Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – A 17-year-old minor from the state of Wisconsin, U.S. was admitted to a hospital in Cancun during the early hours of Tuesday, March 28th, with a gunshot wound.
The incident occurred in the town of Puerto Morelos, located south of Cancun.
Several suspects approached the American around midnight Monday and shot him in the leg, prosecutors said. The motive remains under investigation.
There are some reports that the minor returned to the resort where he was staying with his mother, the Royalton Riviera, and staff found the teen, and resort doctors started first-aid care and called an ambulance.
The wounded American was taken to a Cancun hospital for medical attention, and his injury did not appear to be life-threatening.
The US Department of State issued a travel advisory a week ago warning US travelers to “take greater precautions,” especially after dark, in tourist destinations on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, such as Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum, which have been plagued by drug cartel violence in the past.
In recent years there have been several acts of violence on the Caribbean coast, which is the most important area for the tourist industry in Mexico.
In 2022, two Canadians were murdered in Playa del Carmen, apparently for debts between international drug organizations and arms trafficking.
And in 2021, two tourists — an Indian-born California travel blogger and a German — were killed in Tulum when they were apparently caught in the crossfire of a standoff between rival drug traffickers.
