More Tragic Violence in Zapata

(Acapulco, El Sur 16 March) Yesterday ten more people lost their lives in Zapata, a violence-ridden working class community outside of Acapulco. Three of them were teenage boys, presumably involved with illicit activities. Three were a grandmother and two granddaughters, age 2 and 6, apparent victims of a revenge killing in drugland, and several were the all too commonplace drug gang executions, complete with “narco messages.”

The murders of the grandmother and little girls were carried out by armed gunmen in two shiny, late-model SUV’s, who sprayed the house with automatic weapons fire at 8:00 in the morning. One of them entered the house to do the killing. A young mother and a 20-day-old infant survived the shooting. Outside the house, police gathered up hundreds of shell casings. The crime took place in the Simón Bolívar community, in the higher regions of Emilio Zapata, out beyond where the toll road from Mexico comes into town.

In another area of Zapata, armed gunmen attacked three persons: a 37-year old father, his 15-year-old son and a 23 year-old friend. The attackers threw Molotov cocktails, burning the house and a car. They sprayed the area with bullets. No motive has yet been established for the crime.

In the same general area, between La Cima and Las Cruces, along the toll road from Mexico City, two men were found murdered in the back seat of a taxi. Later, two minors were also found executed in Zapata, together with another “narco-message” directed to taxi drivers and to the population of Zapata to “support” a series of persons connected to criminal gangs. One body was found near the entrance to the prison at Las Cruces and the other farther uphill in the Simón Bolívar neighborhood.