Careful at La Ropa

Two on a motorcycle? Rank amateurs. We once saw an entire family on a little 125cc scooter in Zihua - Dad, Mom and three little kids. And, of course, not a helmet to be seen.

Sounds like you spotted the culprits!!!!

I saw the exact same thing a few years ago. Honda 125. And it wasn’t travelling slowly. Couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

That's what I call practical, a small family on a scooter.
Can someone explain to me why in the USA a solitary man or woman
needs to drive around in a truck with an engine the size of a washing machine.
Some call it Ram Tough. I call it loony.

So agree.

You can purchase bear/pepper spray canisters from the many security companies in Zihuatanejo. Check with condominium security guard's to buy for you. That’s how I bought mine. I needed it because of the many packs of dogs I’d encounter on my morning La Ropa walks.

I've never needed anything other than to raise my hand as if holding a rock ready to throw at them to scare any local dogs away.

In Dr. Grayeb's waiting room on our first visit years ago was a gringo with a nasty mangled hand. He'd reached down to pat one of the street dogs.

A little instant karma for robbers down here in Ecuador.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mDiuJfDYrQI

That one event can morph into several different events.

... until finally the perpetrators are guilty of all manners of evils up to and including selling the H-bomb to the Ruskies. That is when vigilante justice can emerge. Rob is of the opinion that the locals won't do anything about the violence. That is hard to believe. Eventually, if people feel that the authorities won't do their job, they will take the law into their own hands.

Unfortunately, most locals are transplants with no roots here and no community identity, particularly the folks who helped themselves to the Zona Ecológica above the 70-meter mark on our hillsides. They're not afraid to steal things such as land, especially when they can convince foreigners to help them, but most are too cowardly to take the law into their own hands. And the only thing the foreign residents will do is leave and sell. Very few people here would take the law into their own hands, and most of them who do are considered criminals, such as local taxi unions when they block federally-licensed drivers from being able to do their lawful jobs. No one here would even consider forming a vigilante group. The bad guys are armed to the teeth and have more money to spend than the local authorities.

I never cease to be amazed at how little people know about the area so many have decided to become landowners in, and others who spend months here at a time without really knowing where they are. There has NEVER been law and order here. There USED to be a small community where everyone knew each other, most folks were honest, many folks were related, and any bad apples were known among the community, but that ended decades ago when construction companies brought in thousands of workers from other places whom they later abandoned here when the projects were finished. I watched this happen over and over. Then began the theft of the hillsides around the turn of the century with the help of foreigners who swear now they are no longer helping land thieves (though the damage is done) as they smile in photos with one of the local politicians who uses the poor squatters as political fodder.

Most of Guerrero remains a no-mans-land. In neighboring Petatlán communities are terrorized by bomb-dropping drones operated by organized criminals trying to run people off their lands and out of their communities so they can take over the area. The military remain largely impotent in such matters unless they actually build a military base in the area, as both the Marina and the Ejército have done here in Zihuatanejo. But Petatlán also has a military base that didn't seem to stop the narco cacique Rogaciano Alba Álvarez from becoming the mayor in Petatlán, though he was eventually arrested and jailed where he died of Covid-19 3 years ago.

Though there are many citizens like me who have clamored for increased military presence for decades, there are a lot of people here who also still don't trust the military, especially the Ejército, particularly because of the Guerra Sucia as well as for their alleged involvement in the disappearance of some of the students from Ayotzinapa. I don't blame those folks at all. I still recall what it was like living here during that period. The outrage people felt (and still do) at the disappearance of loved ones at the hands of the government under PRI leadership. Facts we should never forget, especially when a PRI mayor gets paid millions of pesos to refurbish one of the most garish and well-known monuments to PRI corruption: El Partenón de El Negro Durazo, one of the most corrupt public servants ever who extorted a prime piece of land from my wife's family.

There is no justice in Guerrero. No law and order. Just a very thin line that's getting blurrier with age.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to be a police officer in Guerrero. I couldn’t cut-and-paste from this 2015 report, but it says that 98% of municipal police officers in Guerrero were paid less than M$10,000 per month. One-third were paid less than M$5,000/month. That was US$250-$500/month.

Would you risk your life and the security of your family for that?

In one survey 85% of municipal police said they did not even receive uniforms, bullets, or ballistic vests as needed.

In addition, 80% said their vehicles are not properly maintained and don't have enough gasoline.

Citizens in Canada, the US, and Mexico seem to be eager to criticize public servants. But if we are only willing to pay peanuts, we can’t expect to get much more than monkeys. My property taxes in Mexico are embarrassingly low compared to what I pay in Canada. Imagine how much more municipal police could be paid if the rich extranjeros, chilangos, tapatíos paid reasonable taxes. Lord knows how little in taxes the luxury hotels in Ixtapa and the mega-stores in Zihuatanejo pay.

Imagine how the municipal police could be equipped.

Imagine being able to attracted educated people into policing.

That same report said that 13% of municipal police had not attended school or only elementary school. Some 40% had completed only middle school. That is over half of the police who didn’t even make it to being a high school dropout.

Sure it is easy to complain about others’ being incompetent. But if we want professional policing, let’s put professional policing into place.

The police module is still there, and the AC is usually running and there is often a police car or truck parked by it.

Well THERE'S a step in the right direction. A shame they've proven to be so useless.

That is what I was thinking, too. The locals will not stand for this happening in their beautiful town.
I agree that the police in Zihuatanejo are a joke. I have always felt the military has done a better job at maintaining safety.

Didn't the entire Zihua police force...and the police forces of many other communities in Mexico..... go through some serious vetting a few years back, presumably to address the kinds of problems that once again seem endemic?
What happened?

No. Under then mayor Gustavo García Bello, the current director of FIBAZI, the police force was arrested after he told them to carry firearms they weren't authorized to use then he turned them in. Most of them got out of jail, but we are still in the same place. A little over half the police force has been "vetted" to carry firearms. They still have no independence and very little professional training.

As far as the military is concerned, I doubt they're trained to do police work, (is ANYONE in Mexico trained to do common or garden-variety police work?) and what "safety" the military may provide seems limited to driving around town and "showing the colours." I can't imagine any self-respecting bad guy considering the military as much of a deterrent.

You appear to misunderstand what's going on here. The military is pretty much the only deterrent we have against a full narco takeover of the region until the Guardia Nacional gets better established with a few more years of training and experience and a few thousand more members. Yes, they do a lot of posing at the bidding of políticos, but they also do the heavy lifting keeping a lid on things.

If only the USA would end its War On Drugs and Prohibition policies. But they've enabled and empowered so many organized criminals for so long that we may be past the point of no return. Here in our region of Guerrero we want to see more military employed. It's what we've been calling for for decades.

Wasn't Calderon's decision, a few administrations ago, to use the military to handle the Mexican War on Drugs a total failure, especially when the Army General he appointed to lead that war was discovered to be on the cartels' payroll?

Years ago I was lambasted for suggesting that cameras be placed in El Centro, and now it seems to be supported. There are community groups in La ropa and community WhatsApp conversations, I suggest homeowners and hotels start placing cameras facing the street and be responsible for their own systems. Camera systems are cheap, we use them on la ropa, I suggest others do to. If police won’t fix this, the community needs to help post pics of criminals, so others can be made aware and possible deter a few crimes. Also signs about surveillance cameras help.

I would think it more likely that a woman walking through town without some kind of bag would make the thieves think that her money was hidden elsewhere. Carrying a mostly empty bag might make more sense.

You'd make a terrible thief. They look for easy pickings. Bulky bags and gaudy baubles.

My favorite Economics Professor always said that "what's around the corner" is a two way street.

You have brought this up before in archives.
Usually the knockout drug is associated with robbery or sexual
assault. Did this happen to you?

Luckily I narrowly escaped robbery.
But that was their intention