- Title: MEXICO: Investigations to find 20 kidnapped tourists in Acapulco continues
- Date: 6th October 2010
- Summary: ACAPULCO, GUERRERO, MEXICO (OCTOBER 05, 2010) (REUTERS) ARMY VEHICLES OUTSIDE HOTEL WHERE KIDNAPPED MEN WERE STAYING SOLDIERS WALKING INTO HOTEL HOTEL EXTERIOR SOLDIERS EMERGING FROM HOTEL SOLDIERS GETTING DOWN FROM VEHICLE MORE OF HOTEL EXTERIOR VARIOUS OF SEIZED VEHICLES THE KIDNAPPED MEN HAD TRAVELLED IN EXTERIOR OF SEARCHED HOUSE SOLDIERS DRIVING BY IN VEHICLES SOLDIERS GETTING INTO VEHICLES ACAPULCO, GUERRERO, MEXICO (OCTOBER 05, 2010) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) GUERRERO GOVERNOR ZEFERINO TORREBLANCA, SAYING: "We are going to carry out all the investigations and we won't jump to conclusions until we don't complete them (investigations). We can't assume it's about an event in particular and we are collaborating with the government of Michoacan closely. Yes, the attorney general's office has intervened. That's all the information I have been given by state prosecutors and not only the attorney general's office but also the federal forces though the federal police." ACAPULCO, GUERRERO, MEXICO (OCTOBER 05, 2010) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEWS OF TRAFFIC IN RESORT CITY
- Embargoed: 21st October 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Mexico
- Country: Mexico
- Reuters ID: LVAANBYONMSAP3KDNOT0IBATKQC3
- Story Text: The search for 20 Mexican tourists who were kidnapped last week in the Pacific Coast resort city of Acapulco continued on Tuesday (October 05).
Police received a report on Friday (October 01) that 20 mechanics on vacation from another part of western Mexico were kidnapped on Thursday (September 30) afternoon, according to the attorney general's office in Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located.
The victims were taken in an upscale area near the main tourist strip of hotels, shops and discos along the beach, according to the report filed by a man who said he was part of the group and had seen his friends abducted.
He provided police with a list of names and a description of the cars in which the group arrived, but has since disappeared.
The men who were staying at this hotel were from the city of Morelia in the western state of Michoacan, another flash point in Mexico's drug war and home to a drug gang that has been fighting to gain control of the region around Acapulco.
On Tuesday, soldiers were seen going in and out from the hotel where the men were kidnapped from.
These are the vehicles they travelled in. They have now been seized by security forces.
Guerrero Governor Zeferino Torreblanca, said investigations were ongoing but authorities would not jump to any conclusions.
"We are going to carry out all the investigations and we won't jump to conclusions until we don't complete them (investigations). We can't assume it's about an event in particular (drugs) and we are collaborating with the government of Michoacan closely. Yes, the attorney general's office has intervened. That's all the information I have been given by state prosecutors and not only the attorney general's office but also the federal forces though the federal police."
The south Pacific cartel and the Familia Michoacana are battling for control in the Pacific tourist city.
Mexico's tourism industry is a major source of foreign exchange and there are fears that rising drug violence could further damage the sector, following drop-offs after the H1N1 flu outbreak last year and the global economic downturn.
More than 29,000 people have died in drug violence across Mexico since President Felipe Calderon launched his army-led attack on drug cartels when he took office in late 2006.
Yet the government says tourism has been recovering this year, with numbers of foreign tourists arriving by plane during the first eight months of the year up 6 percent from the same period of 2008, before recession and the flu outbreak. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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