World & Nation

Ghost pueblos of Mexico

A member of the Mexican federal police inspects an abandoned home during a tour of a ghost pueblo in Tecpan de Galeana, Guerrero state, on Mexico's Pacific Coast. Extortion, threats and killings carried out by a group of heavily armed drug cartel members have emptied out more than 20 small villages in the mountains between the tourist resorts of Acapulco and Ixtapa.

A member of the Mexican federal police inspects an abandoned home during a tour of a ghost pueblo in Tecpan de Galeana, Guerrero state, on Mexico’s Pacific Coast. Extortion, threats and killings carried out by a group of heavily armed drug cartel members have emptied out more than 20 small villages in the mountains between the tourist resorts of Acapulco and Ixtapa.  (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

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A tour of a no-man’s-land created by the Mexican drug war. People here call them the pueblos fantasmas -- the ghost pueblos.

Abandoned home

Inside a house that was abandoned in Tecpan de Galeana.  (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

Cobwebbed shoes

Cobwebs are taking over a pair of shoes left on a porch.  (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

El Cuaulotal

Gumersindo Soberanis, 68, left, and his friend Cosme Acosta, 73, right, in the ghost pueblo of El Cuaulotal. Acosta, like the rest of the village’s residents, moved away after being threatened by cartel members.   (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

Shrine

A shrine to two men killed, allegedly by cartel members, sits in an abandoned house in Tecpan de Galeana.  (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

Guards

Federal police serving as bodyguards wait during the tour of abandoned homes in La Cienega.   (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

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