Local news (increase in security presence)

This is why I have been so skeptical of the idea of the National Guard. They are cycled in and out of our community on a regular basis and in my opinion have very little invested in the well being of our communities. Efforts to create a local police force that actually makes an effort to investigate and solve crimes would probably be far more effective. Instead we have multiple "law enforcement" agencies riding around in trucks with guns and all the criminals have to do is "time" their activities around the presence of those agents. So time and time again the agencies show up 10,15,20 minutes afterwards and pose for pictures as if they are doing something while little effort seems to go into actually pursuing the perpetrators. Once they get away the chances that the criminals will get caught is statistically less than 1%. Meanwhile there are tens of thousands of people in prison who haven't even had a trial yet because they lack the connections and resources to get on the docket of a corrupt and underfunded judiciary. It seems like we Mexicans need to learn from the failed policy of putting more military on the streets and start doing something different like increasing the odds of getting caught and being fairly tried and convicted for those crimes. That is a more proven way of deterring crime.

Yes, we've tried to engage with them to get their take, and although they may start out idealistic and hopeful, harsh realities quickly hit them. Especially when they arrive to be quartered and see their building has no A/C and their communal bathroom has no fixtures. Little details like that. It's a shame to see their enthusiasm wasted on photo ops and simulations. Personally I see them more as a branch of the military than as federal police.

And the judiciary is a huge mess beginning with los ministeriales. It seems much of what is wrong with Mexico's judicial system starts there, and apparently no one seems to have the cojones to deal with it. I won't even go into the prison system, a system apparently geared more for extorting by ministeriales than being a "centro de rehabilitación social" aka CERESO.

However, I think I speak for many long-time residents when I say we are glad to see the military here. As the previous mayor clearly demonstrated, the municipal police force was infiltrated if not controlled by criminals before he had them all locked up and vetted. Not a day goes by I don't give thanks for our local navy base. Although they may stir up trouble from time to time by making significant busts and arrests that "cause" reprisals, they are an important counterweight to some of the folks whose excesses would make life here quite miserable for locals otherwise.

But I'll take Zihuatanejo any day over the madness that reigns al otro lado.

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"I get the feeling that this is the last time in history when the offbeats like me will have a chance to live free in the nooks and crannies of the huge and rigid structure of an increasingly codified society. Fifty years from now I would be hunted down in the street. They would drill little holes in my skull and make me sensible and reliable and adjusted."
Travis McGee from "The Quick Red Fox" (1964) John D. MacDonald