Body parts found in Acapulco as killings continue
Pastor Dale Morgan
Body parts found in Acapulco as killings continue*
Reuters
Sunday, February 4, 2007; 2:53 PM
ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) - A man's chopped up body was discovered in
the Mexican city of Acapulco dumped in plastic garbage bags, police said
on Sunday, in the latest grisly killing to mar the once glamorous
Pacific resort.
Acapulco, famed for its cliff divers and sweeping bay, has been hit by a
brutal war between rival drug gangs who have staged shootouts in broad
daylight near tourist areas. It was not clear if the latest slaying was
drug related.
"It's one body, of a male," a police official said by telephone, but
declined to give further details.
A Reuters photographer in Acapulco said the body parts were discovered
on a patch of wasteland on Saturday afternoon after a dog tore open the
black plastic bags.
There were 190 drug gang-related deaths in Mexico in January, only a
handful less than a year ago, despite an army crackdown on feuding
cartels ordered by new President Felipe Calderon.
The Acapulco killing came nine months after the decapitated heads of two
policemen were dumped on the wall of a government building in the city
in a warning to authorities from drug hitmen.
Mexican media quoted Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia on Sunday as
saying he would add 8,000 highly trained police to a new division
dedicated to fighting drug crime.
Faced with a surge in drug violence that saw more than 2,000 gangland
killings across Mexico last year, Calderon moved swiftly after taking
office on December 1 to send out troops to hunt down cartels.
Thousands of soldiers, working with federal and state police, are
manning road blocks in the states of Michoacan, Baja California, Nuevo
Leon and Guerrero, home to Acapulco.
Four major traffickers have been extradited to the United States to face
trial there.
Acapulco has lost much of its 1950s glamour but remains popular with
U.S. students during spring break. No tourists have been killed in the
Acapulco violence.