Añorve: In Acapulco, There’s no Curfew

(Acapulco, ElSur 25 August) Over last weekend rumors spread widely of a 10:00 pm curfew in Acapulco, not an official one, but rather a “recommendation” from the organized crime gangs that anyone who does not want to get hurt, kidnapped or killed should be off the streets by 10 at night. Acapulco mayor Manuel Añorve Baños took pains to deny that there was any curfew. The populace should always take precautions, he said, but it would be wrong to let these rumors intimidate honest people. The mayor held a long meeting this week with those who manage the gas stations in town because of their announced closings for three hours in the afternoon to protest the lack of security. State public safety director Ramón Almonte Borja was also present at the meeting. The two also met with the Association of Private Schools, which had similarly expressed doubts about allowing schools to continue to function in the face of kidnappings and other crimes against youth. The mayor reiterated that business people, commercial operators and investors will have all the facilities and fiscal incentives available so that they can keep their businesses open and running. In response to a reporter’s question, the mayor was explicit about a curfew: “There is no curfew and I ask you not to endorse this psychosis of an inexistent curfew, which all of you [reporters] know perfectly well does not exist.” The mayor added, “If each person takes a personal decision [to stay at home at night], that is very respectable, but there is no curfew and it would be irresponsible to fall into the [narcos’] game of having a curfew, because the only thing it does is generate a psychosis that is not at all in the interests of Acapulco.” The mayor was attending the formal commencement of a school breakfast program, initiated by the Department of Family Services (DIF), which is headed by his wife, Julieta Fernández.