In cartel-ridden Mexican cities, authorities are warning adults not to wear masks on Halloween

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Halloween is becoming increasingly common in Mexico, but there are real fears about ghosts, ghouls and skeletons roaming the streets in a country wracked by drug cartel violence.

The problem is more than competition Mexico’s traditional, homegrown Day of the Dead This year, celebrations continued smoothly at cemeteries across the country on Friday and Saturday.

Instead, in at least three violent cities in Mexico, authorities warned residents about the masks that cartel gunmen in Mexico often use to hide their identities.

In the northern cities of Tijuana, Culiacan and Hermosillo, authorities warned residents not to stay out late and adults not to wear masks.

Arnulfo Guerreo, local government secretary for the city of Tijuana, announced special security measures for the city’s “Operation Halloween” on Thursday, which included hundreds of police guarding the Halloween-style celebration downtown.

“It is already in the regulations that you cannot wear a mask,” said Arnulfo Guerreo, secretary of the local government of the city of Tijuana; This rule largely refers to balaclavas preferred by gunmen.

“This doesn’t mean don’t wear a costume, it’s just a mask thing, it’s something that helps protect us and our families,” Guerrero said. Authorities later told local media that police would use their discretion in imposing fines and that the rule would only apply to adults.

According to social media videos of Thursday night’s celebrations on Tijuana’s Revolution Boulevard, the rule appeared largely unenforced: adults could be seen carousing in masks and disguises from Beetlejuice, Scream, Friday the 13th and other popular horror movie franchises.

Also just before Halloween, the police chief of the northern state of Sinaloa, which has been in turmoil for weeks, Conflict between factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel – sounded a more sombre warning.

“The advice is not to go out too late, trick or treat or disguise yourself,” said state police chief Gerardo Mérida, adding the eerie phrase “all cats are black at night.”

While this may sound like a terrorist movie curse, it’s a Spanish expression meaning “in the dark it’s easy to mistake one thing for another.”

It was a chilling warning in a city where trigger-happy military forces killed a bystander while searching for cartel suspects.

Brigades of police and militarized National Guard officers had been sent to patrol the streets of the state capital Culiacan on Thursday night, and fortunately Mérida told local media on Friday that Halloween was relatively peaceful for the embattled city, with only a few people remaining. reports of gunshots being heard.

Hermosillo, the capital of the neighboring state of Sonora, also urged residents not to wear Halloween masks in public.

Elsewhere in Mexico, Day of the Dead is observed on Friday to commemorate those who died in childhood; Saturday is dedicated to those who died as adults.

Celebrations included entire families cleaning and decorating the graves. It was covered with orange marigolds. Relatives lit candles both in cemeteries and at home altars, and offered their deceased relatives’ favorite foods and drinks.