(NEWS.COM.AU) — Kate Schneider
MEXICO has hit the headlines time and time again this year, for all the wrong reasons.
Last Sunday tourists watched as a man’s body washed ashore at Caletilla Beach in Acapulco, located in the state of Guerrero. Horrifying images show stunned beachgoers standing near the water as officials removed the body.
On Thursday, 16 people — including six police officers — were killed in two confrontations also in Guerrero, during a bloody gunbattle that lasted half an hour.
The next day, gunmen on water scooters shot at a roving vendor on a beach in Cancun’s glittering hotel zone, an incident believed to be unprecedented for the Caribbean city.
According to a police report, the afternoon shooting happened in front of a hotel in the heart of Cancun’s resort-studded strip. The vendor was unhurt.
It’s just the latest in a string of violence and gruesome murders in the country. In Cancun last week there were 14 killings reported in a period of just 36 hours — the highest ever in the country’s recorded history, according to Mexico news outlet Noticaribe.
More than 100 people have now been slaughtered in Cancun since the beginning of 2018, as cartels continue to spread fear throughout Mexico.