said, authorities found unidentified human skeletal remains belonging to three other people.

Is Mexico travel safe?  What to know about visiting Cabo, Cancun, Playa del Carmen and more

The bodies were found in a poor neighborhood about 10 miles from Cancun's beach and hotel zone, in an area close to the local airport.

Officials said similar searches were carried out in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, a town south of Tulum, on the coastline of the country's Yucatan Peninsula.

Volunteers, including some relatives of the missing, and search dogs joined investigators on the searches.

After releasing a statement earlier on social media that disputed details surrounding the discovery of the bodies, the prosecutor's office confirmed the report to USA TODAY.

Thousands of missing people 

According to a national database , more than 112,000 people are listed as missing in Mexico. Searches for clandestine grave sites have become common throughout the country. What is unusual is that they are now being carried out in Cancun, the crown jewel of Mexico’s tourism industry.

Dumping grounds are often used by drug cartels to dispose of victims. Several cartels are fighting for control of the Caribbean coast and its lucrative retail drug trade.

Previously: 7 dead, including child, after gunmen stormed Mexican resort, authorities say

Travel alert warning

In March, the U.S. State Department issued a travel alert warning visitors to exercise caution, especially after dark, at resorts including Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

The warning came in the wake of the  kidnapping of four Americans  in Mexico earlier this month. U.S. and Mexican authorities said the group was traveling for cosmetic surgery  when they got caught in a drug cartel shootout in the border city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas state, south of Brownsville, Texas. Two of the Americans were killed.

The State Department had posted a Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory for when they were kidnapped, citing crime and kidnapping in the region.

Contributing: The Associated Press

Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter  @nataliealund .

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Live updates, american tourists killed after being kidnapped in mexico id’d as shaeed woodard and zindell brown.

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LAKE CITY, S.C. —The two Americans who were found dead in Mexico after  being kidnapped at gunpoint  during a terrifying shootout between rival cartel gangs were identified Tuesday as Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown.

Woodard and Brown had traveled from South Carolina to Mexico with Latavia “Tay” McGee and Eric James Williams so McGee, a mother of six, could undergo a tummy tuck procedure, relatives said.

But shortly after the foursome crossed the border Friday into the crime-ridden city of Matamoros, located in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, realized they were lost.

The group couldn’t find the doctor’s office where McGee, 33, was due for surgery that Friday,  CNN reported , and poor cell service in the region made it harder for them to communicate with the doctor’s office.

While trying to sort out their location, the four became caught in the middle of a violent cartel showdown.

Four US citizens from South Carolina were abducted in Matamoros

• Gulf Cartel apologizes, turns over 5 members tied to Americans’ deadly kidnapping
• Mexico kidnapping survivor saw friends ‘killed right in front of him’: cousin
• Friend of kidnapped Americans reveals how she dodged Mexico ordeal

Harrowing video of the shootout shows the moment the group was forced into the back of a pickup truck in broad daylight after being shot at.

Tamaulipas state chief prosecutor Irving Barrios said he believes the deadly ambush was a result of “confusion, not a direct attack.”

Matamoros’ sinister reputation for ruthless organized crime had led to initial speculation that the abduction was drug-related, but a source close to the investigation told the Dallas Morning News on Monday that the Americans may have been mistaken for Haitian smugglers.

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McGee and Williams survived the attack  and were rushed Tuesday to Brownsville, Texas, in a convoy of ambulances and SUVs escorted by Mexican military Humvees and national guard trucks with mounted .50-caliber machine guns.

Williams was shot in the left leg but the wound was not life-threatening, Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal said. McGee survived the ordeal without physical injuries. 

Local authorities will examine the bodies of Woodard and Brown before they are repatriated to the US, the governor added.

The tourists were found in a shack in a rural area east of Matamoros called Ejido Tecolote, on the way to the Gulf coast known as “Bagdad Beach,” Barrios said.

A photo of McGee taken shortly after she was rescued shows her covered in dirt with no shoes, with a traumatized look on her face.

Villarreal said they were being guarded by a man who has been arrested.

He added that the abducted Americans had been moved around by their captors, and at one point were taken to a medical clinic “to create confusion and avoid efforts to rescue them.”

McGee and Woodard were first cousins, their aunt Retha Darby told The Post from her home in South Carolina on Tuesday before news broke of Woodard’s death. 

She said her niece had told her about the medical procedure.

“She came by and visit me. She said, ‘I’m gonna be going to get surgery.’ I said, ‘Surgery on what?’ She said tummy tuck. She said, ‘My tummy getting too big.’ That was about a week ago,” Darby recalled of her last conversation with her 33-year-old niece.

“I didn’t know where she was going. I thought it was somewhere local.”

Darby, 72, is recovering from a stroke and is mostly confined to her Lake City home with a nurse. She said she shares a close bond with her niece, who regularly comes to visit her.

“She’s nice to me and everybody I know,” Darby said of McGee, noting that she is a good mom whose children adore her.

“She liked to dress well. Nice clothes. Hair fixed. Her face all done up,” she said.

Darby said she last spoke to her nephew, Woodard, “a couple weeks ago.”

“I try to keep him doing the right thing, but I can’t do so much because I can’t get around so much,” she explained tearfully. “I wish I could help them.”

Robert Williams said the news that his brother Eric survived the kidnapping was “quite a relief.”

“I look forward to seeing him again and actually being able to talk to him,” he said.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said he wants “to see accountability for the violence that has been inflicted on these Americans that tragically led to the death of two of them.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration is “working with Mexican officials to learn more and to have all Americans returned to the United States.”

“President Biden has been kept updated on this incident,” she said. “We extend our deepest condolences to their families and friends.”

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, meanwhile, criticized the US media for its coverage of the ordeal. “It’s not like that when they kill Mexicans in the United States,” he said of the press. “They go quiet like mummies.”

The kidnapping comes as Republican politicians have called for a more comprehensive response to cartel violence in northern Mexico that sometimes spills across the border.

US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Monday he wants to “put Mexico on notice,” and plans to introduce legislation that would classify some Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

The move would allow the US to use military force against cartels.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said López Obrador is “being held hostage” by cartels.

“It’s pretty close at this stage to a failed narco-state. They can use violence and oceans of cash to corrupt the government. The government has no will, and it doesn’t have the ability to deal with the cartels,” he told Fox News.

Barr said Mexican authorities should “stand aside” and let US forces take over if they won’t tackle the cartels head-on. 

Additional reporting by Jesse O’Neill

With Post wires

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2 tourists killed at upscale resort in Mexico

Two visitors from Canada died after being shot on Friday Jan. 21, 2022, at the five-star Hotel Xcaret in Playa del Carmen , which is about 45 miles south of Cancun . A third tourist was also wounded in the gunfire.

The mid-afternoon incident stemmed from an argument among hotel guests near an outdoor dining area, when one guest with a gun started shooting, leaving tourists scrambling for cover. The gunman, who was seen on video surveillance wearing a light blue track suit, is being sought by Mexican local and federal police.

For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter .

One person died at the scene and another died at the hospital. A third man was also shot, but survived his injuries. The Quintana Roo state prosecutor's office said that the two Canadian men killed had criminal records including drug trafficking charges.

Related: What it's like traveling to the Cancun area during a COVID-19 spike

This kind of violence is not common in Quintana Roo on the Caribbean side of Mexico where this happened, and it is generally a safe area for tourists. But there have been some incidents there in recent years including the finding of eight bodies in a span of a few days in Cancun in 2018.

There have also been a few more recent violent crimes in the Mayan Riviera region, including an incident in November 2021 when two suspected drug dealers were found dead on a Cancun beach. And the month before that, an American and a German tourist were killed in crossfire between two drug gangs in Tulum.

Related: How to get to Los Cabos on points and miles

The U.S. Department of State issued a warning last month to reconsider Mexico . While COVID-19 was the main reason for the the Level 3 warning issued on Dec. 8, 2021, it also noted: "Violent crime – such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery – is widespread and common in Mexico."

In that warning, Quintana Roo, on the Caribbean side of Mexico where this happened, was in the "exercise increased caution" category. The area, which includes Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, is very popular with tourists and is usually safe.

The government is stepping up security in tourism areas to keep visitors protected. In fact, more than 1,400 troops from the Mexican National Guard is now patrolling areas of Quintana Roo.

And most experts agree that Mexico remains safe for tourists. In a Washington Post article , Zachary Rabinor, president and CEO of the travel planning company Journey Mexico , said millions of people visit Mexico every year with no problem, and "There's violence like this all over the world, including the U.S.,"

Additional reporting by Clint Henderson.

Two tourists killed in separate attacks in Mexican hotspot, police say

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Canadian killed in southern Mexico, 2nd tourist slain in Oaxaca in less than a week

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Canadian man was shot to death in Mexico’s Pacific coast beach town of Puerto Escondido, prosecutors said Tuesday.

He was the second foreign tourist killed in the southern state of Oaxaca in less than a week.

Oaxaca state prosecutors said Tuesday the Canadian man was found dead in a car with a bullet wound on Monday in a neighborhood of Puerto Escondido where few tourists stay.

Prosecutors did not provide any possible motive in the slaying. The dead man was identified as Víctor Masson, 27, but no information on his hometown was available.

The killing comes three days after a man from Argentina was seriously wounded in a machete attack in another coastal town in Oaxaca.

Prosecutors said Monday the Argentine tourist — whose name was not released — died of his injuries at a hospital in Mexico City.

He was among a group of three Argentines were attacked by a Mexican man with a machete on Friday in the hamlet of La Isla, at the mouth of the Laguna de Chacahua, on the Pacific coast. The other two tourists were also wounded in the attack, but their injuries do not appear to be life-threatening.

Laguna de Chacahua is about 60 miles (100 kilometers) west of Puerto Escondido.

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Bloodshed in Taxco: The Holy Thursday that shocked Mexico

El país reconstructs the murder of a girl and the lynching of the alleged culprit in the state of guerrero, where furious residents have taken justice into their own hands against the backdrop of organized crime.

During Holy Week, all the demons were unleashed in Taxco , one of the most beautiful towns in Mexico. It’s a white hamlet perched on a hill, with steep stone streets, ornate churches and steep alleys that exhaust the local children. On Wednesday, March 27, while on vacation during the religious holiday, an eight-year-old girl named Camila walked up one of those alleys, so that she could go over to a friend’s house and play with her in the inflatable pool. It wasn’t the first time that she made this short trip, but it was the last time she was seen alive, in an image recorded on a security camera that a resident installed after an attempted robbery some time ago.

Before the body was found a few miles from the town, dozens of Taxqueños gathered in front of a house for hours, waiting for the police to arrest the alleged culprits: a woman and two of her children. However, the mob ended up raiding the house and dragging the detainees down the alley. The woman, Ana Rosa, was beaten to death, while her two boys were left badly injured, due to inaction on the part of the officers. Death and revenge were covered by dozens of journalists, who had originally come to cover the town’s famous Holy Week. In the end, they encountered real-life bloodshed.

According to the autopsy, there was no swimming pool in the house where Camila died from asphyxiation. At the top of the narrow alley — which ends after climbing more than 50 steps and several ramps —, plastic police tape attempts to block the way to a patio where some plants are lined up. The open door reveals a shabby space of about 200 square feet: a kitchen, a dining room and a bedroom. In the left corner, there’s a bare mattress. A couple of feet away from it, there’s a table strewn with sleeping pills. More pills can be found on the small, uncomfortable sofa. Everything is in motionless disorder in the hut, with its earthen floor and tin roof. A washing machine sits on the patio, near the only toilet.

“How could there be a pool, if there isn’t even a proper floor?” a neighbor points out from across the street. She lives just six or seven feet away from the rocky hallway that belonged to the woman who was lynched. Her grandson has played in the house, with Camila and one of Ana Rosa’s daughters. Apparently, it was Ana Rosa who asked Camila to come over and swim in the inflatable pool on the afternoon of March 27th.

The limited information provided by the police has given way to statements from local residents and family members of the victim. It’s known that, shortly after the girl disappeared, a ransom request for 250,000 pesos — or about $15,000 — arrived on her mother’s cell phone. “The murderer” — as the neighbors now call Ana Rosa — claimed that Camila had never responded to her invitation. But it’s clear that she didn’t count on the private security cameras in the alleyway, which captured Camila’s image. Nor did she count on the cameras belonging to the building down the road, where the alleged culprit and a taxi driver — known in town by the name José — are recorded putting a package wrapped in a black bag and some clothes in the trunk of a car. José has been detained: some residents say that he was Ana Rosa’s boyfriend. “What nonsense, she was with a [bus driver]. The cabby wasn’t her partner,” the next-door neighbor tells EL PAÍS.

This is a story that involves taxi drivers, considered to be a professional group that is heavily linked to organized crime in the state of Guerrero, a turbulent and violent southwestern Mexican state, where the town of Taxco is located. “You hear gunshots on most nights,” another neighbor notes. However, for a few days in the area there’s been relative calm, given the presence of a couple of state police officers who are protecting Camila’s mother, Margarita. They’re posted outside the door of the deceased girl’s house. And, down the road, a couple of other uniformed men guard the area, day and night.

Why so much protection for the victims? Well, the husband of the lynched woman — a taxi driver — was killed some time ago. Her two sons — now beaten and detained — are also taxi drivers. And the man who came to pick up the little girl’s body is also of the same profession. The residents of Garden Street pronounce the classic words of those who don’t want to say too much — words that are often heard throughout Mexico: “They were on the wrong path.”

From time to time, Guerrero’s capital, Chilpancigo, is torn apart by torched taxis and buses, as armed groups scramble for their share of the pie. Taxi drivers are easy prey for organized crime . They are extorted into serving the cartels. In taxis, you can transport illegal merchandise easily: the drivers go all over the place, they know the roads, and they know where everyone lives. And woe to those who don’t. Recent images shocked Mexico when hitmen beat taxi drivers in Acapulco, because they hadn’t given them the information they demanded.

Ana Rosa — the lynched woman — often used to ask fellow residents: “So, you have a kid in the United States? Do you send them money?” A shopkeeper tells EL PAÍS that she used to respond to all her questions, without understanding the intention behind them. And it turns out that Camila’s mother also has a husband in the United States (according to some versions, he’s her ex-husband). Nobody in town knows if he attended his daughter’s funeral.

Acapulco , like Taxco, is a very touristy city. And crime is no longer limited to drugs: any business that makes money becomes involved. Tourism is another goose that lays golden eggs.

Between the night of Wednesday and the afternoon of Holy Thursday, just hours before the religious processions began through the streets, tension broke out in front of Ana Rosa’s house. A question lingered as curious locals — and half of the country — watched the outcome of the crime, which is now (according to protocol) being investigated as a case of femicide.

Why didn’t the police remove the suspects from the house? Long hours passed with the crowd gathered, until chaos broke out. Residents knocked down the doors and dragged out the woman and her two sons, who — supposedly — had arrived in their taxis while the events were unfolding. No one knows if the little girl and the older girl — about 14-years-old — were in the house at the time. But they weren’t seen. Later on, “the oldest came out and hugged her boyfriend, crying: ‘My mom, my mom,’” says the neighbor, who, more than two weeks later, still carries fear in her body. At the time, the police didn’t let anybody in the vicinity leave their house. Everyone barricaded themselves in, with the curtains drawn.

Ana Rosa was dragged down the alley and to the road, where dozens of shouting people crowded around her. Journalists recorded the bloody afternoon via drones. Surely there has never been such a detailed record of a lynching. The case regarding the illegality of the mob’s violence has been resolved, without even knowing whether or not the woman is guilty. The corpse looks like an abused puppet, destroyed with a fury that dwarfed the Holy Week processions, when the faithful of Taxco carry bundles of thorns as penance.

In the video, Ana Rosa is in the hands of men and women, who vent at her with rage. “Kill the bitch, break her ribs. In her face, in her face,” they shout, inciting those who kick her. “It’s less than you deserve... You don’t touch girls,” voices are heard in chorus — as if it were an ordinary demonstration — while they end the life of a woman, who is denied the right to respond. It’s of no use for Ana Rosa to cling to the legs of a police officer, who remains aloof.

The agents eventually manage to lift her into the back of a patrol vehicle, as well as one of her children, whose face is bloodied. But the crowd doesn’t stop. They keep beating the woman: they pull her black hair, they tear off her shirt, they kick her head, and they manage to get her out of the van to continue the assault. The journalists — breathing heavily — report all of this live, without believing what they’re seeing. They don’t understand why the patrol doesn’t start the engine and take off with the wounded, instead of letting the locals get their hands on her. A new group of officers from the National Guard removes the boys from the tumult: one is already in prison, while the other — only 17-years-old — is confined to a juvenile detention center, awaiting a judicial process. Their mother, however, suffers a different fate. Practically dead, she’s put back into the police van, which, instead of rushing her to the hospital, deposits her in the Prosecutor’s Office. She has to be carried in, with her head lifeless, hair falling to the ground.

The statements made by the mayor of Taxco, Mario Figueroa Mundo, and the secretary in charge of security in this town of just over 105,000 inhabitants, Doroteo Eugenio Vázquez, have just put the icing on the cake of stupefaction. Why didn’t they take the woman to the hospital? “They didn’t know the seriousness [of her injuries]; the police don’t have medical knowledge. What we intended was to protect her at the Prosecutor’s Office. If she had been taken to the hospital, the mob would have gone there and we would have had no way to protect her,” the mayor claimed. The local authorities hid behind the town’s poor policing capacity, which, according to them, wasn’t supported by higher powers. Hence the delay in removing the suspects and putting them in custody, as well as the inaction of the agents before the crazed mob. Officers didn’t fire a single shot in the air throughout the lynching, even though the police in Mexico tend to be quick to fire. If the suspect could have offered testimony about who exactly was behind the kidnapping and death of the girl, we’ll never know. Her mouth has been permanently sealed.

To complete the chaos, Chief of Police Doroteo Eugenio Vázquez was missing throughout the incident. He ultimately blamed the dead girl’s mother for not having adequately protected her daughter. “There was a maternal responsibility and there’s an omission, because if, as a father, I have a child, I must monitor them, guide them, orient them. In this case, the lady supposedly let the girl out of her sight without taking the pertinent security measures,” he declared to the media. Six long days later, he resigned from his position.

Mexico is a country long-accustomed to lynchings. Years ago, they were limited to rural areas and were attributed to ancestral rites that time hasn’t been able to dispel, or to the population’s fatigue with justice that never arrives. Oftentimes, groundless gossip turns into revenge against strangers; anger at misery and institutional abandonment is unleashed. But lynchings aren’t just relegated to the countryside anymore . Experts maintain that the prevalence of organized crime has also brought lynchings to urban areas of Mexico, which are similarly affected by enormous pockets of hardship.

“We now have evidence that many cases have been orchestrated or promoted by organized crime. They’re not isolated incidents — there’s a direct responsibility [on the part] of these criminals,” affirmed Tadeo Luna, a criminologist and student of this social phenomenon at the Ibero-American University of Puebla, in a 2023 interview with EL PAÍS . In the case of Camila, both circumstances could have occurred: the fury of the inhabitants, angered by the death of the little girl, asking for justice and taking matters into their own hands, or maybe organized crime had a role in a town that, in recent months, has experienced terrible violence. At times, transportation has been halted — schools and businesses have been shuttered. The mayor’s car was even shot up. Once known as the city of silver, Taxco is losing its shine because of armed groups.

Today, the criminologist from Puebla says that perhaps the police showed inaction because they feared the angry crowd. He also suggests that “in many cases, [the officers] don’t know how to [handle the situation], because there are very few states that have an action protocol for cases of lynching,” he adds. But his underlying thesis is that “lynching is functional for the state, in the sense that it diverts violence in a different direction. It allows for people to take justice into their own hands. The authorities are more comfortable with this, rather than with people organizing together to demand security, justice and speed in investigations.”

With this logic, he continues: “If the authorities act, it places them at the center of violence. And that’s not convenient for them.” Case closed. And perhaps criminal groups also prefer the alleged culprits to be dead, rather than for them to make statements to the police. In any case, in Taxco, the authorities have promised the typical investigation and fight against impunity.

Between Flower Street and Garden Street, there’s a distance of barely 300 feet. Young Camila took this route one afternoon, never to return. Her body is already buried, and the residents added another, as part of a recurring phenomenon of lynchings. This second killing has dismayed the little girl’s mother — and not only because she was a friend and neighbor of Ana Rosa. “I wanted her kept alive, so that she could suffer for the same amount of time that I’m going to suffer, rotting in prison for what she did.”

Translated by Avik Jain Chatlani.

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Police official is shot to death in Mexico’s troubled resort of Acapulco

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — The head of traffic police was shot to death Thursday in Mexico’s troubled Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.

The city government said gunmen killed Eduardo Chávez, the head of municipal traffic police. The assailants opened fire on Chávez on a street relatively far away from the resort’s beaches. The crime is under investigation.

Drug cartels in Mexico often force bus and taxi drivers to work for them, and thus could have been angered by traffic stops of such vehicles. Videos posted on social media in March showed drug gang enforcers brutally beating bus drivers in Acapulco for failing to act as lookouts for the cartel.

One video showed a presumed gang enforcer dealing more than a dozen hard, open-hand slaps to a driver and calling him an “animal,” and demanding he check in several times a day with the gang.

It was the latest incident of deadly violence in Acapulco, which is 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 hotels.

Tourists have begun trickling back into the resort, as violence has continued unabated.

In February, the strangled bodies of two men were found on the popular Condesa beach in Acapulco. Prosecutors in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero said the men’s bodies bore signs of “torture by ligature” with “signs of torture around the neck.”

Mexican drug gangs frequently kill their victims by asphyxiation, either by strangling them or wrapping duct tape or plastic bags around their heads.

In early February, the state government deployed 60 gun-toting detectives to patrol the beaches “in light of the violent events that have occurred recently.”

At least three people were shot dead on beaches in Acapulco that week, one by gunmen who arrived — and escaped — aboard a boat.

Only a fraction of the city’s hotel rooms — about 8,000 — have been repaired.

The government has pledged to build about three dozen barracks for the quasi-military National Guard in Acapulco. But even the throngs of troops on the streets — about 10,000 National Guard and 6,500 soldiers — haven’t kept the gang violence at bay.

In January, the main Acapulco chamber of commerce reported that gang threats and attacks caused about 90% of the city’s passenger vans to stop running, affecting the resort’s main form of transport.

Acapulco has been bloodied by turf battles between gangs since at least 2006. The gangs are fighting over drug sales and income from extorting protection payments from businesses, bars, bus and taxi drivers.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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Mayor Killed In Mexico Region Plagued By Organized Crime

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A mayor was shot dead at a restaurant in Mexico on Saturday, the regional prosecutor's office said, the latest politically related killing in the country plagued by violence and organized crime.

Guillermo Torres, 39, and his 14-year-old son were attacked at a restaurant in Morelia, the capital of western Michoacan state, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. His son survived.

He was elected mayor of Michoacan's Churumuco municipality as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2022, but recently quit the party and publically voiced sympathy for the ruling Morena, according to local media.

Torres is the latest politician to be murdered in Mexico in the run-up to the presidential elections on June 2, in which 20,000 local and federal positions and the entire Congress will be voted on.

Two mayoral candidates were murdered on February 26: Miguel Angel Zavala Reyes and Armando Perez Luna of the Morena and National Action Party, respectively.

Between June 4, 2023, and March 26 this year, 50 people have been murdered in "episodes of electoral violence", 26 of them aiming for popular seats, according to a report by the Laboratorio Electoral think tank.

Michoacan state, Mexico's main avocado-producing region, is the scene of constant fighting between organized crime groups, including the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

In February, four military personnel were killed and nine others injured when their military patrol came under attack with explosives while tracking down a criminal group.

Killings and abductions are daily occurrences in Mexico, where nearly 450,000 people have been murdered since 2006 in a spiral of drug-related violence, according to official data.

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A mayor was shot dead at a restaurant in Mexico on Saturday, the regional prosecutor's office said, the latest politically related killing in the country plagued by violence and organized crime.

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U.S. border arrests decline amid increased enforcement in Mexico

The Associated Press

Migrants wait between border walls separating Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, to apply for asylum with U.S. authorities on Friday. Gregory Bull/AP hide caption

Migrants wait between border walls separating Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, to apply for asylum with U.S. authorities on Friday.

WASHINGTON — Arrests for crossing the U.S. border illegally fell slightly in March, authorities said Friday, bucking a usual spring increase amid increased immigration enforcement in Mexico.

The Border Patrol made 137,480 arrests of people entering from Mexico, down 2.3% from 140,638 arrests in February, the first time since 2017 that arrests fell in March from the previous month. Crossings typically rise as temperatures turn warmer.

A California community sees a dip in immigration. Where have all the people gone?

Mexico detained migrants 240,000 times in the first two months of the year, more than triple from the same period of 2023, sending many deeper south into the country to discourage them from coming to the United States. While Mexico hasn't released figures for March, U.S. officials have said Mexican enforcement is largely responsible for recent declines.

"Encounters at our southern border are lower right now, but we remain prepared for changes, continually managing operations to respond to ever-shifting transnational criminal activities and migration patterns," said Troy Miller, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The March arrest tally is one of the lowest of Joe Biden's presidency after a record high of nearly 250,000 in December. While conditions quickly change, the decline is welcome news for the White House at a time when immigration has become a top voter concern in an election year. Biden said this month that he is still considering executive action to suspend asylum at the border if crossings hit a certain threshold.

A federal judge says migrants can sue the company that flew them to Martha's Vineyard

Tucson, Arizona, was again the busiest of the Border Patrol's nine sectors on the Mexican border in March, a position it has held since summer, followed by San Diego and El Paso, Texas. Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings for much of the last decade, is fifth busiest, signaling how quickly routes are changing.

The arrest tally excludes new and expanded paths to enter the country legally under presidential powers, known as parole, which allow people to stay temporarily and apply for work permits.

U.S. authorities granted entry to 44,000 people at land crossings with Mexico in March through an online appointment system, CBP One. More than 547,000 have been allowed in the country through CBP One since it was introduced in January, led by Venezuelans, Haitians and Mexicans.

Venezuelans become the largest nationality for illegal U.S. border crossings

More than 400,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have been allowed to enter the U.S. through March after applying online with a financial sponsor and arriving at an airport, paying their way.

Watch CBS News

Arrests made in Cancun after 5 dismembered bodies found in taxi, 3 other victims dumped in shallow grave

February 13, 2024 / 6:34 AM EST / CBS/AP

Prosecutors said Monday they have arrested six members of a drug gang in the Mexican resort of Cancun that allegedly killed and hacked up five people with a machete, and dumped three other victims in a shallow grave.

Authorities said that five dismembered bodies were found inside a taxi on January 29 and three bodies were later found in a grave, one of which has been identified.

The gang, which prosecutors say also engaged in extortion, was protected by a network of motorcycle taxis and minors who acted as lookouts. Authorities said two minors were arrested in addition to the six alleged gang members.

Authorities also announced the arrest of 23 people on charges they operated a fake tour agency that served as a cover for drug sales in Cancun.

The suspects operated a call center in which they offered sports equipment and tour packages to tourists, but then failed to deliver them. On the second floor they had a complex operation in which drug deals were allegedly made over the phone and delivered by motorcycle. Authorities conducting a search of the property allegedly found marijuana, methamphetamines, cell phones, bank cards, laptops and seven motorcycles.

Another suspect was arrested in Cancun who allegedly both ordered drugs on social media sites - which were delivered to him by express package service - and sold them also on social media, with home delivery included.

The revelations Monday came one day after prosecutors confirmed an American woman and a man from Belize were shot to death late last week in what appears to have been a dispute between drug dealers at a beach club in the resort city of Tulum, south of Cancun.

Prosecutors in Quintana Roo stressed the American woman had no connection to an alleged drug dealer also killed in the shooting Friday night. The woman appeared to have simply been caught in the crossfire.

Prosecutors said the dead man had cocaine and pills in his possession when he was killed, and was believed to be a dealer. They said the suspects in the shootings had been identified and were being sought.

Violence persists on Caribbean coast

The degree to which drugs are available in Mexico's Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo is sometimes startling.

Last year, authorities shuttered 23 pharmacies at Caribbean coast resorts, six months after a research report warned that drug stores in Mexico were offering foreigners pills they passed off as Oxycodone, Percocet and Adderall without prescriptions.

Foreign tourists have been killed in the past after getting caught in drug gang shootouts in the once-tranquil beach resort.

In 2021 in Tulum, two tourists - one German and a California travel blogger born in India - were killed while eating at a restaurant. They apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.

Last April, eight bodies were found dumped in Cancun. Just days before that,  four men in Cancun were killed  in a dispute related to drug gang rivalries. The dead men were found in the city's hotel zone near the beach.

Last year, the U.S. State Department issued a travel alert warning travelers to "exercise increased situational awareness" especially after dark, at Mexico's Caribbean beach resorts like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum.

Tourists, however, continue to stream into Mexico's Caribbean coast, the country's leading tourist destination. Mexico's tourism department released figures Monday showing foreign tourists spent almost $31 billion in all of Mexico in 2023, up 10% from 2022. About half of all foreigners visiting Mexico go to Cancun.

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