Analysis Trouble in paradise: drug cartels cast shadow over Mexico’s top tourist havens

On a recent balmy afternoon in Los Cabos, as tourists and locals frolicked in the sparkling blue sea, a group of men toting automatic weapons stormed onto a crowded beach.

By the time the attackers fled, three men lay dead beneath a grove of palm trees - another sign that the violence roiling other parts of Mexico has arrived at one of the country’s most prized and protected tourist resorts.

Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel was once so firmly planted in the state of Baja California Sur that he and other cartel leaders vacationed here safely - along with more than a million American tourists each year. But since Guzman’s arrest and extradition to the US, the cartel has fragmented into warring factions, who are fighting each other as well as gangsters aligned with the emergent Jalisco New Generation cartel.

Although none of the recent violence has explicitly targeted tourists - the only known American victim was wounded in the leg by a stray bullet in March - the US State Department recently warned Americans to take extra precautions when visiting Los Cabos.