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Will drug violence crash spring break party in Cancun?

11:38 PM CST on Friday, March 6, 2009
By LAURENCE ILIFF / The Dallas Morning News
liliff@dallasnews.com

CANCÚN, Mexico – Students preparing for spring break at this beach resort have a spate of bad local news to factor into their plans: the brutal slaying of an army general, the jailing of the police chief for alleged complicity in the killing and a link to the feared Zetas drug gang based along the Mexico-Texas border.

The head of the city jail was also jailed late last month, and a dozen city police are being investigated after the discovery of a Zeta "cell" turned up a list of authorities alleged to be on the take.

Late Friday, the federal attorney general's office said that federal police and army soldiers had detained an adviser to the city government for questioning, alleging that Boris del Valle Alonso is linked to the the Zetas.

These events suggest that Cancún, the No. 1 tourist destination for Texans, is starting to see the kind of drug-related crime and corruption that has long plagued places like Ciudad Juarez, on the border with Texas.

Mexican officials assert that the 18-mile island with its hundreds of hotels, restaurants and bars is immune from the narco violence popping up in the adjoining downtown and the larger metropolitan area on the mainland known as Benito Juárez.

But some spring breakers already here, many from the U.S. Northeast, are taking extra precautions.

"We have not left the resort, and we arranged transportation ahead of time," said Adrienne Smith, 21, of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. She and her friends have no plans to visit "the other Cancún" beyond the hotel strip.

"Even before we came here, tons and tons of people told us how dangerous it is, like muggings," she said.

And some analysts say that the relative security in the "hotel zone" could disappear quickly should a drug turf war break out in a region long know for drug trafficking and immigrant smuggling.

Ed Coleman, 23, came from the Rochester Institute of Technology prepared. He arranged cellphone service in Mexico and saved the phone numbers of the U.S. Consulate and Embassy.

"So far, we have not seen much of anything" in terms of trouble, he said.

But as the bulk of "los espring breakers," as the Mexican media call them, start to arrive this weekend, analysts say that there is a latent fear that Cancún could go the direction of once-popular party spots for Americans like Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana and even Acapulco, which has had drug hits along its hotel strip.

Arturo Yañez, a commentator on the drug trade, said Cancún "is on the verge of becoming the Ciudad Juárez of the southeast because it is one of the principal entrances for drugs from Central America."

Both Juárez and Cancún have had a rapid influx of outsiders and a history of police corruption.


'Under control'

For now, because of its importance to tourism, the resort appears to be "under control," Yañez said, "but someone who wants to assert himself there," such as a newly arrived rival drug group, "could change all of that."

Mayor Gregorio Sánchez MartÃ*nez, whose nephew was killed in February when drug traffickers abducted and killed retired army Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello, said the high-level killing was "an isolated incident." He said it was a direct reaction to a crackdown against trafficking groups, which Sánchez said would continue with greater vigor. The city had hired Tello to set up an elite police force to fight drug trafficking.

"This blood had to flow, perhaps, so that there could be a real housecleaning, and these criminal groups have been dismantled," said Sánchez, who took office 11 months ago.

He acknowledged that there may be other "cells" of drug traffickers but insisted that despite the arrest of his police chief, his police force is among the top three in the country.


Boost in tourism

The mayor and retailers said tourism is up in Cancún from last year because of the strength of the dollar against the Mexican peso. A dollar now buys 15 pesos, compared with just 10 in early August, making hotel rooms, meals and taxi rides cheaper for Americans.

One reason the Cancún hotel zone is remarkably safe, Sánchez added, is because it is essentially a long island with just two entry and exit points.

"It would be very difficult to commit any kind of crime in the hotel zone," Sánchez said, "because a criminal could only escape by air or sea."

Alejandro Betancourt Pérez, head of the island's separate Tourist Police, said that crime against tourists has decreased over the last year and that the Tourist Police force was tripled to 100 officers, most of them bilingual.

He does admit with some embarrassment that two of his former officers are accused of raping an American tourist.

But overall complaints against his police for demanding bribes or physical mistreatment have fallen from 50 a month to a tiny fraction of that. In January, he said, there were no complaints, and in February two.

"My job is to make sure these young people have a good time," said Betancourt, a former prosecutor. "The only thing that we are doing is taking care of them."

For example, the famous "alley of miracles" in the hotel zone, where drugs were openly sold for many years, is now monitored by cameras.

Residents familiar with drug distribution say cocaine, amphetamines and marijuana are available, but the cost is often high and the quality low. Outside popular spring break clubs, young men offer to sell drugs or arrange prostitutes, but they are more discrete than in the past.

Far more dangerous than the narcos for spring breakers, officials said, are the university kids themselves. Fights fueled by alcohol and rapes continue to be problems, along with car or motorcycle accidents.

"No one has ever killed a spring breaker," said Betancourt. "Accidents, yes."

................. BE CAREFUL
The U.S. State Department urges vacationing students to be cautious in Mexico:

Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to serious problems with Mexican authorities and is involved in most arrests, accidents and crimes.

Warning flags on beaches should be taken seriously. Strong undertow and rough surf are common.

Exercise caution when renting vehicles, including jet skis and mopeds. Many are in poor condition and underinsured.

Cancún is a large city with increasing crime. Crimes often involve alcohol and the nightclub environment.


For the State Department alert, go to www.travel.state.gov, then click on Mexico in the Travel Alert section on the left side of the page.