Mexico hunts gunmen who raped 6 Spanish tourists in Acapulco

[NBCNews]

By Bertha Ramos and Mark Stevenson, The Associated PressPublished at 10:00 p.m. ET -- The tourism world turned its eyes on Mexico after six Spanish women were  raped by masked gunmen during a vacation in the long-troubled Pacific  coast resort of Acapulco.

While there has been talk of reviving  the golden era of the '40s and '50s, international tourists have long  steered away from Acapulco, even before the drug violence of recent  years, as the city fell into disrepair and glitzier Cancun and Los Cabos  gained favor.

The question now is whether the attack will  affect other resorts as Mexico prepares for its annual spring break  onslaught and peak season.

The hours-long assault was carried  out by a gang of masked gunmen who burst into the beachfront home before  dawn on Monday and tied up the six men inside, then raped the women. A  seventh Mexican woman was unharmed.

"We are really sorry about  what happened with the Spanish tourists because ... it is something that  affects Mexico's image," said Juan Carlos Gonzalez, tourism secretary  of Quintana Roo, the Caribbean coast state where Cancun is located and  which hosted about 17 million tourists last year.

But, he added, "we are definitely not as contaminated with the crime issue as other states in Mexico."

Acapulco  barely registers on U.S. tourists' radar anymore, said Kathy Gerhardt, a  spokeswoman for Travel Leaders, a network of independently owned and  operated travel agencies in the U.S.

"Those individuals trying  to lump Acapulco into the list of top Mexico destinations for U.S.  travelers are simply misinformed," she said.

In a recent survey  of over 1,000 travel agency owners, managers and agents, "not a single  individual chose Acapulco as a top international destination they are  booking for their clients," Gerhardt said.


"We do not see any  spillover effect," she added, for areas like Cancun, which Travel  Leaders lists as the No. 2 foreign destination for U.S. travelers, after  Caribbean island cruises.

 

Follow @NBCNewsWorldFrom a 2009 shootout that killed 18  near Acapulco's fabled Flamingo Hotel to this week's attack, the resort  once celebrated in Frank Sinatra songs and Elvis Presley movies has been  the scene of body dumpings, beheadings and taxi-driver killings as  gangs vie for drug transport routes once controlled by the now-decimated  Beltran Leyva cartel.

Oceania and Regent Seven Seas Cruises —  some of the last lines making port calls in Acapulco — canceled those in  December, before the latest attack.

An estimated 50,000  Spaniards travel to Mexico each year, but mostly to the Caribbean coast,  not Acapulco. Mexicans and Spaniards living in Mexico like the victims,  however, flock to Acapulco during Easter week and other long holiday  weekends, such as Monday, when the country celebrated its Constitution  Day.

Local tourists believe they can distinguish unsafe areas of  the city, and even foreign travel warnings say it's safe for those who  don't wander far from the beach.

"For us, this is an incredibly  safe zone," said Rafael Gallego Nadal, president of the Spanish  Confederation of Travel Agencies. "This was a terrible attack, but it's  not the first time that something bad has happened in that part of  Mexico."

He said there has been no talk of travel agencies reducing package tour prices.

Some  press reports Wednesday suggested a drug purchase could have played a  role in Monday's rapes, but Marcos Juarez, the chief investigator for  Guerrero state prosecutors, said there was no evidence of that.

Still,  the attack exposed a dangerous security situation in areas that had  been considered safe, such as the laid-back stretch of beach dotted with  restaurants, small hotels and homes southeast of the city's center,  where the Spaniards had rented a villa.

The five attackers held  the group at gunpoint, tying up the six men with phone cords and bathing  suit straps, then raping the six women over a three-hour period,  authorities said.

The manager of a hotel near the house said he  heard shouting just after midnight Monday, but did nothing because he  felt it would be too dangerous. The man did not want to give his name  for safety reasons.

It was unclear whether the victims had been targeted because of their nationality.

Guerrero  state Attorney General Martha Garzon told local media that the  attackers' motive was robbery and that they drank mescal they found at  the house. The Mexican woman, who is married to one of the Spaniards,  "was saved by the fact that she is Mexican," Garzon said.

"She  says she identified herself to the (attackers) and asked not to be  raped, and they told her that she had passed the test by being Mexican  and they didn't touch her," Garzon told Radio Formula.

While  some Mexicans harbor resentment against Spaniards dating to colonial  times, the victims may have been targeted for other reasons, such as  appearance or possessions.

Mayor Luis Walton rushed to apologize  Wednesday for his comment the day before that "this happens everywhere  in the world, not just in Acapulco or in Mexico."

"Of course,  this worries us and we don't want anything like this to happen in  Acapulco or anywhere else in the world," he said. "We know this is going  to affect our tourism."

Billionaire business magnate Carlos  Slim, ranked by Forbes magazine as the world's richest man, proposed a  plan last year to rescue Acapulco by building parks and recreational  centers there.

Still, it would be a long way from the city's  heyday, when Elizabeth Taylor was married in Acapulco, John F. and  Jackie Kennedy spent their honeymoon there and Howard Hughes hid out in a  suite at the Princess Hotel, a pyramid-shaped icon in the exclusive  Punta Diamante, or Diamond Point.

Gallego said it's important  for authorities to make arrests soon to prove that those responsible  will be punished. State prosecutor Garzon said authorities have strong  evidence leading to the culprits.

Given the sheer volume of  visitors to such popular destinations as the Caribbean Riviera Maya  south of Cancun, Gonzalez said, "we certainly could have some  cancellations. But given the number of Spanish tourists, it would not be  significant."

As if to illustrate the continuous danger in  Guerrero, state authorities announced Wednesday that armed men ambushed  and killed nine police officers a day earlier. The attack was in the  town of Tepoxtepect, near the border with Michoacan state, an area known  for drug trafficking.

Related:

Masked men burst into vacation home, rape six Spanish tourists in Acapulco, Mexican officials say