2 Mexican marines found dead in resort of Cancun

MEXICO CITY — Authorities found the bodies of two Mexican marines wrapped in blood-stained sheets and dumped on a street in the Caribbean coast resort of Cancun on Wednesday.

The bodies were found in downtown Cancun, relatively far from most of the resort's hotels. They had apparently been stabbed.

The Mexican navy condemned the killings, saying the two marines were off duty when they were killed. The two servicemen were based on the nearby island of Isla Mujeres. 2018 Buick Regal Sportsback

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Before 2017 Cancun was relatively calm, but killings have increased. In the first eight months of 2018, there were 342 homicides in Cancun — about 1.4 killings a day in the city of 750,000, and more than double the 148 killings in the same period of 2017. In a single day in August, police found eight bodies strewn at various points on the streets of Cancun.

The deaths in Mexico's busiest resort echo the bloody violence in Acapulco that started in 2006 and eventually brought down the once-glittering Pacific resort.

"It is the new Acapulco," Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said of Cancun, suggesting the resort needed "a massive federal intervention and changes in state government personnel."The government of Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located, hired anti-crime activist Alberto Capella as the state's top police official Wednesday. Capella previously served in the state of Morelos and in Tijuana during that border city's crackdown on violence."It's sign they are starting to take the [...]

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