2 Die in Mexican Luxury Hotel Shoot-Out

A shoot-out between rival labor factions in a luxury hotel sent guests fleeing to their rooms and left two people dead and 21 wounded, authorities said today.

Identities of those killed Thursday night at the Hotel Presidente Chapultepec were not immediately available. But Marta Ramirez, hotel shift supervisor, said all guests and employees are safe and accounted for.

Hotel spokesman Federico Gonzalez said factions of the Mexican Workers Federation and the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Campesinos clashed in the lobby. The brawlers surged into the bar, attacking a group of Revolutionary Confederation-affiliated musicians.

The pro-government Workers Federation had lost a bid to win the musicians’ contract to the Revolutionary Confederation in an arbitration ruling earlier in the day.

The shoot-out was the second involving the Federation this week. On Monday, a fight between Federation activists and the Acapulco hotel workers union left two people dead, 18 injured and Acapulco’s union headquarters in flames.

Gonzalez said he did not know who began shooting first. Employees of the popular hotel near Chapultepec Park quickly ushered guests to their rooms after the shooting broke out.

Paul Gregory, a design consultant, and Lou Lindauer, both of New York, were inside the bar when the melee began.

“There was a lot of screaming. We heard gunshots. We looked up and the lobby was filled with white smoke,” Gregory said.