SAN JUAN – Puerto Rico’s police on Wednesday boosted their presence in San Juan’s affluent Condado district, a favorite of visitors, after two recent murders in the zone.

Police officers are patrolling the streets and beaches of Condado after the Monday night murder of a 21-year-old man who resisted a mugging.

The death of Julian Romero Rodriguez has caused unease among the authorities, who see that the current crime wave is reaching a tourist area considered – to date – to be removed from the street violence on the island.

Romero was with his girlfriend on the beach of a well-known Condado hotel when he was attacked by several men who stabbed him several times, killing him.

Police Maj. Orlando Melendez said that eight officers have been assigned to the case, adding that he hoped they could arrest the perpetrators in the next few days.

Romero’s death follows the murder of a man in the parking lot of Condado’s La Concha hotel last week, an incident linked to drugs and prostitution in which a tourist was injured.

The director of the Security Committee of the Puerto Rico Hotel and Tourism Association, Carlos Martinez, said that his organization will meet next week to analyze the consequences of the two killings for the sector.

Martinez said that despite the two recent incidents, these are isolated cases, but he did not discuss the economic effect the increase in violence could mean for the sector.

The crime wave besetting Puerto Rico has taken 345 lives so far this year, 82 more than during the same period last year. EFE