Shooting at Cancun Club Leaves 5 Dead, 5 Injured in Popular Tourist Destination: Report
Five people were shot and killed in Mexico Saturday after a group of gunmen opened fire at a club in the popular resort city of Cancun.
Quintana Roo state prosecutors said in a statement that the men, armed with one long gun and three handguns, injured an additional five people, two of whom are in critical condition, according to the Associated Press.
The bloodshed reportedly occurred at a bar called La Kuka, which sits about four miles away from where the city’s popular tourist hotels are located.
The incident follows a January bar shooting in the resort city of Playa del Carmen, also in the state of Quintana Roo, that left seven men dead, according to the AP.
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The AP reports that the coastal area has seen an uptick in cartel-fueled violence as the Jalisco New Generation cartel continues to fight local gangs for control of the area.
In response to the violence, the U.S. issued a travel advisory in November 2018 urging tourists bound for Quintana Roo to “exercise increased caution” in their visits.
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“Criminal activity and violence, including homicide, remain a primary concern throughout the state,” the advisory read. “While most of these homicides appeared to be targeted, criminal organization assassinations and turf battles between criminal groups have resulted in violent crime in areas frequented by U.S. citizens. Bystanders have been injured or killed in shooting incidents.”
Federal authorities said in January that the state’s murder rate more than doubled from 2017 to 2018, jumping from 359 killings to 774, according to the AP.
