Cancun, Q. Roo — Gunmen on jet skis shot at a beach vendor at the Riu Palace Thursday, an unprecedented encroachment of violence into the hotel zone.
Nobody was wounded, the Associated Press reported.
The roving vendor ran for safety inside a restaurant. Tourist police cordoned off the area and recovered four bullets.
While 130 murders have been reported so far this year, Cancun’s tourist areas has largely been spared the worst of the cartel violence afflicting places like Acapulco on the Pacific Coast. Jet skis were used in a fatal shooting there in 2016.
That same day, three people were slain outside a bar located outside the hotel zone.
Earlier in the week, a man was killed on Acapulco’s Caletilla beach in a shooting that authorities attributed to a dispute over local drug sales.
For U.S. citizens, the State Department advises caution in Quintana Roo, which also includes tourist hot spots such as Playa del Carmen and the Riviera Maya.
“Violent crime, such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery, is widespread,” reads the current advisory, posted in March.
“According to Government of Mexico statistics, the state experienced an increase in homicide rates compared to the same period in 2016. While most of these homicides appeared to be targeted, criminal organization assassinations, turf battles between criminal groups have resulted in violent crime in areas frequented by U.S. citizens. Shooting incidents injuring or killing bystanders have occurred,” the advisory continues.
There are no travel restrictions on U.S. government employees in Quintana Roo.
With information from the Associated Press
{ Related: Yucatán still noted for safety among other states. }
