Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Don’t write about violence for sake of tourism, Acapulco mayor tells reporters

The mayor of Acapulco suggested Friday that the media shouldn’t report on violence in the resort city because doing so damages the tourism industry.

Abelina López Rodríguez told reporters that the media is responsible for causing alarm about violence in Acapulco, described by The Washington Post in 2017 as Mexico’s murder capital.

“If we don’t take care” of the tourism industry, “I don’t know how we’re going to eat,” said the Morena party mayor, who took office at the start of last month.

“Why is Cancún keeping quiet? Because we all understand we have to eat something,” López said.

Her remarks came after a string of violent incidents in Acapulco last week. A photojournalist was kidnapped and shot (he died in hospital on Sunday), two public transit drivers were murdered and a large group of armed men set Acapulco’s main wholesale market on fire after dousing it with gasoline. Authorities said that 20 market stalls were damaged but there was no loss of life.

Just before López was sworn in on October 1, the city’s iconic Baby’O nightclub was destroyed by fire, triggering speculation that a crime group was sending a message to the new mayor.

The mayor said Friday that all cities face difficulties from time to time and that they all take care to protect their main sources of revenue. “… It’s time to love Acapulco,” she said.

Earlier last week, President López Obrador announced a new support plan for Guerrero, the state in which Acapulco is located. Part of the plan entails deploying an additional 700 soldiers and National Guard troops across the municipalities of Chilpancingo, Acapulco and Iguala.

Federal homicide statistics show that Acapulco, Guerrero’s largest city and top tourism drawcard, was Mexico’s fifth most violent municipality in the first five months of 2021. There were just under 30 homicides in the city in October, the newspaper El Sol de Acapulco reported.

With reports from Proceso and Infobae 

Have something to say? Paid Subscribers get all access to make & read comments.
people releasing fish in shallow water

Environment Ministry releases 40,000 baby totoaba into the Gulf of California

0
The Environment Ministry, working with the private sector and civil society, has been conducting a repopulation project that included the recent release of 40,000 hatchlings.
crematorium in Ciudad Juárez

2 arrests made after 383 bodies found piled up at Ciudad Juárez crematorium

0
The crematorium, which had the permits to operate, was housing corpses for as long as five years and reportedly gave relatives of the deceased "other material" in place of ashes.
a person registering their fingerprints

Senate grants Security Ministry broad data access powers, sparking ‘police state’ fears

5
The federal government argues that the National Investigation and Intelligence System Law, popularly referred to as the "Spy Law," is required to bolster the state's capacity to combat organized crime.