One person has been killed and six others were injured on Friday in shootings on a main boulevard in Mexico’s Caribbean coast resort of Cancun, authorities said. A suspect had been detained in relation to the attack, which did not take place in the resort’s hotel zone, according to prosecutors in the coastal state of Quintana Roo.
The shootings occurred on an avenue lined with restaurants and bars further inland. It is the latest instance of violence that has blotted Cancun’s reputation as a laid back holiday destination.
In March, tourists were sent scrambling by loud bangs heard at the international airport in Cancun. Flights were suspended for almost three hours after authorities received reports of gunshots at the airport. Videos posted on social media showed travellers rushing out of a terminal.
The National Guard said later there was no evidence of any gunshots having been fired, and said the bangs may have occurred after someone knocked over three free-standing vertical display stands in the terminal. Also in March, authorities found four bodies dumped in undergrowth in Cancun, and said they were part of a total of 13 murders committed by the Jalisco cartel in the resort since September.
Most of the bodies were found in vacant lots or houses. The Caribbean coast, Mexico’s top tourism money-maker, has been hit by rampant violence.
In January, prosecutors said the killing of two Canadians near Cancun was motivated by debts between international gangs apparently dedicated to drug and weapons trafficking. In late October, further south in Tulum, two tourists – one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German — were caught in the apparent crossfire of rival drug dealers and killed.
