Mexico troops in Acapulco region to quell violence
11 Jan 2007 00:51:16 GMT Source: Reuters
By J Guadalupe Perez ACAPULCO, Mexico, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Mexico deployed thousands of soldiers to military bases near Acapulco on Wednesday to crack down on drug gangs responsible for violence plaguing the famed tourist spot. A column of Humvees, armored vehicles and army trucks brought about 2,000 troops to Guerrero state, a major marijuana and opium poppy growing region whose resort city has been engulfed by a drug-gang turf war. President Felipe Calderon, who took office in December, has dispatched thousands of troops to the border city of Tijuana and to his home state of Michoacan, both swamped by waves of killings as rival drug cartels fight for control of trafficking routes. A federal government spokeswoman said the troops in Guerrero were involved in routine anti-drug operations, and a spokesman for the state government said they would initially be sent to mountainous zones behind Acapulco. They did not say whether the operation could result in troops on the streets of Acapulco. A favorite with U.S. "spring break" tourists, it was hit last year by grenade-tossing gangs who killed in broad daylight and left a severed head outside a police station. Hundreds of tonnes of cocaine, marijuana and amphetamines move through Mexico every year to supply U.S. consumers, and two major groups, the Gulf Cartel and a Sinaloa gang headed by trafficker Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, are battling for the multimillion-dollar trade. Acapulco, made popular in the 1950s by Hollywood stars like Elizabeth Taylor, is now an important staging post for smugglers. To cap off a violent year, masked gunmen burst into a wedding in a small town in Guerrero on New Year's Eve and killed seven guests. Calderon, who has made fighting drug gangs a priority since coming to power, last month sent 7,000 soldiers and federal police to the western state of Michoacan, which saw about 500 gangland-style killings last year. Some 3,300 soldiers, sailors and federal police were sent to Tijuana, a favorite weekend party town for U.S. students that is struggling with a massive spate of drug-related murders. Killings have continued in Tijuana even though soldiers disarmed police there suspected of links to the drug gangs.
