20 kidnapped in Acapulco; shootout leaves 14 dead in Durango

"Fun in Acapulco" with Elvis Presley seems a little quaint now doesn't it?

Hey Acapulco is a great beach resort, so a few guys get kidnapped?? This is normal in Latin America, kidnapping the rich and waiting for a big ransom is just part of daily life in Latin America where apart from Cuba, you know Fidel Castro and family, the rest of Latin America has the worst disparity between the WEALTHY RICH and the DIRT POOR, so if you were a poor sod in Mexico or Colombia, would you keep grown corn and beans?? Or would you join the gang and start growing really green, strong, sweet Acapulco gold?? Or like they call pakalolo in Hawaii, Maui Wowwy??

Gunmen kidnapped 20 men who were traveling together in Mexico’s Pacific coast resort city of Acapulco, authorities said Saturday. A shootout between drug gangs, meanwhile, left 14 people dead in remote town in the northern state of Durango, Mexican newspapers reported.

Horrendous, but I fear as these gangs become more mainstream they may as well duplicate the mantra of western gangs-- "you do our options or we'll bankrupt you." As mafias move in to the more sophisticated 'protection' rackets that's inevitable... and the real economy would end up accommodating and competing with mafia-tied businesses.

My grandfather owns a house overlooking the river between the US and Mexico. I've never heard of anything happening near where he lives. But he does say that you must be careful about what taxis you take, as you might be kidnapped -- he has a dedicated taxi driver for when he and his wife journey into Mexico.

And yet I know a woman who has been doing the ex-pat thing down in Los Cabos for 25 years and she says there's nothing bad going on there, that violence happens only near the border and that the rest of the country is as peaceful as pie.

Hope to visit Mexico some day, but I doubt it will be in the near future. The country is insane.

According to what I have read the reason for the great increase in violence is that American consumption of cocaine has fallen about 70% over the past decade or so, and there is an intense fight for the small remaining market. Well, maybe Paris Hilton can help to popularize the drug again. (Of course, it wasn't her purse...)

Mexico has turned into a basket case. The country's tourism offices abroad must be screaming.

mexican's are brutual and super blood thristy......cant trust them and the chinese will be like mexican's soon