Local News
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El Graduado
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The Cozumel municipal (city) government has no say in choosing the head of the municipal police; by law, the Mexican military tells the municipal president who it will be and the municipal president has no choice in the matter. The previous head of the municipal police was also a military officer appointed to the municipal position by the military and later removed by the military, just as this new one was and will be.
Cozumel appoints new Public Safety head after former is terminated - Riviera Maya News
Captain Luis Alberto Taylor González has been appointed Head of Dispatch of the Directorate of Public Safety and Municipal Transit of Cozumel.www.riviera-maya-news.com
I don't believe any of the guys assassinated this year saw anything coming either until it was too late. It is just a question of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, whether you are the target or just collateral damage. Several of these shootings were in the Centro area, within a block of the Malecon and not "far off the beaten path" at all.
How many tourists have been hurt or killed?
El Graduado
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None. So you are all safe; they aren't targeting you.
Just being sarcastic. I don't see that as a relevant question.
I think good predictors of how things are progressing in Cozumel would be Playa del Carmen, Cancun, or Tulum. These places started out with just a few gunfights between the guys involved in drugs, but the victims eventually began including locals and tourists who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They weren’t the targets, but they ended up dead or wounded just the same.
With 13 drug-related assassinations on the island so far this year, Cozumel has not reached the volume of gunfights there are in those mainland cities, but it is just a matter of time before some of the sprays of bullets these gang members let loose on the streets of the island (or inside Cozumel restaurants, as has happened twice) hit an innocent bystander, whether that be a tourist or local.
mcohen1021
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Good lord, when did these 2 cozumel restaurant shootings occur and which restaurants were they?
El Graduado
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One assassination was inside Restaurante Tentaciones on Av 15 between Calles 2 and 4. The surveillance video showed the shooter spraying pretty indiscriminately from just inside the door, killing one and wounding a second. Another was a "shoot and miss" in front of a restaurant/bar on Calle 5 near the Malecon. Then, there were the bullets sprayed at a young man in front of Chedraui, leaving bullet holes in the front of the supermarket early one morning. It can happen now anywhere on the island, at any time.
El Graduado
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Interesting turn of events... A “narco manta” turned up last night hanging on the fence of a private school on the north side of town. A “narco manta” is a bedsheet with a message painted on it, a typical way for gangs to threaten the police, politicians, or other gangs. This one had a message threatening the businessmen of Cozumel to pay their “derecho de piso.” The insinuated threat being this is the school where most of the kids belonging to the island’s movers and shakers attend and the guys who hung the manta know who they are. “Derecho de piso” is the term that gangs here use to describe what the mob in the US call “protection money.” As in: “Pay us a monthly fee and we will keep bad people from burning your business down.” This has been going on for a few years in Cozumel (and much longer on the mainland) but this is the first time it was openly discussed. Before this, it stayed mostly out of the papers and the people who paid did not talk about it.
I have heard of small business people on Cozumel being shaken down for this monthly extortion, one being a hairdresser (5,000 pesos a month), another one was a small hotel, another is a bar, but I haven’t heard that it was that organized or that prevalent yet. The last assassination (yesterday) was a 34-year-old man who everybody called a “small businessman” with a cellphone repair shop. He had no prior run-ins with the law. The gossip is he didn’t pay his derecho de piso” and was killed as an example.
I have heard of small business people on Cozumel being shaken down for this monthly extortion, one being a hairdresser (5,000 pesos a month), another one was a small hotel, another is a bar, but I haven’t heard that it was that organized or that prevalent yet. The last assassination (yesterday) was a 34-year-old man who everybody called a “small businessman” with a cellphone repair shop. He had no prior run-ins with the law. The gossip is he didn’t pay his derecho de piso” and was killed as an example.
mcohen1021
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This is very infuriating.... sucks the govt can't won't do anything
This is horrifying. Years ago, family and colleagues would ask if we had any concerns with vacationing on the island, with our young daughter, and we'd say 'No. The violence you hear about is in Cancun, Playa and Tulum. Cozumel is an island - a safe haven - from the cartel violence. We feel safe. Safer than most other places we've been'. I am deeply saddened by what's happening, and especially concerned for those who live on the island and are just trying to provide a living for their families. Dios mio.
Rob9876
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Maybe if the cruise ship companies complain . . .
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