DRUG SMUGGLERS, GUNMEN, LOGGERS HOLD SWAY ON MEXICO'S WILD COAST

COYUQUILLA, Mexico -- The Pacific coast resorts of Acapulco and Ixtapa
glisten at the foot of the imposing peaks of Mexico's Sierra Madre del Sur.
But tourists seldom venture into the mountains.

It's probably better they don't. This is one of Mexico's most lawless
regions, where even the army's heavily armed convoys come under fire
regularly and where police fare even worse. In 1998, a vacationing foreign
diplomat who wandered into the area was killed by highway robbers.

It's a violent and surreal world where men roar down mountain roads with
chainsaws strapped to the handlebars of their ATVs and where wooden shacks
sport enormous satellite dishes.

The mountains, with their mosaic of tropical jungle, cloud forest and fir
and pine forests -- all endangered by logging and farming -- have become a
cause celebre among environmentalists. But residents say the federal
officials responsible for protecting the forest are afraid to even visit the
area.

They have reason to be. Seven policemen were lynched by residents of the
township of El Camalote in early 1999. Gunmen hired by heroin-poppy growers
sprayed 10 federal-police helicopters with gunfire later in the year,
damaging several.

Roving the mountains that roll down to the sea are armed gangs employed by
drug traffickers, gunmen pursuing family feuds and the remnants of a leftist
guerrilla uprising. The region is dotted with marijuana and poppy fields,
and the wooden shacks of those who tend and defend those crops.

It's a rough, outback culture. A military officer speaking on condition of
anonymity said that unlike northern drug lords, local smugglers prefer to
live in a series of shacks -- each with a satellite antenna for TV and
communications -- rather than build a luxury home.

They prefer to wander the mountains, fearing that a luxurious residence
would be confiscated by police, or would tie them down, making them more
vulnerable to attack.

One night in January, automatic-weapons fire erupted in the town of
Coyuquilla, 80 miles west of Acapulco.

Bullets battered the home of Adolfo Martinez, an alleged hitman who police
believe may have killed as many as 90 people. The attackers fled, and Mr.
Martinez emerged unscathed.

Nobody in town seemed surprised. "We heard some shooting, but that happens
all the time," said neighbor Olivia Hernandez.

And no one was particularly surprised when police showed up to confiscate
Mr. Martinez's assault rifles -- but left him free.

Then two army trucks roared up, soldiers arrested Mr. Martinez, and the
police officers and confiscated the cache of weapons. They accused police of
covering up for Mr. Martinez.

"He always appeared to be a nice, quiet young man," said Coyuquilla's
justice of the peace, Jesus Hernandez Cardenas. "He was polite. We all
thought he was a simple farmer."