Foreign Affairs probes another Canadian death in Mexico
Last Updated: Friday, January 19, 2007 | 7:09 PM ET
CBC News
Consular officials are investigating an accident in Mexico that killed a Canadian and injured another this week, as questions still swirl around another Canadian's death in Acapulco.
Mexican police informed the Canadian Consulate in Guadalajara on Thursday of an accident the previous night in the Chapala area, Foreign Affairs spokesman Alain Cacchione told CBC News on Friday.
Chapala is about 50 kilometres southeast of Guadalajara.
Foreign Affairs would not release any personal information about the victims or the accident because of privacy concerns.
Canadian officials immediately visited the injured victim in hospital, said Cacchione, who would not give any information on the person's condition.
Consular officials went to the area of the accident early Friday to meet with local authorities to emphasize the need for a quick and thorough investigation, which is still going on, Cacchione added.
The two victims' families have been contacted by Foreign Affairs officials in Ottawa.
Mexico under scrutiny
The death occurred a day after the funeral of a man from the Toronto area who was killed in Mexico earlier in January under mysterious circumstances.
Adam DePrisco was laid to rest Thursday in Woodbridge, Ont. The 19-year-old died Jan. 8 in a hospital in Acapulco, where he was on vacation.
Mexican officials said he was the victim of a hit-and-run accident, but his relatives say they believe he was beaten to death. His travelling companion, Marco Calabro, said earlier in the night, DePrisco was thrown out of a nightclub after dancing with a local woman.
Questions have been raised about whether Canadians should consider Mexico a safe tourist destination in the wake of DePrisco's death and the still-unsolved slayings of Dominic and Nancy Ianiero, who were found with their throats slit in their luxury hotel room near Cancun in February 2006.
More than 250 Canadians have been killed abroad in the past seven years, according to a Toronto Star report of documents obtained from Foreign Affairs.
The cases are spread around the world, but the majority occurred in the United States and vacation destinations such as Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
