DRUG VIOLENCE UNNERVES ACAPULCO

Gangs Threaten Sense Of Security In Resort City

ACAPULCO, Mexico - Ana Galeana was arranging geraniums at her
Acapulco flower stall when heavily armed men in a convoy of jeeps
opened fire on a police checkpoint across the street.

When she and her 5-year-old daughter finally emerged from hiding
behind a crate of roses, four gunmen were dead, several policemen
were seriously injured and bullet holes scarred the church and
storefronts along one of the main avenues into the resort town.

"When you think of Acapulco you imagine beaches and discos, not a war
zone," said Galeana, 25, pointing at a gaping bullet hole in her wooden stall.

In the past, the granddaddy of Mexican tourist towns was hardly
touched by the gangland carnage seen elsewhere in the country. But
this year, the city of more than 720,000 has been shaken by 15
execution-style slayings, four grenade attacks on police stations and
the Jan. 27 shootout.

Federal investigators link the violence to a turf war between drug
gangs in northern Mexico for lucrative smuggling routes into the United States.

The bloodshed in Acapulco poses one more headache for President
Vicente Fox, whose administration already has been rattled by
drug-related violence on the U.S. border. Acapulco lies on a major
drug route to the United States, and Mexicans worry for the nation's
nearly $12 billion foreign tourism industry.

"The Mexican government has let the violence spiral out of control
and now it's gone from the border to Acapulco," said the University
of Miami's Bruce Bagley, an expert on drug violence. "This is very
serious. We are talking about the potential loss of $1 billion to $2 billion."

The bloodshed does not appear to have deterred visitors yet. So far
this year, Acapulco's hotel occupancy is up 9 percent from the same
period last year, a trend that could break last year's record of
nearly 6 million visitors, said Teresa de Jesus Rivas, Acapulco's
tourism director.

The resort also has benefited from Hurricane Wilma, which battered
Mexico's Caribbean coast in October. Many vacationers, especially
spring-breakers, have switched from Cancun to Acapulco on the Pacific.

U.S. citizens, the majority of foreign visitors, have not been
victims, although a State Department advisory warns travelers to
Acapulco to "be vigilant in their personal safety."

Bernadette Feazell, 58, a native of Waco, Texas, who runs a
bed-and-breakfast in Acapulco, said tourists have little to fear --
as long as they watch out for the jeeps.

"If you see someone in a Jeep Liberty and they're young and they have
no hair, then you get out of the way," Feazell said, sitting in her
house with a stunning view of Acapulco's bay. "People here will now
move out of the path of a Jeep Liberty faster than a fire truck."

The government has sent more than 200 federal paramilitary police to
Acapulco, and soldiers have raided several luxury houses, finding
arsenals of automatic rifles and grenades and large bundles of
cocaine and marijuana. Federal Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca
says municipal police, who used to be underprepared or in league with
traffickers, now are confronting the criminals.

Acapulco Mayor Felix Salgado said tourists are protected, but he
fears for his personal safety because drug gangs increasingly are
targeting public officials. In July, a former state attorney general
was killed in a drive-by shooting outside a famous Acapulco hotel.

"We are all worried about our safety," Salgado said. "Narco-violence
is something that threatens the whole world."

Javier Ruiz, a lawyer in Acapulco, said TV footage of the Acapulco
firefight left him with mixed feelings.

The violence was disturbing, but seeing the cops win the shootout was
inspiring, he said.

"In Acapulco we have always thought of the city police as being
useless," he said. "For a moment we saw them as heroes."