Mexican State Sees Surge Of Violence With Dead Numbering 'In The Thousands'

A soldier stands guard in a tourist area of Acapulco, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Photograph: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images

A wave of violence has struck Mexico’s southern state of Guerrero, suggesting that the security situation has changed little since 43 teacher trainees were kidnapped and presumably killed in the region one year ago.
At least 50 schools were forced to close ahead of a holiday weekend in the resort city of Acapulco, where teachers said criminals threatened to attack classes if they were not given a part of their pay packets.

Earlier this month, armed individuals attacked spectators at a clandestine cockfighting event, killing 12, including two children. In a separate incident, more than 100 members of a community police force, who have organized in indigenous towns rife with violence, were involved in a shootout with criminals, leaving three dead, according to media reports. Villagers later detained 200 soldiers sent to seize the community police members’ guns.
The security situation in Guerrero has so alarmed the state’s Catholic bishops that they issued a letter urging “dialogue” with everyone – including criminals.
“It starts with dialogue and that means those involved in this,” said Father Mario Campos, a priest in the poor “La Montaña” region, who founded the first community police forces 20 years ago. “Many people are dead. It’s in the thousands. Something has to be done.”

According to the newspaper Reforma, at least 50 murders have been committed in Guerrero since the new state governor, Héctor Astudillo, took office on 27 October. He won the election in June, promising “peace and order”, and brought back the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to power after a 10-year absence.
“What I’ve found is not only a matter that has to do with violence, but ungovernability,” Astudillo said last week, pleading for patience. “With my arrival, not everything is going to stop. That’s what I’ve found.”

culled: The Guardian News