Mexican tourist shot dead in robbery in Tulum resort

A Mexican tourist was shot dead in a dramatic robbery at a US coffee shop in the Caribbean resort of Tulum, prosecutors and police said Tuesday.

The tourist apparently refused to hand over an expensive watch he was wearing and was shot dead by the robbers.

Video of the killing, released on social media on Tuesday, showed men in motorcycle helmets bursting into the cafe with guns on Monday.

Another man in the video, reportedly the victim’s bodyguard, then drew a pistol and opened fire on the robbers, who fled.

The bodyguard chased the robbers into the street and continued firing at them through the shop door.

Police in the coastal state of Quintana Roo said one of the thieves was injured and later arrested at a local hospital.

Prosecutor Oscar Montes de Oca said the bodyguard was released because he had a gun license and may have acted in self-defense.

It was the latest chapter in ongoing violence on Mexico’s resort-strewn Caribbean coast, the crown jewel of the country’s tourism industry.

Last week in Cancun, north of Tulum, four men were killed in a dispute related to drug gang rivalries.

Drug gang leader Hector Flores Aceves, known by his nickname “Pantera” or “the Panther”, was wanted in connection with the killings.

The bodies were found in the city’s Hotel Zone near the beach. The killings occurred just as Cancun was entering the Easter holidays, one of the busiest times of the year.

A US tourist was shot in the leg in the nearby town of Puerto Morelos in March. The motive for this remains the subject of the investigation.

The US Department of State has one travel warning Last month he warned travelers to “exercise increased caution,” especially after dark, in Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, which have been plagued by drug gang violence in the past.

2022 two Canadians were killed in Playa del Carmen, apparently over debts between international drug and arms trafficking gangs.

In 2021, in Tulum, two tourists — one an Indian-born Californian travel blogger and the other German — were killed when they are apparently caught in the crossfire of a shootout between rival drug dealers.