Posted by DD material from Small Wars Journal and the Daily Mail
Thanks to a heads-up from Dr. Robert Bunker from Small Wars Journal for this story.
Material from Daily mail is from a story by Alasdair Baverstock In Acapulco For Mailonline
As holidaymakers sunned themselves on the golden sand of Acapulco beach, a man carrying a 9mm pistol swam up to the shore, shot a beachwear seller three times in the chest, and calmly made his way back to the jet ski where his accomplice was waiting and disappeared around the rocky headland to the west towards either Playa Tlacopanocha or Playa Manzanillo.
The new, 'James Bond-style' assassination is the new face of crime on Mexico's Pacific Coast, where cartel killers are murdering gang rivals in tourist areas - and escape from the beach on high powered jet skis to get away from police.
The latest such execution in broad daylight is the fourth to hit Acapulco this year. Acapulco is in the midst of its worst crime wave for a decade where there were 1,600 murders last year and already 684 in 2016 - or 12 a day.
The latest such execution in broad daylight is the fourth to hit Acapulco this year. Acapulco is in the midst of its worst crime wave for a decade where there were 1,600 murders last year and already 684 in 2016 - or 12 a day.
Beachwear vendor Eduardo García, 46, bled out on the beach as the crowd and his family waited on the police to arrive on the scene.The Mexican police did not arrive for 70 minutes after the incident even though the police station was relatively close to crime scene. His family arrived at the scene before the police even though their home is 10 times farther from the murder scene than is the police station. Eduardo died in the arms of his family while they waited for help.
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| Lost: Mr Garcia (pictured, surrounded by paramedics and holidaymakers), described as a 'good, family man' by those who knew him, |
There's very rarely an open and close murder case in Acapulco, but this new technique of escaping by sea has the police stumped. 70 minutes after the murder, a police boat traced the criminals' escape route for any trace of the killers, but all in vain. .(DD; kind of hard to trace a trail through water) The killers who left the salesman for dead on the beach in front of hundreds of onlookers have still not been caught, the case buried under the unceasing daily onslaught of crime.
Analysis From Small Wars Journal; Information related to the motivation behind this targeted killing of a beach front clothing salesmen in the tourist district of the Acapulco beach front is fragmentary at best. It is apparently the fourth incident involving sicario use of jet skis for a targeted killing in Acapulco [1] and suggests that it may be related to ongoing patterns of street taxation (e.g. extortion) by local gangs and organized criminal groups against street vendors and local businesses. The brazenness of the killing is likely meant to send a message to the other individuals and groups being extorted to either pay their monthly 15% tax to the local criminals or face the consequences. Contextually, it should be noted that the jet ski related killings have taken place during a long period of rampant crime and a high level of homicides gripping Acapulco; averaging out to 12 per day or about 650 so far this year.
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| Vendors of beach appearal like Margarito Melio, 60, who worked alongside Garcia, have to hand over 15 per cent of their earnings to gangsters for 'protection money'. If you don't pay they kill you (for $1.20US) |
'There are a thousand reasons you can get killed in Acapulco,' says Margarito Melio, 60, a beach salesman who worked alongside Eduardo and says he knows no reason why his friend would have become a target for the brutal local gangs.
'He was a good family man,' he told MailOnline. 'His wife and kids arrived to see their father die long before the police, and they live at ten times the distance. It was heartbreaking.'
'He was a good family man,' he told MailOnline. 'His wife and kids arrived to see their father die long before the police, and they live at ten times the distance. It was heartbreaking.'
'Perhaps Eduardo wasn't paying his dues, or perhaps he was selling drugs on the side, or maybe one of his brothers is a gangster and a rival cartel is making his family suffer,' he told MailOnline.
Acapulco's municipal police refused to comment on the case when approached by MailOnline.
'It was over so quickly, and I'm not just talking about the killing,' Jaime Mendez, who manages the beach furniture rentals where the crime took place, told MailOnline.
'Ten minutes after the body was taken away, things were back to normal. Murder has become a daily fact of life in Acapulco.'
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| The brutal murder of Mr García, pictured here being carried away on a stretcher, was in broad daylight in front of other beachgoers. However, 20 minutes after his body was removed, holidaymakers were back sunbathing as if nothing had happened |
Acapulco is in the midst of its worst crime wave for a decade. A large spate of murders in mid-February was blamed on Pope Francis' five-day visit to Mexico, when the majority of the military and federal police forces that normally guard the city, were removed to ensure the pontiff's safety.
After nearly a month Eduardo's jet-ski killers remain on the loose, his family forgotten who held their dead father in their arms forgotten, and the brutal daily average of four homicides has rumbled on unabated.
