MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Five women, all apparently connected to a beauty parlour, were found brutally murdered in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco yesterday morning, state police said.
The semi-naked and bound bodies of two women and a 14-year-old girl were discovered in the salon in the early hours of yesterday morning. All three had their throats slashed.
Police later found the corpses of another two women with cut throats dumped in the streets. Mexican media said both victims worked at the beauty parlour. No motive was given for the killings.
Acapulco, famed in the 1960s as a glamorous haunt for Hollywood stars, has been convulsed by drug violence in recent months as powerful cartels battle for smuggling routes, prompting the United States to warn tourists against visiting the downtown center of the resort.
Mexican officials have been anxious to downplay the impact of the violence on tourism, one of the country’s main foreign exchange earners, pointing out that the number of visitors arriving in Mexico has continued to rise in recent years.
Spreading drug violence that killed more than 15,000 people last year has prompted foreign governments to issue a number of travel warnings for parts of Mexico.