World

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

State police check a taxi at a roadblock due to stepped up security after masked armed men broke into a beach home, raping six Spanish tourists who had rented the house in Acapulco, Mexico, Tuesday Feb. 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Bernandino Hernandez)

Armed, masked men who raped six Spanish tourists in the Mexican resort of Acapulco spared the lone Mexican woman in the group because of her nationality, adding yet another macabre twist to the case that has further hurt the resort's already battered reputation.

It was unclear whether the group of 12 Spaniards who fell prey to the attack had been targeted because of their nationality in the three-hour ordeal at a rented house on a tranquil beach dotted with restaurants, small hotels and rental homes. Most of the six men and six women live in Mexico City and were vacationing in Acapulco.

The five attackers burst into the house and held the group at gunpoint, said Acapulco Mayor Luis Walton. They tied up the six men with phone cords and bathing suit straps and then raped the six Spanish women.

Walton said the Spaniards had been "escorted," apparently under police protection, out of Acapulco on Tuesday.

Guerrero state Attorney General Martha Garzon told local media that the attackers' motive was "robbery, and to have fun," and they drank mescal they found at the house after committing the rapes. The lone Mexican woman, who's married to one of the Spaniards, "was saved by the fact that she is Mexican."

"She says she identified herself to the (attackers) and asked not to be raped, and they told her that she had passed the test by being Mexican and they didn't touch her," Garzon told Radio Formula. While some Mexicans harbour resentment against Spaniards dating to colonial times, the Spaniards may have been targeted for other reasons, like their appearance or possessions.

Authorities and residents of Acapulco struggled to come to terms with the attack and its near-certain effect on the area's tourism industry, amid concerns that such violence could affect the draw of other, safer Mexican resorts.