Behind the azure waters and crowded discos, a drug war is raging, one rarely glimpsed by the majority of the 13 million annual visitors to the Cancún area
Cancún and the 81-mile stretch south of the resort to Tulum, known as the Riviera Maya, draw 13 million visitors a year to their lush beaches and all-inclusive luxury resorts.The area accounts for nearly half of Mexico’s tourism revenue. It also has seen an alarming rise in murders, mostly fueled by demand for drugs from the vacationers.Drug-related violence has caused the homicide rate across Mexico to jump to record levels in recent years.
Organized crime has diversified into extortion. Gangs demand payments from many businesses in the area. Those who don’t pay risk getting killed or their locales burned down.“Everyone, and I mean everyone, is paying extortion money. From some of the big hotels to the guy at the corner taco stand.”Cesar Rodriguez/Bloomberg News
Tourists are rarely caught in the crossfire. State officials say the chances of being killed on a trip to the area are roughly one in five million. The violence, however, is increasingly intruding into the bubble of five-star hotels.In mid-March, tourists on the beach in Cancún’s hotel zone found what turned out to be human remains: a spine, a femur and part of a pelvis. Police say the remains could be linked to organized crime.
Earlier that month, two Canadians were shot dead in an alleged murder for hire at the Xcaret Hotel, a luxury resort connected to a popular set of parks.The shootings have shaken Mexico’s tourism industry, which overall accounts for 7% of Mexico’s economy.We have to be careful what kind of tourism we ask for. The kind of tourism we fostered creates drug demand, and where there is demand there will be supply. But the drug dealers don’t leave when the party’s over and the tourists go home.
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