Can Billionaire Carlos Slim Return Mexico's Acapulco to Its Past Glory? Dolia Estevez - Forbes
go to original February 13, 2013

Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Carlos Slim and the governor of Guerrero, Angel Aguirre Rivero. (Hanzel Zarate)
 
Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim’s one-year effort to return Acapulco to its past glory has been overshadowed by the surge in drug-related killings, which nearly tripled in 2011 and made this port city in the southern state of Guerrero the second most violent city in the world in 2012. In recent weeks Acapulco has been in the international news after five masked men broke into a beach hotel and raped six Spanish female tourists at midnight. U.S. newspapers reported that the rapes have heightened fear and called into question the Mexican government’s ability to control crime and attract foreign visitors.

The crime, which took place in one of Mexico’s best known tourist resorts, was the most recent in a series of violent episodes that has tarnished the international image of what only a few decades ago was a favorite destination for celebrities, foreign leaders and American honeymooners. Acapulco and several other top beach resort cities are the core of the tourism industry, Mexico’s third source of foreign exchange income after oil and remittances.Despite this grim picture, the Consulting Board for the Restoration of Traditional Acapulco, a group of leading Mexican businessmen created in February 2012 and headed by Slim, continues its efforts to pool funding from the state and federal governments, as well as from the private sector, to rescue Acapulco’s waterfront. “Those who do not invest and go slow because they have doubts will be left behind. I am not afraid of investing here in Acapulco,” Slim said in 2012.

But one year later, most of the investment plans have still not been firmed up. According to Adrian Pandal, Slim’s point-man for the Acapulco restoration project, “Cities can not be changed in a short time. SoHo was not built in one year. Acapulco is going through difficult times, but that doesn’t mean it has stopped being a great place.”

The restoration plan calls for reviving the tourism industry and making the city more livable for local citizens. It contemplates opening up the ocean view of the city’s seafront, which is currently overwhelmed by street vendors and cheap night clubs.

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