Oaxaca, Mexico: Hotel owner shot dead at 9:00 am 1 block from APPO

UPDATED: Please scroll down.

Mercy me, I was just there at that same time yesterday morning. Unknown men in a white car stopped in front of Marcos Contreras Mendoza, 45, owner of a small hotel on Garcia Vigil Street, and dropped him with three shots to the chest. He died just one block west of APPO's encampment at Santo Domingo and six blocks from the PFP and safety.

I walked right over that very spot just yesterday morning. I shan't be returning soon. Wow. I wonder what he did to piss off the APPO boys? Messy restrooms? Tepid coffee? Stale tortillas? Who knows?



I can't figure out the grafitti on the door. The last 3 words mean "for the APPO" but "Rado" makes no sense to me. There was something painted above "Rado" but it is illegible. Maybe that was the poor guy's sin, removing APPO artwork.

Interestingly, the only person who would speak to reporters was a member of APPO's "security commission", Gustavo López. He described the incident and said that the deceased was not a member of APPO.

Hmm.

UPDATE: This killing may well have had nothing to do with APPO. It seems that the deceased was a lawyer involved in a dispute over the ownership of the hotel. According to a witness who lived nearby, both he and his brother had been threatened by a woman named "Pancha" some days before. It was not a drive-by. The white Nissan Tsuru stopped in front of the guy, one of two men in the car got out, walked up to the deceased, and fired three shots at him, two of which caused the fatal lead poisoning.

UPDATE II:Dan Case Emails that he thinks the grafitti originally read:

CLAUSU
RADO
POR
La APPO

That would mean that "POR" is translated as "by" and not "for". So, "Closed by the APPO".

Thanks, Dan Case.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO