US tourist shot in leg at Mexican resort of Puerto Morelos

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A U.S. tourist was shot in the leg by unidentified assailants at a resort town on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, prosecutors in the coastal state of Quintana Roo said Tuesday.

They said the shooting occurred in the low-key town of Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun.

Prosecutors said the American was approached by several suspects near midnight Monday and they shot him in the leg. The motive remains under investigation.

The wounded man was taken to a hospital in Cancun for treatment, and his injury was judged to be not life-threatening.

The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert earlier this month warning travelers to “exercise increased caution,” especially after dark, at Mexico’s Caribbean beach resorts like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, which have been plagued by drug gang violence in the past.

There have been a series of brazen acts of violence along the Caribbean coast, the crown jewel of Mexico’s tourism industry.

In 2022, two Canadians were killed in Playa del Carmen, apparently because of debts between international drug and weapons trafficking gangs.

In 2021, farther south in the laid-back destination of Tulum, two tourists — one a California travel blogger born in India and the other German — were killed when they apparently were caught in the crossfire of a gunfight between rival drug dealers.

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