I’ve long held that certain entities with vested interests in Puerto Penasco have and continue to ‘paint’ RP in an unrealistic manner, such as the once highly touted illusion that Rocky Point was destined to be “the next Cabo”.
Take, for example, the drug-related murders that occurred last week on Calle 13 and Benito Juarez Blvd on what was otherwise a typical slow and peaceful Sunday evening in Puerto Penasco. Mexican newspapers covered the story. Rocky Point Tides covered it.
Yet to the best of my knowledge, as of this writing (April 30, 2009) the leading newspaper for the State of Arizona, The Arizona Republic, failed to inform their citizens that the drug war is now officially and actively a part of the Rocky Point landscape.
Now why do you suppose a newspaper as large as The Arizona Republic thought or decided that the murder of four people at “Arizona’s Beach” was not newsworthy?
I’ll leave that for readers to decide but, IMO, from a moral perspective, The AZ Republic willfully and miserably let down the people of AZ by not covering, informing and/or warning their readers of a real-world threat.
It was as if someone at the paper decided that the public execution of four people in Rocky Point was no big deal, posed no eminent threat to AZ citizens who might be planning a trip to RP or that, well, “these things happen”…
I’m not saying that the news should have been front-page (Top Fold) in the Monday or Tuesday edition(s) but it has now been 5-6 days since the murders occurred, yet when I visited the newspaper’s website today and searched Rocky Point (or Puerto Penasco) there was zero information.
I did notice however that they published a piece earlier this week written by Sharie Smith of Scottsdale titled: "Rocky Point is not a bed of crime". That short article went on to say that "Drug cartels? You can't even buy Ambien without a prescription. The most threatening issue here is the little boy trying to clean your windshield."
I just can’t help but wonder what else (and why) The Arizona Republic is concealing about Penasco because based on a per capita basis (Phoenix pop. Vs RP), if that ambush had occurred in downtown Phoenix the death toll would have been approximately 160 Phoenicians gunned down in broad daylight. I would surely like to believe The AZ Republic would have deemed that newsworthy…
Viva México!
elgitanopenasco@gmail.com
FOOTNOTE from La Huerita: The AZ Republic finally published an article online for its May 1 edition that contained two paragraphs about the shooting, part of a larger article entitled "Triple threat hits hard at businesses in Puerto Penasco".
