Travel Advisory Issued for Cancun, Mexico After Uptick in Violence Leads to 8 Dead

The U.S. State Department has issued a travel advisory for the Mexican state of Quintana Roo after authorities found eight bodies in Cancun this week.

A level 2 travel advisory was issued Wednesday by the U.S. State Department urging travelers to "exercise increased caution" following an uptick in violent crime in the popular vacation getaway location Cancun.

"According to Government of Mexico statistics, the state experienced an increase in homicide rates compared to the same period in 2016. While most of these homicides appeared to be targeted, criminal organization assassinations, turf battles between criminal groups have resulted in violent crime in areas frequented by U.S. citizens," the State Department said in the advisory.

The advisory was issued after eight bodies were discovered in the Cancún area on Tuesday, with two victims having been found in an abandoned taxi. Two others were found dismembered in plastic bags at a separate location, a fifth victim was discovered bound and fatally shot, a sixth man was found to be shot to death while lying in a hammock, and the seventh victim was shot to death and discovered in a plastic bag. Officials did not immediately reveal details about the eighth body, though they did state that the killings did not occur in the hotel-zone.

The murder spree comes amid an uptick in homicides in the state of Quintana Roo, where the resort city of Cancun is located. In June, Rosely Magana, a candidate running for city council on the small island of Isla Mujeres located just off the coast of Cancun, was shot while at a political event. The shooting marked the 15th candidate killed in Mexico during this election cycle, the New York Post reported at the time.

Just months before that, in April, 14 people were killed and at least five others injured within a 36-hour time period, the highest ever in the country's recorded history. The incidents, all shootings, occurred at various locations throughout Cancun. The murders brought the total number of slayings in the city to over 100 since the start of 2018.

The violence is not restricted only to the resort city, however, with the U.S. State Department issuing travel advisories for several states and cities throughout Mexico, including Mexico City, where in July a 27-year-old from San Francisco was shot and killed while leaving a popular restaurant with her husband.

As of Wednesday, Aug. 22, the U.S. State Department had Mexico at a level 2 travel advisory, though they noted that certain areas have "increased risk."