Mexico has announced the formation of a 1,500-member “tourist battalion” for the security of Cancun and Tulum, the Caribbean tourist pearls, by December 1, where deadly incidents have erupted in recent weeks with exchanges of fire between alleged small opposition groups. , with victims and tourists.
A total of 1,500 members of the National Guard, a type of military corps or gendarmerie formed in March 2019, will mobilize to “enhance the security” of seaside resorts, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told a news conference today. .
Two young foreign tourists, a German and an Indian, were killed during an exchange of fire on October 21 in Tulum, also off the Mexican coast of the Caribbean on the Yucatan Peninsula. Two more German citizens and a Dutch woman were injured.
Another shooting incident caused panic among American tourists in early November in Puerto Morelos near Cancun at a luxury hotel. Two alleged drug dealers were killed in a showdown between two rival gangs, authorities said.
The “tourist battalion” will take office on December 1st in the area also known as the Riviera Maya, said Defense Minister Luis Crescencio Santoval.
The 15th largest economy in the world, a country in the top ten in the world in terms of welcoming foreign visitors, thanks to its many tourist and cultural attractions, Mexico (covering an area of almost two million square kilometers) is also a place where crime rates are frighteningly high.
In 2020, despite the new coronavirus pandemic, more than 36,000 homicides were officially counted by the Mexican authorities, most of which were linked to the clearing of accounts of so-called cartels, drug-trafficking gangs.
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