Thread: American tourist victim of home invasion in Mexico

Home invasion on Rocky Point tourists prompts new U.S. warning





Home invasion on Rocky Point tourists prompts new U.S. safety warning

Arizona Daily Star/File 2010

A few of the giant high rise condos in Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico, are shown in this 2010 file photo.

A new warning for American tourists is expected later today after a series of attacks.

2012-07-31T12:31:00Z2012-07-31T14:15:38Z
Home invasion on Rocky Point tourists prompts new U.S. warning
By Tim Steller Arizona Daily StarArizona Daily Star
8 hours ago • By Tim Steller Arizona Daily Star

A shocking home invasion targeting a group of American tourists in Puerto Peñasco preceded the July 19 shootout there, prompting the U.S. consulate to issue a new advisory to travelers.

On July 17 in the early-morning hours five armed men entered a home in Las Conchas, a beachfront neighborhood populated largely by Americans, said the president of the area’s homeowners association in an email to property owners.

“They restrained the individuals who were renting the house,” wrote president Ginger Beauchamp. “These men stole electronics, bedding, jewelry and an unidentified amount of cash.”

This attack was the most brazen of four that occurred in the last four months, said Chad Cummins, the U.S. Consul General in Nogales, Sonora. The other assaults were on Americans who live in Rocky Point, as the beachside town is known.

One of the victims was attacked in his home and seriously injured, Cummins said.

The consulate plans to issue a new “warden message” this afternoon noting these violent incidents and advising tourists to take heed of the travel warning issued in February. That warning said tourists should travel in the daytime and only use the road from Lukeville to get to Rocky Point, not travel other connecting roads in Mexico.

While violence in Mexico has been commonplace for the last six years, Puerto Peñasco had largely escaped serious incidents, and attacks on foreigners were minimal.

The home invasion in Las Conchas was unprecedented as far as Beauchamp knows.

Read more in tomorrow's Star

Home invasion on Rocky Point tourists prompts new U.S. warning

ADDED TO ALIPAC HOMEPAGE News with amended title ..

http://www.alipac.us/content.php?r=7...sion-in-Mexico

US urges 'caution' on Rocky Point travel after Americans targeted

Series of attacks on Americans brings new consulate warning

2012-08-01T00:00:00Z2012-08-01T10:16:19Z
Tim Steller Arizona Daily StarArizona Daily Star
12 hours ago • Tim Steller Arizona Daily Star

The July 19 shootout in Puerto Peñasco made headlines because of its death toll, but it was just the culmination of a series of attacks in the beach town, including a July 17 home invasion targeting U.S. tourists.

The U.S. Consulate in Nogales, Sonora, issued a new warning Tuesday to Americans conducting business in or visiting Rocky Point, as the city is known, to "use caution."

U.S. Consul General Chad Cummins revealed Tuesday that there have been four assaults, home invasions or robberies on Americans living in or visiting the town in about the last four months. The news contradicts the long-held belief about crime there - that while drug traffickers exist in Rocky Point, the town is safe for foreign tourists.

The worst incident involving Americans occurred July 17, just two days before a broad-daylight shootout in which five suspected members of criminal groups and a policeman were killed.

In the early-morning hours that Tuesday, five armed men entered a home in Las Conchas, a beachfront neighborhood populated largely by Americans, the president of the area's homeowners association said in an email to property owners.

"They restrained the individuals who were renting the house," wrote president Ginger Beauchamp. "These men stole electronics, bedding, jewelry and an unidentified amount of cash."

A woman in the home was sexually assaulted, the consulate said in a new "security message" issued Tuesday.

A home invasion in preceding months left an American resident of Puerto Peñasco seriously injured, Cummins said.

A spokeswoman for the Sonoran Attorney General's Office said Tuesday that they consider the July 17 home invasion and July 19 shootout unrelated.

The shootout apparently involved members of organized-crime groups, who shot at each other in a central area between 5 and 6 p.m. That led to a second shootout involving Sonoran state police, in which one officer and one gunman were killed.

One of the gunmen killed was José Ramón Sabori Cisneros. He had been a regionally important drug trafficker who for a time operated the Sasabe corridor for the Sinaloa Cartel, said Anthony Coulson, who headed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Tucson office until retiring in 2010.

While violence in Mexico has been commonplace for the last six years, Puerto Peñasco had largely escaped serious incidents, and attacks on foreigners were minimal. The home invasion in Las Conchas was unprecedented as far as Beauchamp knows.

Many Americans own property in that beach-side strip of homes, which stretches east from downtown Rocky Point. Many real-estate offices help vacation-property owners rent out their homes to tourists.

In February, the U.S. State Department reiterated an earlier warning about travel to Puerto Peñasco.

That warning recommended that Americans travel in the daytime using only the road from Lukeville to get to Rocky Point, and that they not travel on other connecting roads in Mexico.
On StarNet: Read Tim Steller's blog, Señor Reporter, at azstarnet.com/senorreporter

Reporter Joseph Treviño contributed. Contact reporter Tim Steller at tsteller@azstarnet.com or 807-8427.

US urges 'caution' on Rocky Point travel after Americans targeted