The onetime tourist mecca of Acapulco is still reeling from the horrific details of a Feb. 4 attack as the alleged details continue to filter into the Mexican and Spanish press. According to the reports, at 2 a.m. on that Monday morning, five masked gunmen stormed a holiday bungalow where a dozen Spanish tourists were staying; they tied up six Spanish men with phone cables and bathing shorts, robbed them of their money and drank their mescal, then they gang-raped six Spanish women; they allegedly spared one Mexican woman who was with them because of her nationality; throughout the three-hour ordeal — filled with screaming and shouting — no neighbors called the police. In the aftermath of the incident, Mexican officials struggled to limit the fallout on Mexico’s image and tourist industry. Acapulco Mayor Luis Walton initially made the mistake of saying that such things happen “everywhere in the world” and had to apologize for it the next day, weeping on television as he tried to look penitent for trying to minimize the atrocity. Mexico’s Congress approved a special commission to look into the crime as Senator Mariana Gómez accused the mayor of shedding crocodile tears. State prosecutors promised arrests the day after the attack but still had none three days later. President Enrique Peña Nieto finally stepped in Thursday calling for a federal response to what would normally be a state-level crime. “It is inadmissible what happened recently in Acapulco, where six women of our sister nation of Spain were raped,” Peña Nieto said. (MORE: Mexico Seeks Culprits in Rape of Six Spaniards) To add to the Pacific resort’s woes, a Mexican think thank released a report Thursday that classified Acapulco as the second most murderous city on the planet. There were 143 homicides per 100,000 residents there last year, just behind San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with 169 per 100,000, according to the Citizens’ Council for Public Security. The government of Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located, lashed back, challenging the numbers as a “distortion of reality,” while Mayor Walton … Continue reading A Gang Rape Reinforces Acapulco’s Decline, but What of Mexico’s Other Resorts?