Saturday, March 03, 2007

What If They Gave A Drug War And Everybody Came?

There is a Drug War going on in Acapulco, Mexico during spring break.

ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) - U.S. spring-breakers are guzzling beers and slamming back tequilas in the Mexican Pacific beach resort of Acapulco, unfazed by a violent drug war that has killed police and left body parts strewn about town.

Famed for its cliff divers and sweeping bay, the once glamorous resort city has seen daytime shootouts between police and drug hit men who have dumped severed heads in public as part of turf battles that killed 2,000 people in Mexico last year.

Gunmen disguised as soldiers killed seven people in an attack on two police stations in February and heavily armed federal police now patrol the resort day and night as part of a nationwide crackdown by new President Felipe Calderon.

But with the beachfront strip largely unaffected by the violence, college students are packing hotels and vast dance clubs in what officials hope will be record numbers, most of them blissfully unaware of the drug war raging nearby.
Proving once again that the folks in the drug business are excellent businessmen. They get that you never involve your customers in commercial disputes.

As I recall Acapulco was pretty nice in the late 60s. I stayed at a very cheap hostel called the Jolly Roger. Before going to a little village called Yelapa. Then on to the Oaxaca mountains to a place called San Ysidro. A stay in Mexico City. Back to the Oaxaca mountains. On to Guadalahara. Then home to Bezerkeley, CA. More fun than spring break for sure.

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