DRUG WAR INTRUDES ON MEXICO'S COASTAL RESORTS

The Arrest of a Top Drug Cartel Chief in Cancun Comes a Week After a
Deadly Shootout Killed 16 Alleged Cartel Members and Two Soldiers in Acapulco.

Mexico City - Most vacationers to Mexico's coastal resort towns
prefer not to be bothered. They might turn off their cellphones and
shun nightly newscasts to escape into beach days that blur into one another.

But lately, the reality of the nation's brutal drug war keeps intruding.

The Mexican military announced on Sunday that a local leader of the
powerful Gulf Cartel, Juan Manuel Jurado Zarzoza, was arrested Friday
in Cancun, where tourists frolicking in the turquoise waters of the
Caribbean share space with an important corridor for illegal drugs
headed from South America to the US. The Army says that Mr. Jurado
Zarzoza ordered extortions and kidnappings in the Cancun area.

The arrest follows a deadly shootout in Mexico's other iconic resort
town the weekend before. In Acapulco, best known for its sprawling
bay and daring cliff divers, 18 were killed after soldiers faced off
against drug gangs.

Mexico's tourist industry has been on the defensive. The increased
violence - nearly 11,000 people have been killed in drug-related
violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug
gangs in late 2006 - has led to US advisories detailing "large
firefights" in patches of the country.

Over spring break, some US colleges urged their students to avoid
Mexico as a vacation destination. Then the swine flu, which had its
center in Mexico, caused bookings to drop by as much as 95 percent at
its height in April and May.

But even as Mexico emerges from the swine flu scare and rides out
economic woes also keeping tourists away, it has a much larger
struggle ahead when it comes to drug violence.

"Constant headlines about violence isn't doing Mexico any good," says
Bruce Bagley, a drugs expert at the University of Miami, especially
in the wake of swine flu and the global recession. "It's not just a
single or double whammy but a triple whammy here. It is going to take
a serious toll on the Mexican economy during 2009."

Tourists Are Not So Big on the Shootouts

In Cancun, says Ana Maria Salazar, a national security specialist in
Mexico City, tourism has not been widely affected by drug violence
because most perceive it to take place outside tourist zones, even as
violence between rivals and law enforcement has intensified. But
where firefights have emerged, such as in Acapulco, tourism is more
vulnerable. "There have been open shootouts in much more public
areas. Acapulco is different in that sense."

Still, even the sight of military trucks patrolling beach zones can
be jarring. The arrest in Cancun comes after the kidnapping and
murder of a former retired Army general last February who had been
dispatched to the city to clean up corruption in the local police
forces. Today, military trucks roll down streets as authorities seek
to clamp down on the drug trade.

A Balancing Act

The government must carry out an important balancing act, says Ms.
Salazar, between fighting corruption and not scarring off
vacationers, though the intensity of their response depends on how
much cartels fight back. "This [drug] organization [in Cancun]
thought they could kill a general, but it was a big mistake because
clearly the government was going to focus a lot of attention to that
city," she says.

In Acapulco, last weekend's shootout was triggered when soldiers
surrounded a safe house and gunmen inside began to throw grenades.
Hours later, 16 alleged members of the Beltran Leyva gang, as well as
two soldiers, were dead.

Violence Compounds Swine Flu Stigma

After the swine flu caused flight reductions, and governments urged
their citizens to avoid Mexico for all nonessential travel, Mexico's
Tourism Minister Rodolfo Elizondo estimated industry revenue will
fall by more than 40 percent in 2009.

Drug violence will not help the situation. Over the weekend, the
Mexican Army also arrested 25 gunmen who were reportedly disguised as
soldiers in a ranch in northern Chihuahua state; the defense
department reported to federal prosecutors that 10 mid-level officers
had been allegedly passing on information to drug traffickers; and
highway shootouts in Michoacan were responsible for the deaths of
three federal agents.