attack on tourist in mexico

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Cancún tourists rush to shelter as armed gang storms beach at luxury hotel

Two people killed at Hyatt Ziva in Puerto Morelos in what state officials say was confrontation between drug dealers

• Cancún: from tourist beach paradise to hotbed of drug violence

Staff and tourists near the Mexican resort city of Cancún have been sent rushing for shelter after a group of armed men entered the beach outside a luxury hotel and opened fire.

Two men were killed on Thursday in what state officials described as a confrontation between drug dealers at the Hyatt Ziva in Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancún.

“No tourists were seriously hurt or kidnapped,” said the security secretariat for the surrounding Quintana Roo state on Twitter.

About 15 assailants, who were reportedly armed with “long guns”, stormed into the beach area, killing a presumed drug dealer, according to local news reports. At least one unidentified person was injured after being struck with the butt of a weapon.

The newspaper Reforma quoted a police report describing “a second drug dealer”, who tried to hide in a hotel room but was shot dead.

The Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office blamed the incident on a “confrontation” between drug dealing gangs, which claimed two lives.

“There were no serious injuries,” the office said in a tweet.

A person who answered the phone at the hotel said she was unaware of any incidents at the site. A Hyatt spokesperson said in an email: “We understand the hotel team immediately engaged local authorities, who are on the scene investigating the situation.”

The incident sparked terror among hotel guests.

“Men with guns stormed the beach and started shooting,” tweeted Andrew Krop, a guest at the hotel. “Please spread the word and get help on this. I have no idea what to do.”

Mike Sington, a retired Hollywood executive who was also staying at the hotel tweeted : “All guests and employees were told to duck and we’re being taken to hiding places.”

He confirmed in a DM to the Guardian he was “hiding in a dark room”. He later tweeted that emotionally shaken guests had come out of hiding.

Some of the guests shared stories of “playing volleyball on the beach, gunman approached firing gun. Everyone ran from beach and swimming pools.”

The incident comes two weeks after a Californian travel blogger and a German tourist were killed at a restaurant in the nearby beach resort of Tulum during a shootout between suspected gang members.

“It was only the latest in a series of attacks in Tulum’s tourist zone,” said Vicente Carrera, publisher of news site Noticaribe.

Cancún and the Mayan Riviera, which unfolds to the south, attract millions of tourists annually and area major source of foreign income for Mexico .

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

Police have carried out operations targeting drug dealing on Cancún’s beaches, Carrera said, while at least seven drug cartels are thought to be disputing crime territories in Quintana Roo state.

“We’re seeing a bunch of groups wanting to occupy territories and it seems like there’s no agreement among them,” Carrera said. “The same people dealing drugs are now working extortion rackets,” he added.

Tourists – who have continued to flock to the region throughout the pandemic – represent a substantial local market for drug dealers, and thanks to their strategic locations and transitory populations, Mexico’s tourist destinations have also been prime territory for the country’s criminal groups.

Meanwhile, the government’s strategy of targeting “kingpins” has exacerbated the conflict, as crime groups fracture into rival factions competing for territory and trade.

In Cancún, at least four cartels are thought to be contesting routes to smuggle cocaine in from South America and a local drug market targeting tourists and locals.

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In a beach showdown by luxury hotels near Cancun, 2 people were shot dead

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Government forces guard the entrance of hotel after an armed confrontation on Thursday near Puerto Morelos, Mexico. Two suspected drug dealers were killed after gunmen from competing gangs staged a dramatic shootout near upscale hotels that sent foreign tourists scrambling for cover. Karim Torres/AP hide caption

Government forces guard the entrance of hotel after an armed confrontation on Thursday near Puerto Morelos, Mexico. Two suspected drug dealers were killed after gunmen from competing gangs staged a dramatic shootout near upscale hotels that sent foreign tourists scrambling for cover.

MEXICO CITY — A commando of drug gang gunmen on Thursday stormed ashore at a beach on Mexico's resort-studded Caribbean coast in front of luxury hotels and executed two drug dealers from a rival gang.

The dramatic shooting attack sent tourists scrambling for cover at the resort of Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun.

The two suspected drug dealers killed Thursday had apparently arrived at the beach in front of the Azul Beach Resort and the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun earlier in the day, claiming it was now their territory.

"About 15 people arrived on the beach to assassinate two men who had showed up saying they were the new dealers in the area," the head prosecutor of Quintana Roo state, Oscar Montes de Oca, told the Radio Formula station.

Montes de Oca's office said earlier in a statement that "there was a clash between rival groups of drug dealers on a beach" near the hotels. Several cartels are fighting for the area's lucrative retail drug trade, including the Jalisco cartel and the a gang allied with the Gulf cartel.

Montes de Oca said one of the men targeted in the attack fled into one of the hotels before dying. The other was killed on the beach. He also said one person suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the attack, but authorities could not determine whether that person was a hotel employee or a guest because they were still undergoing medical treatment.

Gov. Carlos Joaquin said the commando wore ski masks and arrived by boat at the beach. Montes de Oca said they fled in a boat after the attack.

Joaquin called the attack "a serious blow to the development and security of the state ... putting the image of the state at grave risk."

The shootings were the latest chapter in drug gang violence that has sullied the reputation of Mexico's Caribbean coast as a once-tranquil oasis.

Guests at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun posted videos and photos of tourists hiding or nervously milling in the lobby and hallways of hotels during the incident.

Guests at the nearby Azul Beach Resort also posted videos of people taking shelter or gathering in the lobby. An employee who answered the phone at the hotel said the shooting occurred on the beach near the facility.

Mike Sington, a guest at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun, wrote in his Twitter account that "Guests are telling me they were playing volleyball on the beach, gunman approached firing gun. Everyone ran from beach and swimming pools. Staff hustled us into hidden rooms behind the kitchens."

Sington tweeted "I've never been so scared, literally shaking," before adding "I'm fine now, barricaded in my hotel room for the night, just trying to decompress."

Rival cartels often kill another gang's street-level dealers in Mexico to eliminate competition and ensure their drugs are sold first. It is not the first time that tourists have been caught in the crossfire of such battles.

The Puerto Morelos shooting comes two weeks after a California travel blogger and a German tourist were killed in a similar shootout in the beach town of Tulum.

A San Jose, California woman born in India, Anjali Ryot, and German citizen Jennifer Henzold were apparently hit by crossfire from the Oct. 20 drug dealers' shootout in Tulum, south of Puerto Morelos.

Three other foreign tourists were wounded in the shooting at a street-side eatery that has some outdoor tables, right off Tulum's main strip. They included two German men and a Dutch woman.

The German Foreign Office issued a travel advisory about the violence, advising its citizens "if you are currently in the Tulum or Playa del Carmen area, do not leave your secured hotel facilities."

The Tulum gunfight also apparently broke out between two groups that operate street-level drug sales in the area, according to prosecutors.

Montes de Oca said eight suspects in the Tulum attack had been detained in possession of firearms.

There have been signs that the situation in Quintana Roo state, where all the resorts are located, was out of control months ago. In June, two men were shot to death on the beach in Tulum and a third was wounded.

And in nearby Playa del Carmen, police stage a massive raid in October on the beach town's restaurant-lined Quinta Avenida, detaining 26 suspects — most apparently for drug sales — after a city policewoman was shot to death and locked in the trunk of a car last week. Prosecutors said Friday they have arrested a suspect in that killing.

Crime "has gone up a little with extortion, with drug sales to foreigners and Mexicans," the prosecutors office said about the raid.

The administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has pinned its hopes on the so-called Maya Riviera, where it has announced plans to build an international airport and a stop for the Maya train, which will run in a loop around the Yucatan peninsula.

Gunmen Kill 7, Including Child, at Resort in Central Mexico

After the shooting, the attackers destroyed the spa shop and took the security cameras before fleeing, officials said. Three women, three men and the child died.

Published April 15, 2023 • Updated on April 15, 2023 at 8:35 pm

A band of gunmen invaded a resort where dozens of vacationers were spending the weekend in central Mexico and opened fire, killing six adults and a 7-year-old, authorities said.

Officials in the Cortazar municipality in Guanajuato state said in a statement that an eighth person was seriously wounded in the midafternoon attack at the La Palma resort. The statement did not speculate on a possible motive.

A video posted on social media shows several people in swimsuits running about crying, screaming and hugging their children.

Get San Diego local news, weather forecasts, sports and lifestyle stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC San Diego newsletters.

Mexican soldiers and police aided by a helicopter were searching for the attackers.

Guanajuato, an agricultural and industrial hub, has been Mexico’s most violent state for years. The Jalisco New Generation drug cartel has been fighting with local criminal groups, including the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel, which is apparently backed by the Sinaloa cartel.

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Mexico shooting: Tourists dash for shelter as rival drug gangs battle at beach resort

Gunmen storm a beach in front of the high-end resort of Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun in Mexico, forcing holidaymakers to flee the crossfire.

Friday 5 November 2021 16:09, UK

Tourists at a beach resort in Mexico were left scrambling for cover after a gang of men shot dead two suspected drug dealers in front of several luxury hotels.

Gunmen stormed a beach in front of the high-end resort of Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun on Thursday.

They then shot dead two men, who were allegedly drug dealer rivals, forcing holidaymakers to flee the crossfire.

The victims had apparently arrived at the beach in front of the Azul Beach Resort and the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun earlier in the day, claiming it was now their territory.

"About 15 people arrived on the beach to assassinate two men who had showed up saying they were the new dealers in the area," the head prosecutor of Quintana Roo state, Oscar Montes de Oca, told the Radio Formula station.

Mr Montes de Oca's office said earlier in a statement that "there was a clash between rival groups of drug dealers on a beach" near the hotels.

One of the men targeted in the attack ran into one of the hotels before dying, while the other was killed on the beach.

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The prosecutor also said one person suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the attack, but authorities could not determine whether that person was a hotel employee or a guest because they were still undergoing medical treatment.

Guests at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun posted videos and photos of tourists hiding or nervously milling in the lobby and hallways of hotels during the incident.

Meanwhile, tourists at the nearby Azul Beach Resort posted footage of people taking shelter or gathering in the lobby.

An employee who answered the phone at the hotel said the shooting occurred on the beach near the facility.

Mike Sington, a guest at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun, wrote on Twitter: "Guests are telling me they were playing volleyball on the beach, gunman approached firing gun.

"Everyone ran from beach and swimming pools. Staff hustled us into hidden rooms behind the kitchens."

"I've never been so scared, literally shaking.

"I'm fine now, barricaded in my hotel room for the night, just trying to decompress."

Several cartels are fighting for the area's lucrative retail drug trade, including the Jalisco cartel and a gang allied with the Gulf cartel.

Governor Carlos Joaquin said the gunmen wore ski masks and arrived by boat at the beach. Mr Montes de Oca said they fled in a boat after the attack.

Mr Joaquin called the attack "a serious blow to the development and security of the state... putting the image of the state at grave risk".

The shootings were the latest chapter in drug gang violence that has sullied the reputation of Mexico's Caribbean coast as a once-tranquil oasis.

Rival cartels often kill another gang's street-level dealers in Mexico to eliminate competition and ensure their drugs are sold first. It is not the first time that tourists have been caught in the crossfire of such battles.

The Puerto Morelos shooting comes two weeks after a California travel blogger and a German tourist were killed in a similar shootout in the beach town of Tulum.

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Recent beachside attacks reveal a new cartel turf war in some of Mexico's most popular tourist destinations

• Deadly attacks this fall have heightened concern about organized crime in Mexican tourist hotspots.
• Recent shootouts are signs of what experts and officials say is a growing turf war in Mexico's Riviera Maya.

MEXICO - Three recent armed attacks on Mexico's top tourist beaches reveal a new turf war involving Mexican gangs, Russians, and local politicians, according to security reports and sources consulted by Insider.

At the end of October, an attack inside a bar in the popular city of Tulum killed two foreign tourists, including US-based travel influencer Anjali Ryot.

During the first days of November, tourists visiting Puerto Morelos, south of Cancun, were locked down in their hotels after gunmen opened fire on a beach and pursued a target into a nearby resort. The shooting left two people dead.

On the morning of December 7, three men riding ski-jets opened fire on a group of people at Playa Langosta beach, in the tourist hotspot of Cancun, according to news reports . No one was injured or killed, but another attack in only a few weeks spiked anxiety among tourists.

Tulum alone saw 65 homicides between January and September, an 80.5% increase compared to the same period last year, when just 36 homicides took place, according to statistics from Mexico's national system of public security.

Mexican officials said the recent spike in violence is a consequence of a "turf war" among a dozen local gangs looking to control the street drug-dealing business.

Oscar Montes de Oca, the state prosecutor in Quintana Roo — where Cancún and Tulum are located — said "about 10 groups of drug dealers" are fighting each other, but the reality could be more complex.

Quintana Roo very recently had local elections in its 11 municipalities, including for mayor and most police chiefs. This could be a key factor in the uptick of armed attacks, according to Eduardo Guerrero, director of Lantia, a Mexican consulting agency specializing in criminal organizations and security analysis.

"Most gang leaders had agreements in place with the leaving administration, and with a new chief of police, new mayors, and city officials, they are fighting to be the ones breaking a permissive deal that allows them to operate their illegal businesses freely," Guerrero told Insider.

Cartels, gangs, and the mafia

Currently there are six gangs affiliated with major Mexican drug cartels operating in the region. The main criminal activities for these gangs are drug dealing, trafficking, extortion, human trafficking, and money laundering, according to a recent report by Lantia.

"These gangs are fighting mostly for the beach area, where they want to operate freely offering all sorts of drugs and businesses to tourists. Another hotspot for them is the main streets inside the cities, clubs, and casinos," Guerrero said.

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The gangs described in the report are "Los Pelones," which broke away from the Gulf Cartel and is responsible for the most recent attacks in Tulum and Puerto Morelos.

The gangs "La Barredora" and "Los Compich" are fighting against Los Pelones for Cancun, Tulum, and Puerto Morelos specifically. La Barredora is especially invested in generating business ties with local authorities and officials; "La Gente de Aquiles," a group belonging to "Los Árzate," with strong ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and responsible for most of the street drug dealing.

"El Cártel de Cancún," which operates as a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel, is mostly responsible for the area of Benito Juarez and Isla Mujeres.

On top of these gangs, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel also has a strong presence through alliances with smaller local gangs that once worked under the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, according to the report.

"This could only explain a part of what is going in Quintana Roo recently," Guerrero said. "Another big part is the presence of Romanian and Russian mafia operating mostly on money laundering and sex trafficking."

In May, the Mexican government captured Romanian businessman Florian Tudor in Quintana Roo. Tudor is accused of being the leader of a Romanian mafia operating in several tourist hotspots in Mexico.

"Florian T. was captured by Mexico's General Attorney Office complying with an extradition request by Romanian government for allegedly being involved in organized crime, extortion and homicide" the Attorney General's Attorney Office said in a press release .

Originally from Craiova, Romania, Tudor moved to Quintana Roo with several close family members in 2014.

Adrian Enachescu, Tudor's step-brother, opened a Delaware-based business with offices in New York and San Francisco, which were allegedly used to transfer money from illegal operations in Romania to Mexico, according to an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The organization Tudor is accused of running, called the Riviera Maya gang , was unique among European criminal groups in that Mexico was its base of operations.

"Florian built a network of politicians, businessman, and criminals for more than 10 years that allowed him to operate massively in Quintana Roo and Baja California Sur," Guerrero said.

According to Guerrero, Tudor was so high up he even met with current Mexico's top police chief, Rosa Icela Rodriguez, by request of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Although he is in jail and faces several years behind bars, the operation he is accused of running is still alive for the most part in Quintana Roo.

"Its the same as with Mexican cartels. They captured the boss, but the organization is still operating under new leadership," said Guerrero.

Last week, Mexico deployed 1,500 National Guard troops to Quintana Roo, basing them in Tulum, to patrol tourist beaches. As with previous deployments, the soldiers in full gear among the tourists enjoying the beaches has received international attention.

Watch: Why armed vigilantes are patrolling avocado farms in Mexico

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

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Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Additional reporting by Isabel Woodford. Editing by Gerry Doyle

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The hand-printed signs, in neat block letters, appeared in the Tulum marketplace the morning after two tourists were shot dead and three others wounded at a roadside eatery in the bohemian Mexican resort town.

“Attention merchants of Tulum … this was a warning,” said the sign, which went on to threaten “managers and owners” of bars and restaurants on the “Mini Quinta” tourist zone. That’s where the foreigners, visiting the Malquerida Bar last month, had the bad luck of getting caught in cartel crossfire.

The signs were photographed by a local citizens’ advocacy group, which posted them to social media. The message threatened death to merchants who refuse to fork over bribes to the drug-trafficking gangs and was signed by Los Pelones — “the bald ones.”

The gang has been a longtime enforcer of the Gulf Cartel, whose battle against their archrivals — the ferocious Jalisco New Generation Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel — has recently resulted in shocking gangland-style violence along the Riviera Maya, a sun-drenched stretch of beaches on the Yucatan Peninsula that is Mexico’s biggest tourist hub.

Things have become so dangerous that on Wednesday, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced the creation of a “tourist battalion” — 1,500 National Guard soldiers wielding automatic weapons to keep visitors safe.

Beginning next month, the soldiers will be stationed in Cancun and surrounding areas, including Tulum, where Mexican law enforcement said there are 10 groups fighting for drug dominance in the picture-postcard resort town.

On Oct. 21, US travel blogger Anjali Ryot , 25, and German tourist Jennifer Henzold, 35, were gunned down in the Tulum shooting. Two weeks later, dozens of tourists were forced to scramble for cover when 15 gang members, their faces hidden by ski masks, went on a daylight shooting rampage on a beach in the village of Puerto Morelos, south of Cancun, killing two suspected traffickers.

“What we’re seeing is a huge increase in street fighting from the plaza bosses,” Texas-based security consultant Robert Almonte, an expert on Mexican cartels, told The Post. “That’s how they respond when rivals come onto their turf. They don’t lose any sleep over who they shoot. And if there are innocent bystanders, too bad. That’s the way they think.”

In addition to the 10 outfits fighting to control drug sales in the “plazas” or drug marketplaces of Tulum, there are two other gangs in Cancun fighting for dominance of the Riviera Maya, according to Oscar Montes de Oca, the lead prosecutor in the state of Quintana Roo, where Cancun, Puerto Morelos and Tulum are located.

State governor Carlos Joaquin called the recent beach commando raid “a serious blow to the development and security of the state … putting the state at grave risk.” With turf wars increasing among rival cartels, homicides in the state rose from 145 in 2015 to 628 in 2020 — a 333 percent increase in a place where 75 percent of the local economy is based on tourism , according to Mexican statistics.

“Mexico is not doing anything to fix the problem,” Almonte told The Post. “My concern is that, as a tourist, you are not going to be the target, but you might be sitting at a table next to a target, and suddenly that vacation becomes your last.”

The Jalisco New Generation Cartel was founded in 2009 by Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”), who is among the most wanted drug traffickers on the planet after the 2014 arrest of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, head of the Sinaloa cartel. The US Drug Enforcement Administration has listed a $10 million bounty for El Mencho’s capture.

Jalisco is among the main producers of the fentanyl and methamphetamine that is smuggled to the US. It’s also become the most feared of the Mexican drug gangs.

Cartel members last year tried to assassinate Omar Garcia Harfuch , Mexico City’s chief of police, in an attack that wounded him and left three people dead, including two of his bodyguards. In 2015, they shot down a military helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade .

In 2015, Oseguera’s son Rubén Oseguera González, known as El Menchito, was arrested on drug-trafficking charges and last year he was extradited to the US , where he awaits trial.

And this week, the group was hit with a real blow, according to Almonte: Mexico’s military arrested Rosalinda González Valencia, the wife of Cervantes.

The woman known as “La Jefa” — the chief — was Jalisco’s main accountant, part of a subgroup known as Los Cuinis, Almonte said. Arrested in an upscale Guadalajara neighborhood on Monday, Gonzalez Valencia is charged with laundering money for the cartel.

“Who knows what kind of information she will give to authorities,” Almonte told The Post.

While it’s unclear whether the high-profile arrest will lead to the Jalisco Cartel’s retreat, the rival Gulf Cartel also faces challenges with the recent death of their leader, Ariel (“El Tigre”) Trevino Pena, who was killed by the Mexican army in a shootout in Matamoros in October.

The Gulf Cartel — among the oldest criminal enterprises in Mexico — is mired in infighting, according to security experts.

Founded by Juan Nepomuceno Guerra Cárdenas in the 1930s in Matamoros, the Gulf Cartel first smuggled alcohol across the border during Prohibition. Later, the operation expanded to include gambling, prostitution and theft. The ’80s saw Gulf focus on cocaine and marijuana trafficking, followed by fentanyl and other synthetic drugs — not to mention racketeering and human trafficking at the border, according to Mexican and US authorities.

The Gulf Cartel also has cells in some border towns in Texas, and alliances with mobsters in Italy.

And then there is the Sinaloa Cartel. With El Chapo sentenced to life imprisonment at a maximum-security prison in Colorado, the group is now run by Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, 73.

Zambada Garcia, who headed up his own eponymous criminal operation before joining the Sinaloa Cartel alongside El Chapo, is reportedly in ill health and in hiding. In September, the State Department tripled the reward for information leading to his capture from $5 million to $15 million.

Earlier this month, the State Department announced a $5 million bounty for information leading to the arrest of four Sinaloa drug traffickers, including Aureliano Guzman Loera, who is known as “El Guano” and is the older brother of El Chapo.

With longtime kingpin El Chapo gone, things have been a bit messy in the organization, which smuggles a wide variety of drugs, including opioids. In addition to battling their enemies in the Jalisco and Gulf cartels, they are fighting among themselves for control, said Almonte.

“Right now you have factions fighting for leadership within the Sinaloa Cartel to control the sale of opioids, and you have the larger cartels all fighting each other,” he told The Post. “It’s a mess.”

All the violence comes at a time when Mexico is trying to bolster its tourism sector, which accounts for 8.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. In 2019, that amounted to more than $25 billion generated from 45 million tourists, according to Mexico’s National Tourism Business Council. During the height of the pandemic last year, the country’s tourism revenues plummeted by more than 50 percent.

Despite the uptick in violence at tourist destinations and the deployment of troops, Lopez Obrador said the country is forging ahead with ambitious plans to construct an international airport in Tulum by 2023, as well as a 900-mile train route that would link resort spots in Quintana Roo to some of the region’s far-flung historic and ecological sites.

“Tulum will keep growing because the Mexican government is really investing in tourism here,” said Susann Rottloff, a Tulum-based realtor and German expatriate who has lived in Tulum for the last three years. “People keep asking me if Tulum is safe. I am a single woman and I’ve never had a problem, and Tulum is packed right now.”

Despite last month’s shootings, visitors continue to flock to the resort town. More than 140,000 descend on the region every week, according to Mexican government statistics, with many wanting to invest in property for the long term, Rottloff told The Post this week.

“I feel extremely safe here,” said a Dutch expatriate, who just closed on a home in the area. The 63-year-old entrepreneur, who did not want to be identified by name, said he has been vacationing in Tulum for more than 10 years, and bought his first condo in the seaside resort town overlooking the azure waters of the Caribbean Sea two and a half years ago.

“I feel safer here than I do in Los Angeles,” he said, adding that after the October shootings, the Mexican government dispatched 450 National Guard soldiers to Tulum to keep the peace.

“I think the government took a lot of security measures after it happened,” he said, adding that authorities also cracked down on drug trafficking in the area. “For a number of months you would go to a restroom in a restaurant and there would be some guy with a backpack trying to sell you drugs. That’s all gone now. The government has gotten really serious about cracking down on crime.”

Despite the recent spate of drug violence, Tulum’s foreign residents are staying put.

“Well, we’re still doing business in real estate,” said Rottloff. “It’s [the recent violence] definitely concerning but it’s all relative. Other places in the world are far more violent.”

But for Almonte, who organizes seminars for US law enforcement on Mexican cartels, “things are out of control and the Mexican government does not have a handle on it,” he said. “I’m asked a lot about travel to Mexico, and my recommendation is don’t go.”

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Is It Safe to Travel to Mexico? Here’s What You Need to Know.

A spate of incidents, including a kidnapping and the death of two Americans near the border, have prompted travel warnings from the U.S. government.

By Elisabeth Malkin and Isabella Kwai

Two Americans found dead after they were attacked and kidnapped near the border. Airports shuttered amid gang violence in Sinaloa. Turmoil among taxi drivers in Cancún.

A number of recent security incidents have raised concerns about the risks of traveling to Mexico, where more than 20 million tourists flew last year to visit the country’s beaches, cities and archaeological sites, or to obtain health care .

Ahead of the spring break holiday, a popular time for American tourists to visit the country, the U.S. Embassy issued a travel alert , urging visitors to exercise caution by avoiding dangerous situations and drinking responsibly, among other recommendations. “Crime, including violent crime, can occur anywhere in Mexico, including in popular tourist destinations,” the alert said. And the State Department has warned tourists to steer clear of six states, including the state of Tamaulipas, where the recent kidnapping occurred — and to exercise increased precautions in other popular destinations like Playa del Carmen, Cancún, Tulum and Mexico City.

An overwhelming majority of visitors enjoy a safe vacation in Mexico, and tourists are largely sheltered from the violence that grips local communities. But the attack and kidnapping of four Americans in the border city of Matamoros, two of whom were later found dead, along with recent disorder in Cancún and violence in early January that forced the closure of three airports in northwest Mexico, is prompting questions about whether the country’s broader unrest is spilling into other destinations.

What happened on the border?

On March 3, four Americans from South Carolina traveling in a white minivan crossed the border from Brownsville, Texas, into the city of Matamoros, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. One of the Americans was scheduled for cosmetic surgery.

Soon after the Americans crossed the border, gunmen fired on their vehicle and then abducted the group in a pickup truck. Officials later said that two of the group were found dead at a rural location alongside the other two, who had survived.

The Americans were attacked as a result of “confusion,” according to Irving Barrios, the state prosecutor in Tamaulipas. Matamoros has a long history of violence and highway shootouts, though that reputation has partially subsided in recent years. Then, in late February, one gang moved into the city to wrest control of drug sales from another, said Eduardo Guerrero, the director of Lantia Intelligence , a security consulting company in Mexico City.

“There are places in the country where the situation can change abruptly from one week to another,” he said. While the motives in the attack remain unclear, the Americans had “very bad luck,” Mr. Guerrero said, because they likely stumbled into a battle between the two gangs.

What happened earlier this year in Cancún?

Uber has been challenging the taxi unions for the right to operate in Cancún and won a court decision in its favor on Jan. 11. The ruling infuriated the powerful unions, which are believed to have links to local organized crime figures and former governors. Taxi drivers then began harassing and threatening Uber drivers.

The conflict generated widespread attention after a video of taxi drivers forcing a Russian-speaking family out of their rideshare car went viral, and after unions blocked the main road leading to Cancún’s hotel zone. That prompted the U.S. Embassy in Mexico to issue a security alert .

Mr. Guerrero said that the authorities will try to negotiate some kind of compromise, but there was a probability of more violence ahead.

Have authorities curbed violence that might affect tourists?

As a rule, criminals in Mexico are careful not to kill tourists, Mr. Guerrero explained, because doing so “can set in motion a persecution that can last years,” the consequences of which can be “very dissuasive,” he said.

But the rule doesn’t always hold. And in two popular destinations for foreign tourists — Los Cabos , at the tip of the Baja California peninsula, and the Caribbean coast — local and state officials have recently sought help from the United States to take on organized crime that threatened to drive off tourists.

A spasm of violence at the end of 2021 and early 2022 rattled the tourist industry along the Riviera Maya, the 80-mile strip of Caribbean resorts south of Cancún. Two visitors were killed in crossfire between local gangs in Tulum; a gunfight on a beach in Puerto Morelos sent tourists running for cover into a nearby hotel; a hit man gained entry to a luxury hotel in Playa del Carmen and killed two Canadian tourists believed to have links to organized crime.

The federal government sent National Guard units to patrol the beaches, and Quintana Roo state authorities asked U.S. law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, to provide intelligence, Mr. Guerrero said. Local authorities, flush with tourism revenues, invested in the police, which is typically the weakest link in Mexican law enforcement.

The joint approach led to a lull in gangland gun battles in Quintana Roo’s tourist areas, and experts say that drug sales to meet foreign demand no longer take place on the street, although they are continuing more discreetly.

The success in tamping down drug violence in Quintana Roo follows a similar improvement in Los Cabos a couple of years ago when U.S. authorities also collaborated with local officials in the state of Baja California Sur. The murder rate soared in Los Cabos in 2017 amid cartel wars, and although tourists were not targeted, that year police chased gunmen into the lobby of a luxury hotel in San José del Cabo, and a cooler containing two heads was left in a tourist area.

What about tourist areas in other states?

Even in states where crime is very high, tourist areas have generally been spared. San Miguel de Allende, a haven for U.S. retirees, is an island of relative peace in a state, Guanajuato, that has been riddled with cartel violence .

The Pacific Coast state of Jalisco, home to the resort of Puerto Vallarta, picturesque tequila country and the cultural and gastronomic attractions of the state capital, Guadalajara , is also the center of operations of the extremely violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel . The cartel’s focus of violence is in the countryside; Puerto Vallarta and the beaches to its north, including the exclusive peninsula of Punta Mita and the surfers’ hangout of Sayulita, are all booming — and, despite drug sales, the cartel’s control seems to limit open conflict.

Mexico City has become a magnet for digital nomads and shorter term visitors , and concerns about violence there have receded. The city’s police force has been successful in reducing violent crime, particularly homicides, and the number of killings has been cut almost in half over the past three years.

Are there any other safety concerns?

Street crime is still a problem almost everywhere, especially in bigger cities and crowded spaces. Kidnapping and carjacking are a risk in certain regions and many businesses that cater to tourists operate under extortion threats. While tourists may not be aware of underlying criminal forces, their power sometimes spills out into the open in spectacular shows of violence.

The attack in Matamoros is only the most recent example. Mexican border cities, which have long endured waves of violence, are not typically tourist destinations, although Americans often cross the border to visit family, seek out cheaper health care or dine at restaurants.

Three airports in the state of Sinaloa, including the beach destination Mazatlán, were closed on Jan. 5 amid gang violence after Mexican security forces arrested Ovidio Guzmán López, a son of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the crime lord known as El Chapo, who is serving a life sentence in the United States. A stray bullet fired by cartel gunmen shooting at a Mexican military plane as it landed at the airport in the state capital, Culiacán, clipped an Aeromexico plane preparing to take off for Mexico City. Nobody was hurt and the plane returned to the terminal.

In August, gunmen positioned burning cars and buses to block roads around Guadalajara in response to a military raid on a meeting of criminal bosses. In October, a local politician was shot and killed in an upscale steakhouse in suburban Guadalajara as terrified diners crawled to safety.

Pierre de Hail, the president of Janus Group Mexico, a risk management company in Monterrey, is skeptical that security has improved. “There is too much random risk,” he said. “It’s all about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

What precautions should tourists take?

Mr. de Hail recommends researching the resort and news from the area you’re visiting. The U.S. State Department provides state-by-state information about travel risks in Mexico. As of early March, the department had issued its strongest possible warning — Level 4: Do Not Travel — for six states, including Tamaulipas and Sinaloa. Quintana Roo and Baja California Sur are at Level 2, indicating that visitors should exercise increased caution. (By comparison, the same Level 2 advisory is applied to France and Spain.)

The Matamoros incident shows how violence can flare up in places that have been quiet recently. Mr. Guerrero suggests searching on the internet before traveling for news of recent outbreaks.

Mr. de Hail also suggests buying travel insurance in case of a medical emergency or theft, and recommends that tourists keep a low profile to avoid attracting attention, he said, warning that it is easy to misread situations.

As anywhere, common sense should prevail, Mr. de Hail said: Don’t wear expensive watches or jewelry, and avoid dark and deserted places. He recommends making a copy of your passport, remaining alert while walking home at night and not leaving your drinks unattended. “I have had numerous cases of people asking for help because they were extorted coming back from bars,” he said.

He added: “If you’re staying in a place that has a report of strikes or demonstrations, don’t go there. You’re a fish out of water.”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2023 .

Isabella Kwai is a breaking news reporter in the London bureau. She joined The Times in 2017 as part of the Australia bureau. More about Isabella Kwai

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Italy :  Spend 36 hours in Florence , seeking out its lesser-known pockets.

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Mongolia : Some young people, searching for less curated travel experiences, are flocking to the open spaces of this East Asian nation .

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52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

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Tourists run amid bangs at airport in mexico’s cancun resort.

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY – Tourists were sent scrambling by loud bangs heard at the international airport in the Mexican resort of Cancun on Monday.

Flights were suspended for almost three hours after authorities received reports of gunshots at the airport, the National Guard said in a statement.

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Videos posted on social media showed travelers scrambling and rushing out of a terminal.

The Guard said there was no evidence of any gunshots having been fired, and said the bangs may have occurred after someone knocked over three free-standing vertical display stands in the terminal.

Later, the airport said in a statement that “the alarm situation was caused by three signboards that fell after being inadvertently pushed over, creating a noise that caused a rushed exit by airport users.”

The nervousness reflects the wave of violence and deaths that have blotted Cancun’s reputation as a laid-back get-away.

Last week, authorities found four bodies dumped in undergrowth in Cancun, and said they were part of a total of 13 murders committed by the Jalisco cartel in the resort since September. Most of the bodies were found in vacant lots or houses.

The Caribbean coast, Mexico’s top tourist money-maker, has been hit by rampant violence.

In January, prosecutors said the killing of two Canadians near Cancun was motivated by debts between international gangs apparently dedicated to drug and weapons trafficking.

In late October, farther south in the laidback destination of Tulum, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German — were caught in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers and killed.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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American Tourist Attacked In Mexico With Machete

U.S. officials have been warning travelers as of late to stay alert while vacationing in Mexico. Recently one traveler had to find out the hard way. As he was kidnapped and left bleeding from the left side of his body due to getting hacked with a machete on his way home from Cancun.

What happened?

Recently one of the attorney generals of Mexico launched an investigation into an alleged kidnapping. A dad from Utah came to Cancun with his wife for Valentine’s Day and was attacked with a machete.

36-year-old contractor, Dustan Jackson of Salt Lake City wanted to pick up some chewing tobacco before his flight home from Cancun. He called a cab and pulled up to the grocery store and once he got out, he was knocked unconscious. He didn’t wake up until sundown, with broken teeth, a welt on his head, and machete wounds on the left side of his body. He also realized his cell phone and credit cards were gone.

Jackson spent hours bleeding before authorities found him and drove him to the airport.

Barely any medical attention?

“She put a few bandages on me; why didn’t she take me to the hospital, I don’t know,” he said. “Some of the horror stories I’ve heard, I’m glad that [she] didn’t because I could have been stuck down there. Who knows?”

Upon arrival at the airport, Jackson asked strangers for help until he came across someone who spoke English. The person helped with a call to his wife and set him up in a hotel overnight.

No record of the attack

The authorities in Cancun have no record of the attack on Jackson or of any interactions with the victim according to Fox News Digital. Fortunately, prosecutors have decided to launch an investigation. An official from the State Department also made a statement that the U.S. government is aware of the case and is prepared to lend a hand.

The state of Quintana Roo includes tourist destinations such as Cancun, Tulum, Cozumel, and Playa del Carmen. All these locations are far from where crime occurs but the State Department is still asking Americans to practice and “exercise increased caution.”

Always a treat

“Criminal activity and violence may occur in any location, at any time, including in popular tourist destinations,” the State Department warns. “Travelers should maintain a high level of situational awareness, avoid areas where illicit activities occur, and promptly depart from potentially dangerous situations. U.S. citizens and [lawful permanent residents] have been victims of kidnapping.”

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American college students on spring break trip confronted with 'rifles in their faces,' given three options

First on fox: a florida state university student and her friends were robbed at gunpoint at a beachfront property in mexico while on spring break.

Travel warnings to US tourists heading abroad as spring break nears

Former D.C. police detective Ted Williams shares his safety rules for international travel to protect yourself on spring break on ‘Fox Report.’

FIRST ON FOX: Three college students' long-awaited spring break in Cancún, Mexico , turned into a nightmare when they were confronted at their beachfront hotel and robbed at gunpoint.

A father of one of the Florida State University students, who asked not to be identified, told Fox News Digital that his 20-year-old daughter's spring break vacation at the Ocean Dream Cancun by Guru Hotel turned into a nightmare.

"I researched it before they went there," he said. "It was a safe place to go. They didn't go into the inner city."

But on the very first day of their trip, his daughter and her two friends were confronted at the beach by four individuals armed with rifles.

SPRING BREAK DANGERS: 5 AMERICANS WHOSE VACATIONS ENDED IN DEATH

Located in Cancun's Zona Hotelera neighborhood, Ocean Dream Cancun by GuruHotel is directly on the beach. The three college students said that they were confronted on their first night at the Ocean Dream Cancun hotel. The teens walked out to the beach following dinner, one of the parents told Fox News Digital. (Google Maps)

The father explained that two of the individuals were dressed in camo gear, while the other two were dressed in Mexican police gear .

The four individuals pointed rifles at the three girls, accused them of trespassing, and presented them with three options. 

"You can go to the airport and leave the country before going to get your belongings. Or you can go to jail, and it won't be comfortable," the father said his daughter was told. "Or you can each give us $300 apiece."

Located in Cancun's Zona Hotelera neighborhood, Ocean Dream Cancun by GuruHotel is directly on the beach. (Google Maps)

The girls chose the third option, turning over $900.

The armed robbers allowed one of the girls to run back to their hotel room and bring back the money.

After they were let go, the girls were shaken by the experience. 

"They were scared. They had rifles in their faces." — Father of Florida State University student

"They were scared," he said. "They had rifles in their faces."

BLOODIED SUSPECT IN MISSING AMERICANS' CARIBBEAN YACHT HIJACKING TOSSED IN TRUCK DURING ARREST, VIDEO SHOWS

After the incident, the students said that they spoke with other spring breakers, who shared they had similar experiences.

"I think that is something that happens all the time there," the father said. "They saw American kids checking in, and they know they have money."

People enjoy a day at Playa Delfines (Dolphin Beach) at the Hotel Zone of Cancun, Quintana Roo State, Mexico, on Nov. 8, 2022. (DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)

"They saw American kids checking in, and they know they have money." — FSU student's father

Nicole Parker , a former FBI special agent and a Fox News contributor, told Fox News Digital that this is a relatable story for many spring breakers and families traveling to the white-sand beaches and crystal-blue waters in Mexico.

"I think this is a typical story, these students just wanted to have fun, and then it turns," Parker said. "And the fact that others at the hotel had similar experiences is worth remembering."

COUPLE VACATIONING IN FLORIDA ARRESTED AFTER BEING FOUND PASSED OUT ON BEACH, CHILDREN GONE

"Just be very, very aware," she added.

Tourists pose for a picture in front of a Cancun sign in Playa Delfines (Dolphin Beach) at the Hotel Zone of Cancun, Quintana Roo State, Mexico, on Nov. 8, 2022. (DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)

The former FBI special agents advised Americans traveling to Mexico to take safety precautions beforehand.

"My advice is to follow the travel advisories issued by the State Department at state.gov and register with the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program when traveling outside the continental U.S.," Parker said. "If a travel advisory is strongly worded by the State Department but doesn't cross the line of saying, ‘Do Not Travel,’ then a traveler should heed the warning and understand that various factors go into that warning. And if the travel advisory definitively says, ‘Do Not Travel’ or ‘Reconsider Travel’, then, do not travel and if you do not heed the warning and travel anyway — then do not expect anyone to come save you and make sure you have travel insurance such as emergency medical evacuation."

Parker said that people traveling to Mexico should research the resort or hotel they are staying at and identify the closest U.S. consulate.

"If you are a USA citizen and ever become the victim of a crime overseas, make sure to contact the closest USA consulate immediately. Additionally, report the incident to the FBI at fbi.gov or 800-CALL-FBI as they have extraterritorial squads that can assist host nation with conducting investigations. Additionally, the FBI has Legal Attaches (Legats) around the world that coordinate efforts with the local authorities of the host nation," she said.

"When you go to these places, you really are traveling at your own risk," Parker said. "I would always advise people to research where they are going."

Tourists hang out on the Gaviota Azul beach in Cancun, Mexico, on March 2. (AP Photo/Israel Leal, File)

In February, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico issued a stark warning to spring breakers.

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The warning, issued Feb. 26, noted that "violent crime — such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery — is widespread and common in Mexico."

The warning also detailed 10 potential threats and dangers, some of which have nothing to do with violence , but are things Americans might not even think about, such as drowning, immigration or medical emergencies.

Specific travel advisories issued by the U.S. State Department for Mexican states and cities can be found here .

Fox News has reached out to the U.S. State Department, the Mexican embassy in the U.S. and Ocean Dream Cancun by Guru Hotel for comment.

Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. 

She is a native of Massachusetts and is based in Orlando, Florida.

Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected] and on X: @s_rumpfwhitten .

The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.

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Watch CBS News

Police commander reportedly beheaded and her 2 bodyguards killed in highway attack in Mexico

Updated on: March 18, 2024 / 3:17 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A state police officer and her two bodyguards were killed in a highway attack in Mexico's violent western state of Michoacan, security officials said Monday.

Michoacan's state security agency said on social media that three members of the state Civil Guard had died in the line of duty Sunday night. One of them, Cristal García Hurtado, was a regional police commander. Local press reported that she had been decapitated.

"We strongly condemn the cowardly murder of our fellow Civil Guards, who, in the line of police duty, were cruelly attacked," the social media post said, which identified the other two victims as Itzel Madero Larrea and David de Jesus Espinoza Valdez.

The attack occurred on the highway connecting the towns of Patzcuaro and Uruapan.

The Michoacan state prosecutor's office, which is investigating, did not immediately comment.

Michoacan has been particularly hard hit by gang turf wars, with the Jalisco New Generation cartel fighting a local gang, the Viagras, for control. Thousands of residents have been displaced as organized crime experiments with drone attacks and improvised explosive devices.

Earlier this month, three farmers were killed by a bomb apparently planted in Michoacan. That came just days after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged that an improvised explosive device  killed at least four soldiers  in what he called a "trap" likely set by a cartel in Michoacan.

In February, two hopefuls to be mayor of the town of Maravatío were killed within hours of each other. At least six local politicians have been murdered so far this year ahead of the June 2 national elections.

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Tourist Killed at Mexican Resort After Being Attacked Either by Shark or Alligator

Officials said either a shark or an alligator bit the man in the legs while he was swimming in the pacific ocean.

A Belgian tourist who had been swimming off the Pacific coast in Mexico died on Thursday during an animal encounter, according to a report. 

The Associated Press reported that the man was bitten in the legs by either a shark or an alligator, according to the state of Guerrero’s civil defense office. The man died at the scene. 

The attack happened outside a resort in the city of Zihuatanejo. 

A woman who was with him also got bitten in the legs by the same animal, the AP reported. She was transported to the hospital to receive medical treatment. Her relationship to the man and her nationality are not clear. 

Officials will investigate to determine what kind of animal caused the attack.

If officials confirm this to have been a shark attack, it will be the second one in Mexico within the span of a month. 

A 26-year-old woman died earlier this month after she got bitten by a shark while swimming with her daughter in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Melaque in Mexico. 

As The Messenger previously reported , the two were swimming about 75 feet out from shore when they encountered the shark. The child was not injured.

Foreign tourist dies after being bitten by a shark on the Mexican beach of Zihuatanejo

The animal also injured a woman bathing in playa quieta, north of the tourist center in the state of guerrero.

A 66 year-old foreign tourist died this Thursday after being bitten by an animal while swimming at Playa Quieta, in the hotel zone of Ixtapa, in the north of the Guerrero state municipality of Zihuatanejo. According to the local news outlet Enfoque Informativo de Guerrero, it was a shark that bit the man in one of his extremities and just minutes later, he died on shore after losing too much blood. Sources from Civil Protection of the municipality told EL PAÍS that Navy personnel are looking for a shark, although they do not rule out the possibility that the culprit could have been a crocodile, since this type of reptile is abundant in the area. A woman was also attacked in the water and has been taken to a nearby hospital.

Ixtapa’s Quieta Beach has been closed by the authorities, while the Navy searches for the animal. Zihuatanejo Civil Protection sources have reported that medical services tried to save the man’s life on the shore, but were unsuccessful due to the severity of the wounds. They also pointed out that this type of attack does not usually occur at Playa Quieta. Althotugh, the second victim has been taken to a nearby hospital to treat her bite wounds, the severity of her injuries is unknown.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition

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3 police officers killed in an attack on western Mexico highway

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — A state police officer and her two bodyguards were killed in a highway attack in Mexico’s violent western state of Michoacan , security officials said Monday.

Michoacan’s state security agency said on X, formerly Twitter, that three members of the state Civil Guard had died in the line of duty Sunday night. One of them, Cristal García Hurtado, was a regional police commander. Local press reported that she had been decapitated.

The attack occurred on the highway connecting the towns of Patzcuaro and Uruapan.

The Michoacan state prosecutor’s office, which is investigating, did not immediately comment.

Michoacan has been particularly hard hit by gang turf wars , with the Jalisco New Generation cartel fighting a local gang, the Viagras, for control. Thousands of residents have been displaced as organized crime experiments with drone attacks and improvised explosive devices.

In February, two hopefuls to be mayor of the town of Maravatío were killed within hours of each other.

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

Report challenges official details of deadly fire at migrant center in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — An investigative report released before the first anniversary of a fire at an immigration center in Ciudad Juárez that killed 40 migrants challenges the government's version of what happened and shows a series of security protocol failures.

According to Mexican authorities, the fire on March 27, 2023, started when a group of detained migrants began burning their mattresses in protest of overcrowded conditions and a lack of food and water. Security videos leaked shortly after the incident appear to show smoke coming out of a cell while immigration agents fled without helping the detained migrants.

The incident is still being investigated, and nine of the 11 people charged in the case await trial while they remain in prisons in Ciudad Juárez.

In April 2023, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador s aid that the person who had the keys to the cell where the fire took place was not at the facility at the time.

But the cross-border report by the investigative sites Lighthouse Reports , El Paso Matters and the Juárez, Mexico-based La Verdad contradicts the government's account, which w a s also questioned after the deadly fire.

“The keys were always in the building,” the report states.

The media outlets said they had access to 16 hours of security camera footage, both outside and inside the station, and thousands of pages of documents, including court affidavits and other records.

The report's investigators asserted that, throughout the day of the fire, several officials opened and closed the cell “and the next door with two sets of keys.”

A 25-year-old Guatemalan migrant named Estuardo told the report's investigators: “How could the key be missing. ... Just moments before they had opened the cell door.”

Noticias Telemundo contacted the Mexico's National Institute of Migration (INM) for comment on the investigation’s findings and report. A spokeswoman for the institute said that “at the moment there will be no position on the matter.”

“There are too many irregularities," Rocío Gallegos, director of the newspaper La Verdad and co-author of the investigation, told Noticias Telemundo. "During the day, groups of more than 100 migrants came and went. In an audio recording, we heard someone say that there were no fire extinguishers, but they were there. The place did not have ventilation and there were no smoke detectors that worked. All of this was a death trap for the migrants who died there.”

Several survivors interviewed for the investigation confirmed previous reports that migrants lacked food and water, were kept locked in an overcrowded cell, and were verbally abused and threatened with deportation, according to the report.

Doralvys, a Venezuelan woman who was released along with her husband hours before the fire, said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo last year that “when we arrived, they separated the men and women. They left us in a separate space, but they locked the men behind a fence. My husband didn’t want to be put there, he resisted a lot and that’s why they hit him. They mistreated us very badly, and at 5 in the afternoon they released us. Then we saw that the men who were trapped there, many of them died from the flames."

In one of the videos analyzed by investigators that had sound, a woman in an INM uniform is heard sending text messages while she said, “We are not going to open (the cell) for them, I already told those guys.”

Francisco Garduño Yáñez, INM's commissioner, has been charged with criminal conduct for failing in his responsibility to protect migrants. Eight other INM officials and private security guards are charged in the case because prosecutors have stated that the incident showed a “pattern of irresponsibility.”

The detention center closed after the fire and Garduño announced last May that it would be replaced by a new building near the Ysleta-Zaragoza international bridge, about 24 kilometers (about 15 miles) to the east and would be overseen by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). An opening date has not been announced.

Last year, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Mexico's secretary of security, reported that “the process began to revoke the permission of the company Grupo de Seguridad Privada Camsa S.A de C.V,” the company hired by the INM to guard its detention centers in several states.

Eunice Rendón, an academic and international consultant on migration issues, said private companies should not be in charge of control and supervision tasks in these immigration facilities.

“These types of facilities are high risk. You have to be very careful and it is not possible that they are leaving it in the hands of private parties,” Rendón said.

According to the investigation, 29 survivors of the fire received expedited temporary humanitarian parole from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The Mexican government, through the INM, proposed reparations to the victims’ families. Last July, funds were approved for each of the families of the 40 men who died in the fire, though human rights groups said the funds were insufficient.

“Until now, monetary reparations have focused on the families of the deceased. Reparation is lacking for survivors who, in many cases, still have no contact with the Executive Commission for Attention to Victims," said Blanca Navarrete, director of Derechos Humanos Integrales en Acción, an organization in Ciudad Juárez that provides services to migrants. "Unfortunately, history in Mexico shows us that many years have to pass before people can enjoy a little justice."

A version of this article was first published in Noticias Telemundo.

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3 police officers killed in an attack on western Mexico highway

A state police official and her bodyguards were killed in a highway attack in Mexico’s western state of Michoacan

MEXICO CITY -- A state police officer and her two bodyguards were killed in a highway attack in Mexico ’s violent western state of Michoacan, security officials said Monday.

Michoacan’s state security agency said on X, formerly Twitter , that three members of the state Civil Guard had died in the line of duty Sunday night. One of them, Cristal García Hurtado, was a regional police commander. Local press reported that she had been decapitated.

The attack occurred on the highway connecting the towns of Patzcuaro and Uruapan.

The Michoacan state prosecutor’s office, which is investigating, did not immediately comment.

Michoacan has been particularly hard hit by gang turf wars, with the Jalisco New Generation cartel fighting a local gang, the Viagras, for control. Thousands of residents have been displaced as organized crime experiments with drone attacks and improvised explosive devices.

In February, two hopefuls to be mayor of the town of Maravatío were killed within hours of each other.

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

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