Cliff divers, all-night discos, towering hotels on the sand— that is one side of Acapulco, the popular Pacific beach resort. But a gunbattle over the weekend between soldiers and suspected drug traffickers that lasted more than four hours made clear that Acapulco has a dark side and that no part of Mexico is immune to the drug war.

[efoods]The seaside shootout, which left 16 of the suspects and two of the soldiers dead, forced local residents and budget-minded tourists staying in the area to run for cover, local press reported. The scene was warlike, with the armed men lobbing dozens of grenades at the advancing soldiers and exchanging thousands of rounds with them. Three bystanders were among the nine people wounded in the fight, the authorities said.

“It was like something out of Rambo,” a man who lives near the shootout told Reforma newspaper.

Beginning about 8 p.m. Saturday and stretching past midnight, the battle shut down the old hotel zone, where Hollywood celebrities such as John Wayne and Elisabeth Taylor used to vacation decades ago before newer hotels went up miles further south on Acapulco Bay.

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