Five dead in attack on grocery store in Acapulco, just days after 10 more bodies found in Mexican resort town

Five people were killed and another injured in an armed attack in Acapulco, Mexico, on Thursday, a prosecutor said, just three days after 10 more bodies were found in the resort town plagued by cartel violence.

The latest attack occurred in a grocery store at a handicraft market near the main tourist street of the famous Pacific coast city.

The public prosecutor’s office in the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, said in a statement that it was investigating the attack that left four men and a woman dead and another person injured.

On Tuesday, authorities said 10 bodies had been found scattered around the once-glamorous resort town that has been rocked by violence linked to organized crime.

According to the local public security bureau, six of the bodies were left on an avenue near a market on Monday evening.

Media in the city reported that the bodies were thrown from a car.

Three more people were killed in a shooting in the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood, and another person was shot in the tourist part of the city.

Recent violence in Acapulco

Acapulco was once a playground for the rich and famous, but over the past decade it has lost its shine as foreign tourists have been frightened away by the bloodshed that has turned it into one of the most violent cities in the world.

Last month, the head of the traffic police of Acapulco shot when attackers opened fire on him in a street relatively far from the resort’s beaches.

In February, the strangled bodies of two men were found on the popular Condesa beach in Acapulco. The prosecutor’s office said the men’s bodies showed signs of “torture by strangulation” and “torture marks on the neck.”

At about the same time, at least three people were shot dead on the beaches of Acapulco, one of them by gunmen who arrived – and escaped – on board a boat.

The city is also still struggling to recover after hit by Category 5 Hurricane Otis in October. Otis left at least 52 dead and most hotels destroyed or damaged.

The state of Guerrero is one of the worst affected by drug trafficking in Mexico, with disputes between cartels leading to 1,890 murders in the state in 2023. Guerrero is one of six Mexican states that the U.S. State Department advises Americans to avoid entirely due to crime and violence.

Since the government of then-President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against the drug cartels in 2006, more than 450,000 people have been murdered in the country due to escalating criminal violence.

Criminal gangs are not only involved in drug trafficking, but also in other illegal activities such as human smuggling, extortion and fuel theft.

Mexico was also recently affected by a Wave of political violence ahead of the June 2 elections. More than two dozen politicians have been killed since September last year, according to the NGO Data Civica – including a mayoral candidate who shot last month just as she began her election campaign.