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. (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

Feb. 26, 2013 4:45 PM PT

Share via
- Email
- Facebook
- X
- LinkedIn
- Threads
- Reddit
- WhatsApp

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

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

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

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)