Acapulco does not raise its head: the Tennis Open unfolds amid the violence and hardship left by Hurricane 'Otis'

Crises open opportunities, it is often said.

Many imagined a new Acapulco after the devastation of Hurricane

Otis

,

an apocalypse that would give way to peace with the reconstruction of the city, it occurred to the most optimistic.

But the calm has not followed the storm, at least not yet.

In these days when the battered pearl of the Pacific celebrates the Mexican Tennis Open as a symbol of the long-awaited normality, there are still long lines in supermarkets to exchange the vouchers given by the Government for food before they expire and many affected people wait. tired of being counted to receive the planned aid;

The violence has left several dead in the last week alone, with the usual format, bodies shot down or severed heads accompanied by narco-messages;

Public and private transport has stopped its activity on several occasions in protest against the attacks they suffer from organized crime.

Meanwhile, the rulers greet the great Latin American tennis event with grandiloquent phrases: “The port lives, shines and will shine more strongly than ever.

“We want a new Acapulco,” the governor, Evelyn Salgado, recently claimed.

Authorities withdraw protesters who were blocking Las Unidas Boulevard, this Monday at the start of the tennis open. Carlos Alberto Carbajal (CUARTOSCURO)

Hoteliers still estimate that it will be two years before they can operate at full capacity, such was the destruction of the hurricane that arrived from the sea in the early hours of October 26.

And those responsible for Health are striving to stop as soon as possible the dengue epidemic that caused the collapse in health services.

Acapulco has not yet raised its head, which is why the tennis tournament, which has been held in the city since 2001, presents two sides of the coin: on the one hand, the opportunity to boost tourism and employment;

on the other, the evidence that basic needs and outbreaks of violence cannot be hidden with a sports showcase.

“The Open only gives publicity to Acapulco.

This year, the state government has allocated 20 million pesos for its organization, but the reality is that it only benefits the people who are in their closest environment,” says Óscar Ricardo Muñoz Cano, journalist for

El Sur de Guerrero

, by phone .

He says that there are about 11,000 families who take advantage of tennis, those who work in hotels, transportation, etc., but that the attendees are foreigners because there is no economic level in Acapulco to afford the cost of those tickets.

“In addition, almost everything is consumed there, in the enclosure, they don't usually go out, they don't coexist,” that is, they don't leave money beyond the path of the bright yellow ball.

In any case, the tennis players have had kind and good words for Acapulco, and Stefanos Tsitsipas has promised to donate $1,000 for each

ace

(point earned by serving the ball) that he achieves.

One can only wish him luck.

Days after the houses were blown away, the palm trees collapsed on the beach and the streets, the hotels presented the bare skeleton of their structure and 56 lives were lost in the catastrophe (many are still missing who may have been swallowed by the sea), the Solidarity tried to make its way through looting and plunder.

The first weeks of seriousness subsided and last Sunday, the Navy announced that it was closing its collection centers with which they have supplied the population with basic goods and food, but the supply has not yet been normalized and the aid for reconstruction They don't reach everyone.

Some of those affected tried to block roads in protest because they were not being counted, therefore, they do not receive what they are entitled to, they stated.

The GNP Arena in November, days after the passage of Hurricane Otis. Galo Cañas Rodríguez (Cuartoscuro)

Some 10,000 national guards were assigned to the area in those days.

Acapulco was already a wild territory where organized crime lorded it over the juicy profits from tourism for years, also in drugs and prostitution.

The city lost the splendor of yesteryear and the famous were confined to some privileged areas of the coast.

The rest went to other vacation destinations.

The violence was visible every afternoon, in full sun.

Hundreds of tourists, many arriving from the Mexican capital, watched in shock as gunmen landed in a restaurant and killed a waiter, for example.

The deployment of the Army on the beaches, uniformed and armed, leaving an unusual photo among bathers, has been of little use.

Nothing can stop crime.

Perhaps, it was initially thought, the storm that led to the city's ruin would remove the dirty hands of the drug traffickers from Acapulco and the community could be rebuilt with other social parameters.

No way.

The murders have not stopped and there are many who think that the economic benefit of reconstruction will be a lifeline for the gunmen and their environment, which is diverse, including politics and the business community, at times.

The violence crisis that transportation is experiencing has something of that.

“We thought that with the onslaught of

Otis

they would have no one to extort, all the businesses closed, but they have taken advantage of transportation,” says journalist Muñoz Cano.

Indeed, the mafias that dispute transportation have caused numerous crises in Acapulco and the entire State of Guerrero, with deaths and the state government in check.

Taxis burned, drivers killed.

The State responds to each crisis with the promise of reinforcing the routes with more police, but it can do nothing with crime.

Elements of the Navy carried out security exercises on the beach, on December 26. Carlos Alberto Carbajal (Cuartoscuro)

“We are still bad.

Here we do what we can to rebuild, but private and public resources are not enough, they want to pretend that we are fine, that they open hotels, but the emblematic ones, like the Princess or the Imperial World, are at 50%.

They are including the very old, small hostels where groups of young people stay in the statistics,” says Muñoz Cano.

And he mentions the intermittent stoppages in transportation, violence and food aid.

From zero to ten?

“Acapulco has always been at a six or seven.

What we have is resilience.”

In recent days, local news reported that stolen mariachi frogs were recovered and singing again.

That and the Tennis Open is the most optimistic thing that happens around the place.

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