{"id":15914,"date":"2016-06-03T02:30:37","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T07:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=15914"},"modified":"2016-06-03T02:30:37","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T07:30:37","slug":"cartel-corner-acapulco-turned-into-gurreros-iraq-by-drug-cartels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/03\/cartel-corner-acapulco-turned-into-gurreros-iraq-by-drug-cartels\/","title":{"rendered":"Cartel Corner #83: Acapulco Turned Into &#8220;Gurrero&#8217;s Iraq&#8221; By Drug Cartels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-15915\" src=\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/acapulco.jpg?w=620\" alt=\"Acapulco\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The idyllic Pacific coast town of Acapulco in Mexico\u2019s Guerrero state once welcomed Hollywood stars and honeymooners, but the city has suffered a wave of bloody violence in recent years, as cartels and criminal groups battle for control.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2012, Acapulco, which has been called \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.proceso.com.mx\/439983\/acapulco-irak-guerrerense\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Guerrero&#8217;s Iraq<\/a>,\u201d has been the most violent city in Mexico, and among the most violent cities in the world, with homicide rates above 100 per 100,000 people each year.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, Acapulco, home to about 800,000 people, saw <a href=\"http:\/\/www.proceso.com.mx\/439983\/acapulco-irak-guerrerense\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1,170 killings<\/a>. In the first three months of this year, there were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/gunmen-acapulco-attack-police-headquarters-hotel-160023075.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">205 homicides<\/a> \u2014 in March alone, the<a href=\"http:\/\/suracapulco.mx\/principal\/en-el-primer-trimestre-del-ano-hubo-527-ejecutados-51-mas-que-en-2015\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">city had 98<\/a> of Guerrero\u2019s 182 homicides.<\/p>\n<p>These numbers are down from violent peaks reached in 2012 \u2014 the city had about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/gunmen-acapulco-attack-police-headquarters-hotel-160023075.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">100 homicides a month<\/a> that year \u2014 but the intensity of the bloodshed stands out, and appears to be closely linked to the fragmentation of Mexico\u2019s criminal organizations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cViolence in the southwest coastal area is the result of the some of the shifting cartel dynamics that we&#8217;ve seen among the major players &#8230; dating back four or five years \u2026 when we saw the takedown of the major figures of the Beltran Leyva Organization,\u201d David Shirk, professor at the University of Sand Diego, told Business Insider.<\/p>\n<p>The Beltran Leyva Organization, or BLO, partnered with \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s Sinaloa cartel and controlled parts of central and southwestern Mexico. In the late 2000s, the BLO started fighting with the Sinaloa cartel and faced increased pressure from the Mexican government.<\/p>\n<p>Read the Remainder at <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/acapulco-growing-violence-as-cartels-battle-2016-6?nr_email_referer=1&amp;utm_content=BISelect&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_campaign=BI%20Select%20%28Tuesday%20Thursday%29%202016-06-02&amp;utm_term=Business%20Insider%20Select\">Business Insider<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The idyllic Pacific coast town of Acapulco in Mexico\u2019s Guerrero state once welcomed Hollywood stars and honeymooners, but the city has suffered a wave of bloody violence in recent years, as cartels and criminal groups battle for control. Since 2012, Acapulco, which has been called \u201cGuerrero&#8217;s Iraq,\u201d has been the most violent city in Mexico,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5150,2351,13,74,3688,2620,3986,2352],"tags":[12030,1760,2406,3367,2629,12031],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}