The allegations grabbed headlines across Mexico and around the globe: Hooded gunmen stormed into a beach bungalow and attacked a group of Spanish tourists, authorities said, raping six women and tying up a group of men with cell phone cables and bikini straps.

The high-profile case in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco this week was a sharp reminder of significant security problems in a state that has seen violence surge even as homicide numbers in other hotspots across the country have started to dip.

And it drew renewed attention to topics that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has steered out of the spotlight since he took office in December.

As authorities investigate the alleged crime, experts say the incident shows that even as Mexico's new government tries to paint a brighter picture and revamp the country's image, realities on the ground remain complicated -- and, in some areas, ugly.

A state plagued by warring gangs

For years Guerrero state, where Acapulco sits, has ranked among the Mexican states with the highest homicide rates, a crime statistic regularly used by officials and analysts when discussing the overall security situation. Last year Guerrero had more reported gun murders than any other state in Mexico, more than 1,600, according to a federal government tally released last month.

"While places like Ciudad Juarez have become safer, other places in the country have seen violence spike up," said Christopher Wilson, an associate at the Washington-based Mexico Institute. "Acapulco is one of the areas, and in fact, the entire state of Guerrero is one of the places, where there's been more violence recently."

Local authorities said Tuesday that the alleged rape wasn't tied to organized crime but then revealed Wednesday that they believe the victims bought drugs from one or more of the suspects in the days before the alleged attack.

Even if a major criminal organization like Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's notorious Sinaloa cartel wasn't behind the alleged attack, it's part of a deep-seated security problem in the region, said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness think tank.

"It wasn't El Chapo Guzman," he said, "but I think it was one of the many gangs in Acapulco."

Fragmentation of large organizations like the once-powerful Beltran Leyva cartel has fueled the creation of dozens of smaller criminal gangs battling for turf in the Pacific port city and the surrounding state, Hope said. And even though many of the groups are more focused on crimes such as extorting business owners than on drug trafficking, he said, that hasn't stemmed the violence.

Authorities haven't been able to get a handle on the problem, said Jorge Chabat, who studies security at Mexico's Center for Research and Teaching in Economics.

"Basically the government can't control them," he said. "This is just one example of the climate of insecurity that Guerrero has been living."

Particular regions of Mexico -- often those near the border and along lucrative trafficking routes -- have borne the brunt of the country's drug-related violence.

Nationwide, official figures indicate violence in Mexico may be declining. In 2012, there were 20,568 intentional homicides across the country, an 8.5 percent decrease from 2011.

"2012 was the first year when it fell, but we are still double where we were in 2007," Hope said.

Experts caution that reliable statistics are hard to come by. Last year the government stopped releasing its tally of deaths tied to organized crime, which had become a measure many used to debate the success of then-President Felipe Calderon's drug war. Now only more general homicide statistics are released, without describing the circumstances.

It's unclear whether Mexico has turned a corner, Wilson said, but the fact that cities like Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana have seen violence drop gives some hope for the future.

"If they can turn things around, then there's no reason why every other city in Mexico can't do the same thing," Wilson said. "We now have success stories, which we couldn't say three years ago."

A new president changes the tone