Two Canadian Visitors Killed In A Shooting In A Mexican Beach Resort

Last week, officials revealed on Twitter that two Canadian guests were killed and another was injured in a shooting at a luxury hotel in Mexico on Friday.

According to Lucio Hernández Gutiérrez, Quintana Roo’s state public security director, the shooting occurred at the Hotel Xcaret México, an upmarket and all-inclusive resort that costs several hundred dollars per night. It is in Playa del Carmen, a tourist town on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.

Hernández Gutiérrez said on Twitter on Friday afternoon that one of the visitors had died in the hospital. A second visitor was killed in the incident, according to state officials.

According to the Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office, the suspect in the shooting was also a visitor, and Canadian police notified them that he was a known offender with a long record of robbery, drug, and weapons violations. As per the agency, both deceased had criminal backgrounds.

The shooting is the latest act of violence along Mexico’s Mayan Riviera, a hotspot of its tourism industry.

Two alleged drug traffickers were killed in a gunfight on the beach of Puerto Morelos in November. Authorities reported 15 shootings from a group that allegedly contested control of narcotics distribution in the area.

In late October, two visitors — one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German — were killed in the apparent crossfire of rival drug traffickers in Tulum, further south.