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Tourists in Mexico flee four-hour battle that includes grenades
By Natalia Parra
Associated Press
Published on Monday, Jun 08, 2009
ACAPULCO, MEXICO: It was a shootout straight from Hollywood in the former playground of its biggest stars: Masked and heavily armed Mexican soldiers battled outlaws holed up in a hillside mansion in a four-hour shootout that had tourists cowering in hotels nearby.
Roughly 3,000 shots flew, and 50 grenades exploded during the gunbattle late Saturday that killed 16 gunmen and two soldiers. Nine other people were wounded, including three bystanders.
More than a dozen Mexican tourists were evacuated from a neighboring hotel strip frozen in the 1950s, when Elizabeth Taylor held one of her weddings in Acapulco and John Wayne and Tarzan star Johnny Weissmuller threw lavish parties at Los Flamingos Hotel, less than 100 yards from where gunfire broke out.
Cindy Pelaquin and Michelle Johnson, both of Boston, were watching the famous Acapulco cliff divers less than a mile away.
They saw the military roadblocks but heard nothing. ''We were just lucky I suppose,'' said Johnson, a nurse.
One neighbor said it sounded like fireworks. But a Mexican tourist, whose group had just arrived from the Mexico City area, immediately recognized the sound of gunshots and dived under a hotel bed.
The battle erupted after soldiers received a tip that a group of armed men was gathered at a gated house in a seedy section of Acapulco where working-class homes bleed into 1950s mansions.
One hotel across the street from the shootout offers three-hour stays for 30 pesos, roughly $2.25.
Several gunmen tried to flee but crashed their car into a military Hummer that was blocking the gate.
At one point, more armed men with grenades arrived to reinforce the men in the house, but they died in the shooting, said an army colonel, who led the operation and spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Inside, soldiers found four men bound and shirtless who claimed they were Guerrero state police officers and were being held hostage.
They confiscated 47 guns, grenades and ammunition, as well as several cars, including a Mercedes Benz.
Military officials said they are still investigating who the gunmen are. But given the weapons stash, large home and late-model cars, it looked like the normal trappings for drug cartels. No drugs were found.
Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located, has long suffered from drug violence from cartels fighting for turf.
The Beltran Leyva cartel, in particular, has a strong presence in Acapulco.
ACAPULCO, MEXICO: It was a shootout straight from Hollywood in the former playground of its biggest stars: Masked and heavily armed Mexican soldiers battled outlaws holed up in a hillside mansion in a four-hour shootout that had tourists cowering in hotels nearby.
Get the full article here.
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