By Road and By Zih

Drove to Petatlan today, walked around some and then drove back. Saw some of the armed guys, but, no problems, never stopped by them.

The fact that this alarming situation can elicit ho-hum reactions is an indication of how wild the Wild West of Guerrero (and of Mexico in general) has become.
Interesting to read that the Petatlan police communications system was reportedly patched-into the local criminal gang's communications system.

Keep your heads down, folks.

https://suracapulco.mx/2018/12/11/policias-de-la-upoeg-toman-en-petatlan-la-sede-de-la-policia-municipal/

While folks are indeed concerned, things were also pretty bad if not worse back when the government used its army and its judiciales to kill, torture and disappear people. That was the Guerrero I first knew back when a schoolteacher named Lucio Cabañas felt compelled to take up arms against the government after watching the army massacre innocent villagers in a rural school yard. The only big change between now and then is the internet. We're still not always sure who the bad guys and the good guys are because a billion-dollar a year black marker keeps feeding this beast that Mexico is forced to deal with because scores of millions of US citizens are forced to buy the stupidly banned substances they want from violent criminals instead of the equivalent of liquor stores, bars or pharmacies. And miraculously for all the talk of border security and walls and regulations, a quarter million firearms a year can still be bought more easily than a bottle of booze in the USA and seemingly effortlessly smuggled into Mexico to arm those violent organized black-marketeers.

But a change is in the air thanks to Mexico's new president who is trying to end the bloodshed with intelligence instead of more violence. Let's wish him success.