OK, expats living in the beach areas of Michoacan and Guerrero as far as Zihuatanejo, Dawg does not like to spread rumors but this morning I was routinely reading the Google News section on Mexico violence when I came upon an article in a surfer´s electronic newsletter (Surfline for April 2nd) reporting that the author of the article reprinted on Google had just returned from a trip to Playa Troncones and had been alarmed at the reports of violence he had heard while there from locals and American residents perpetrated, according to him, by thugs and organized crime against local residents and consisting of a couple of very serious sounding assaults, kidnappings and robberies in the Troncones area including Los Llanos and Petacalco. He also expressed alarm at the sight of cops patrolling the beach areas in flak jackets in trucks mounted with automatic weapons. He reported that crime against residents in this formerly peaceful area had many residents afraid to venture out at night.

I took special interest in this news report as we have been intending to stop off for a couple of days in Troncones on our way up the coast from Huatulco returning to Lake Chapala from Chiapas and I remembered from a past visit that the beach road there can be pretty isolated in places ´perhaps making that area susceptable to criminal activities by thugs and gangsters. I also remembered from that visit being personally alarmed as we drove from Troncones back toward Lake Chapala and seeing convoys of heavily armed federales with truck mounted automatic weapons who passed us and later were stopped at the toll gate where Autopista 37 commences near the Guerrero-Michoacan line and donning bulletproof vests before proceeding up that route in convoy. I sort of ignored these discomforting thoughts but the lonely highway and beach roads and the heavily armed federal convoy seemed to perhaps add some credence to this reporters assertions and his statement that he would not return to the area. Add to those concerns the fact that on our last visit during the height of the 2011 winter season, Troncones hotels seemed almost totally deserted instead of practically sold out as we had expected when we planned the trip and we feel there may be cause for concern.

Driving up the coast road and staying in an isolated hotel on Troncones beach is an option easily deferred but before we do that, I was wondering if some of you forum participants living in that area or inland in Michoacan have heard of an escalation in criminal activity in the more isolated beach areas between Zihuatanejo and the Highway 37 route inland towrd Uruápan or if, perhaps, this reporter´s alarmist article should be taken with a grain of salt. If so, your imnput would be appreciated.