Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico: Calderón calls in the Mounties while incompetent, corrupt, local officials whine.

On 8 January, a Canadian citizen, one Adamo de Prisco, died in the middle of Avenida Escénica in Acapulco when he was run over by a car. Acapulco police officials ruled it an unfortunate accident. This in spite of a host of eyewitnesses who claimed that de Prisco was first savagely beaten inside the discotheque Mandara by club employees. Those witnesses told investigating officers that de Prisco managed to get away, then fled out the door into the street where he was subsequently squashed by a passing automobile.

All of that beating and fleeing stuff was too messy for Acapulco police to deal with, so they shoveled it under the rug and declared, "accidental death, nos sentimos muchísimos." Federal authorities were not in quite such a hurry to get back to that week's edition of Juana La Cubana on channel 9, however.

The feds, led by, as you may recall, their commander-in-chief, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, were just a bit too busy rounding up drug cartel capos, triggermen and money cleaners and shipping them off to the USA to disappear forever into the gaping maw of the federal prison system, to take direct action. So, they did the next best thing. They invited the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to come to Acapulco and conduct their own investigation.

RCMP Capt. Edward Nelson bids adieu to his girlfriend,
Donnie MacJeanne, as he takes leave for Acapulco.

WHOA!! That pissed off state and local authorities who thought they had cleverly solved and closed the case. The Guerrero state governor, Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo, managed to remain relatively calm as he said that the decision to call in the Mounties was a federal decision and he would welcome the presence of the Mounties with "appreciation", eh. Right, eh.

One of his flunkies, the city's director of tourism, was not nearly so restrained in voicing his opinion. Said an outraged Miguel Angel Elías Aguirre while quaking at the thought that a tourist's death was caused by hired dance hall gorillas, spit,

"I don't like what has happened because it is the jurisdiction of the Mexican government. I would like that the competent authority release its official report."

See, Miguel Angel, that there is the problem. The competent authorities are, er, not competent. But the Mounties certainly are.


Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
Thanks!
TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, Pale Horse Galleries, gifts, collectibles, Mexican arts and crafts, Acapulco, Mexico, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Felipe Calderón