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MEXICO-CRIME-RELIGION-EASTER
Two dead in Good Friday procession shootouts in Mexico
ACAPULCO, Mexico, March 31, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – At least two people were
killed as shootouts erupted during a Good Friday procession in the Mexican
resort town of Acapulco, authorities said.
One of the shootouts broke out as police chased car thieves who had stolen
a vehicle, and the other when gunmen attacked a local police station, said
Roberto Alvarez Heredia, security spokesman for the west-coast state of
Guerrero.
On both occasions, the gunshots caused throngs of people watching the Good
Friday procession to run in terror or throw themselves to the ground.
“People were screaming, running, crying. I managed to get about 15 people
into my house to get them out of the street, because the gunfire was really
intense,” a local resident told AFP.
The Good Friday ceremony in Acapulco is one of the most famous in deeply
Catholic Mexico, where each year communities stage elaborate and bloody
reenactments of the crucifixion of Jesus.
Guerrero is one of the states hardest hit by the wave of drug cartel-fueled
violence sweeping Mexico, which registered a record 25,000 murders last year.
BSS/AFP/MRI/0843 hrs