Wednesday 26 September 2012

Eleven killed in shootout in western Mexico

Gunmen fired on troops patrolling the district of Tepecoacuilco in the western state of Guerrero on 26 September, provoking a gun battle that killed ten suspected criminals and a soldier, CNNMéxico reported, citing information from the state prosecutor's office. The patrol was part of the Operativo Guerrero Seguro operation launched in October 2011 in response to rising violence in that state. According to CNN, Guerrero was the setting of 1,538 homicides in January-September 2011, twice as many as in the same period in 2010, and mostly attributable to rivalries between cartels.

Mexican activist found alive

Aleph Jiménez Dominguez, a Mexican academic reported as missing in the northern state of Baja California on 20 September was found alive in La Paz in the same state on 25 September. He had apparently fled to La Paz from his home town of Ensenada for feeling "threatened and watched" there. The 32-year-old researcher took part on 15 September in a protest in Ensenada during national independence celebrations and was briefly detained, CNNMéxico reported on 25 September. Jiménez was a spokesman in Ensenada for the student protest group Yo Soy 132, which organized the protest against the results of July's general elections and the "imposition" of the president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto. The gathering reportedly led to scuffling between some protesters and municipal police. Jiménez said he felt threatened in following days and had observed suspect cars driving around his house. On 25 September he flew to Mexico City where he was taken to the seat of the National Human Rights Comission (CNDH), presumably to report on the incidents.

Tourism flourishing in Colombia

Colombia may host some 3.3 million tourists by the end of 2012 and expected the figure to "easily" rise to four million in 2014, a Colombian export official said in Madrid on 25 September. Juan Gabriel Pérez, head of Spain for ProExport told a gathering of travel agents that the tourist sector had in "recent years" grown 10 per cent a year compared to a global average of four per cent; he said Colombia had overcome the insecurity that formerly deterred tourists from visiting, El Economista reported. He cited Spaniards as the main group of European tourists in Colombia, with a five-per-cent rise in their number in January-July 2012. Pérez said Colombia would double the size of its stand at FITUR 2013, Madrid's annual travel fair, compared to 2012.

Nine shot dead at Mexican funeral

Gunmen in a convoy of three cars opened fire on a funeral crowd in Torreón in northern Mexico on 25 September, killing nine people and injuring 22, El Universal reported on 26 September. The convoy arrived at the funeral of a 27-year-old man shot dead on 22 September in nearby San Pedro de las Colonias, in the state of Coahuila. Police investigations suggested some in the crowd fired back at the cars; two children or teenagers were among those killed.