Posted on 06/27/2006 3:50:32 PM PDT by txdoda
MEXICO CITY, June 27 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed a senior police officer in the Mexican resort of Cancun on Monday night, blowing his head open in the latest grisly assassination to hit the country.
Police officials in Cancun said local police chief of staff Wilfrido Flores, 56, and his bodyguard were shot dead in their car in a busy avenue in the Caribbean resort, one of Mexico's biggest tourist pulls, just before midnight.
However they played down links to a spate of similar killings in cities like Acapulco and Tijuana in a brutal war among drugs cartels and security forces.
"They were fired at half an hour after leaving the office. We don't know how many or who they were. (Flores) had 15 bullet wounds, mainly in his head and neck. A lot of his face was destroyed," said police spokesman Oscar Meza.
"It surprised us. We can't see a motive. He works in an office planning public security. He's not on operations and has nothing to do with investigating drug cartels," he said.
Last weekend alone, kidnappers killed four policemen in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero -- gagging and shooting three and beheading another -- and seven civilian murders were reported.
Last week, police in Tijuana said they had found the severed heads of three police officers and a fourth man.
Drug violence and attacks on police have risen in the run-up to the July 2 election, which has leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and conservative Felipe Calderon in a close race for the presidency.
"Of course, they are not creating any problem for the election," President Vicente Fox's spokesman Ruben Aguilar said.
The violence flared up after Fox launched a war on drug cartels early last year.
Police killings are rarer in Cancun, although the resort has seen a handful of gory civilian murders in recent months. Flores was a former army colonel.
NEVER go to Acapulco!!! It was SCARY!! Cancun used to be fairly safe....does'nt sound like it anymore.
Mexico is such a neat place.
Hardly any beggars and the landscape is completely free of litter and dumped garbage.
The tapwater is so delicious.
And it's a non-violent society. That's why they paid for the Railroad Killers final appeal here in Texas.
Hey, that sucker has about 6 more minutes to live. Cool.
Dixie Mafia?
this stuff has been going on in Cancun for a while, but doesn't get any press
IIRC they found 7 bodies in one day this week in Acapulco...
Mental note: Visit Phoenix or Hawaii this year..avoid the cesspool...
We were there about 7-8 years ago and it was scary!!
GOOD !!
I don't want to hear the hard-working spin any more .. the hard workers are (as best as I can determine) .. honestly trying to;
a) make money and support their back-in-Mexico families and/or
b) trying to do the right thing and be here legally.
..and I think THEY are a minority of the ones that come in.
I have CRS so I don't have stats and numbers ... but I recall a high percentage of illegals fill the jails and prisons of our southwest.
Frankly, if I were a Mexican teenager I'd try to get out of that country and into the US, unless I had been fortunate enough to be born into the wealthy and privileged Mexican families.
Hell, even if you're a criminal, are you going to make a better living robbing in America or in Mexico?
That sewer has seen the last of me.
Did he stay at an "all-inclusive?"
Hawaii--very good, or so I hear.
We went for half a day to buy cheap sterling silver jewelry.
You couldn't pay me to go back there now.
Cancun was the big place to go in the late 80s for spring break. I haven't heard much about it the past decade or so...perhaps it's the assignations that turn tourists away.
Monday night
Just before midnight
1/2 hour after leaving office.
Pretty fishy !
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