Otro Día ZIHn Lluvia

The last paragraph is more concerning, mentioning three deaths over the weekend from apparent assaults. While I know this is nothing new, and that it is largely cartel violence that doesn’t affect tourists, I am beginning to wonder if there are other areas that might have more effective policing. (Before someone comments, I’m aware that there are probably plenty of cities in the US that had more murders than Zihuatanejo over the weekend.)

Part of the legacy of over 70 years of PRI rule is that they essentially allowed local police forces to simply be the mayor's bodyguards and henchmen. Locals totally lost respect for and trust in local police. So we don't have professional local police looking out for us, and instead the local authorities leave everything to the state and federal governments. But experience and common sense have taught me that public security begins in the community, not in offices of outsiders hundreds of kilometers away. People from outside can't be expected to know our community better than we do, or to police it better than locals.

Recently a few more security cameras were erected, but they aren't even operated locally. The ones that are have proven to be useless.

Since each mayor's term is 3 years, they spend all their time trying to look after themselves and don't even bother with long range plans that they don't believe will benefit them. So we're still living 50 years in the past. Part of the promise of the Morena party is to change things like this, but we have a long way to go.

We have to look out for ourselves and each other here. I never ever count on police protection. Even the tourist police are basically useless. We walk to the pier frequently. Fishing is supposed to be banned there, but it is fortunately tolerated, and I have no problem with that, but especially the end of the pier smells like urine. Why men don't simply pee in the water I can't imagine. I can only guess that women are also peeing on the pier. But it's symptomatic of the lack of seriousness by the municipal government to take care of our brand new pier that is already showing signs of deteriorating. I hate seeing my taxes wasted. And I hate corrupt and unserious politicians.