Lots to Like

Marc Lacey went to Cancún to report on the sprink-break revelry amid the backdrop of rising violence, and my-oh-my did he find a great scene to open the story:

Few seemed to notice the heavily armed police commandos who cruised through Cancún’s disco district the other night with black ski masks over their faces despite the tropical heat.

Not the teenage girl holding a potent red drink who was dancing atop an open-air bar, her legs wobbly and her spike heels dangerously close to the edge. Not the three young men, their eyes barely open, who clutched one another for support as they staggered along the sidewalk. Not the reveler at the curb with his head in his hands and vomit on his flip-flops and feet.

“Did I just see that?” asked one of those who glimpsed the federal antidrug unit going by, a baby-faced girl wearing a “party animal” T-shirt over her bikini.

In general, I thought he did a great job in acknowledging the seriousness of the situation without overstating it. Take this passage:

The bloody drug war that Mexico is experiencing may not be the biggest danger facing the tens of thousands of spring breakers who descend on the country’s beach resorts every year for alcohol-infused revelry. Moped accidents, brawls, slips and falls — the result of consuming too many drinks with names like crazy monkey and banana banshee — are what keep the ambulances stationed along Cancún’s hotel strip busy.

But the explosion of drug violence lingers in the background, even here in this seeming paradise of white sand, turquoise water and searing sun.

If students took a glimpse at the local newspapers, they would see articles about the retired army general tortured and killed on a road leading out of town last month. The death of the retired general, Mauro Enrique Tello, who was hired to overhaul Cancún’s corrupt police force, led to the detention of Cancún’s police chief on suspicion that he might have helped protect the killers.

Read the whole thing, especially if you're into stories where George Tenet looks bad.