Still in the firing line, we headed away from the car, using a concrete wall for cover. Martin said to me, it's a miracle any of us got out, let alone all five of us. It seemed like an eternity before he emerged over the barrier and jumped down towards us, followed by a hail of gunfire.Īt the bottom, we regrouped. He called out, and we shouted at him to come. He was actually being protected by the engine block - he knew that. The rounds were ploughing into the car every time he moved. My armour and helmet almost certainly saved me.īut Richie was still inside the car. I lost my balance and fell to the bottom, landing like a sack of potatoes, cutting my face. Richie says I then got out of the car and stood up, before jogging to the edge of the embankment and then started running. I managed to put my helmet on, and was about to attempt my escape, when I stopped and reached back into a shelf in the door and retrieved my phones and my press card, unbelievably. "I've been hit!" I shouted.īut what amazed me was that it didn't hurt that bad. I do recall wondering if my death was going to be painful.Īnd then I was hit in the lower back. Richie was shouting to me, but I can't really remember much. In June, two men were shot to death on the beach in Tulum and a third was wounded.Image: Producer Dominique Van Heerden runs for cover “You would think that you would be very careful to make sure that you know the tourists feel very safe coming here.”īut there have been signs the situation was out of control months ago. “I think that what was surprising, is we figured that this type of crime wouldn't necessarily be where the main tourist areas are, just because it's such a big part of the economy,” Graham said. “Right now, we are not so sure we're going to buy anything here,” Graham said. tourist James Graham said he had come to Tulum with the idea of possibly buying a property there to rent out on AirBnB. The killings threatened Tulum's reputation as a low-key carefree beach town without the crowding and problems of Cancun.Īfter the shooting, U.S. The gang is also fighting the Jalisco Cartel and other groups for the area's lucrative drug market. The gang, part of the Gulf Cartel, has long extorted protection money from bars and night clubs in Cancun, but has now apparently extended operations further south to Playa del Carmen and Tulum. “We are in control here,” the sign added. The sign said the shooting “was a warning, so you can see we mean business," adding “you either get in line or we are going to continue shutting places down like the Mini Quinta,” an apparent warning to pay extortion demands for protection money. On Friday, the civic group Citizens Observatorio of Tulum posted photos of hand-lettered signs that appeared at a local market in Tulum, signed by a drug gang known as Los Pelones, roughly “the Shaved Heads.” The shooting occurred on Tulum's ‘Mini-Quinta,’ a reference to Playa del Carmen's larger, flashier bar and restaurant zone known as Quinta Avenida, or Fifth Avenue. The tourists were apparently dining at the restaurant and may have been caught in the crossfire. The gunfight apparently broke out between two groups that operate street-level drug sales in the area, according to prosecutors. The German Foreign Office issued a travel advisory about the violence, advising its citizens “if you are currently in the Tulum or Playa del Carmen area, do not leave your secured hotel facilities.”
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