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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Aiyaiyayai!

I'm in San Francisco gearing up for the flight home early next week, but a week ago spent a little time in Acapulco Mexico, a micro Gold Coast, where apart from the sparkling beach, the most enduring image is of a lot of guys in uniform standing around with machine guns. Not looking for sympathy mind you, but last Friday while I was there seven people died and five vehicles were burned, including four taxis, during clashes between gang members. On Saturday four died and two were hurt after they were apparently involved in a shootout. On Sunday police found a dismembered body in a residential area, five burned vehicles and the body of a 17-year-old boy on the road leading to a beach resort. By Tuesday I was a long way away when the police found three bodies, one decapitated, in the boot of a  taxi stolen from its driver.  Oh and the Mexican Tennis Open was on there at the same time.

Travel broadens the mind they say. Something close to normal transmission should resume here late next week.

2 comments:

  1. Mmmmn, so exotic - decapitations - the tourist bureau should really market that more.
    Does it give you a sense of where that Australian saying comes from - "couldn't see me for the dust?"
    The info about Mexico's FoI laws and practices was very interesting though and I imagine, hard to get hold of?

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  2. Anonymous7:21 am

    Quite easy to get hold of information about the Mexican federal FOI law. Just look on the English language page of their site:
    http://www.ifai.org.mx/English

    The US National Security Archive's assessment of the Mexican FOI regime can be found here:
    http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB247/index.htm

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