In cartel-plagued Mexican cities authorities warn adults not to wear masks on Halloween

MEXICO CITY — Halloween is gaining ground in Mexico, but in a country wracked by drug cartel violence there are real fears about ghosts, ghouls and skeletons walking the streets.

The concern isn’t so much about competition for Mexico’s traditional, home-grown Day of the Dead celebrations, which are going off Friday and Saturday without a hitch in cemeteries around the country this year.

Rather, in at least three violence-plagued cities in Mexico, authorities have cautioned residents about masks, which are frequently used by cartel gunmen in Mexico to hide their identities.

In the northern cities of Tijuana, Culiacan and Hermosillo, authorities warned residents not to stay out late, and for adults not to wear masks.

Arnulfo Guerreo, the local government secretary for the city of Tijuana, announced special security measures Thursday for the city's “Operation Halloween,” which involved hundreds of police guarding the downtown Halloween-style celebration.

“It's already in the regulations that you can't wear masks,” said Arnulfo Guerreo, the local government secretary for the city of Tijuana, a rule that largely refers to the ski masks favored by gunmen.

“That's not to say, don't wear costumes, it's just the issue of masks, it's something that helps protect us and our families,” Guerrero said. Authorities later told local media that police would use their judgment in applying fines, and the rule would only apply to adults.

Based on social media videos of celebrations on Tijuana's Revolution Avenue Thursday night, the rule appeared to have gone largely unenforced: adults could be seen carousing in masks and disguises from Beetlejuice, Scream, Friday the 13th and other popular horror movie franchises.

Also just before Halloween, the head of police in the northern state of Sinaloa — which has been wracked for weeks by infighting between factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel — gave a more somber warning.

“The recommendation is not to go out too late, go out trick or treating, or wear disguises,” said state police chief Gerardo Mérida, adding the spooky phrase “at night, all cats are black.”

While that might sound like a terror movie curse, it's a phrase used in Spanish to mean “in the darkness, it's easy to confuse something for something else.”

In a city where trigger-happy military forces have already killed one bystander while looking for cartel suspects, it was a chilling warning.

Brigades of police and militarized National Guard officers had been sent out to patrol the streets of Culiacan, the state capital, Thursday night, and thankfully Mérida told local media Friday that Halloween had gone off relatively peacefully for the embattled city, with only a couple of reports of gunfire.

Hermosillo, the capital of neighboring Sonora state, had also urged residents to do without Halloween masks in public.

Elsewhere in Mexico, Day of the Dead was celebrated Friday to mark those who died in childhood; Saturday is dedicated to those who died as adults.

Observances included entire families cleaning and decorating graves, which were covered with orange marigolds. At both cemeteries and at home altars, relatives lit candles, put out offerings of the favorite foods and beverages of their deceased relatives.