U.S. State Dept. Issues “Travel Warning” for Mexico

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

"You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity." Adrian Rogers


But it's worth a try.

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
Yes, violence in Mexico rising -- but it's less than in Washington BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
After the murder of two U.S. consulate workers in Mexico 's border city of Ciudad Juárez , many of you have written to me wondering whether it is safe to travel to Mexico . The answer is: If you are courageous enough to travel to Washington , D.C. , you can safely visit most parts of Mexico .
Despite the escalation of drug-related violence in several Mexican cities, and the pictures of mutilated bodies dumped on the streets of Ciudad Juárez and other cities along the U.S. border, a dispassionate look at Mexico's murder rates shows that some parts of the country are indeed dangerous, but the country as a whole is safer than what the latest headlines suggest.
NEW STUDY

A new study by Brookings Institute Latin American expert Kevin Casas-Zamora, a former vice president of Costa Rica , helps put Mexico 's violence in perspective.
According to Casas-Zamora's figures, based on United Nations 2008 data, Mexico 's murder rate is nearly five times less than that of sunny Jamaica and about half that of Brazil , a country that was recently awarded the much-coveted 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.
Consider his data of Latin America's most violent countries: Honduras has a murder rate of 61 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Jamaica with 60, Venezuela and El Salvador with 52 each, Guatemala with 47, Trinidad and Tobago with 40, Colombia with 39, Brazil with 22, Dominican Republic with 21, Panama with 19, Ecuador with 18, Nicaragua with 13, Paraguay with 12, Mexico and Costa Rica with about 11.5 each, Bolivia with 10.5 and Uruguay, Argentina, Peru, and Chile with less than 10.
Comparatively, while the United States homicide rate is lower than Mexico 's, Washington , D.C. , has a murder rate of 31 people per 100,000 inhabitants and New Orleans has 74.
``Violence in Mexico is concentrated in a few cities, mainly in Sinaloa , Chihuahua and Baja California ,'' Casas Zamora told me in an interview. ``In Ciudad Juárez, it's out of control. But in the country as a whole, it doesn't come even close to Washington , D.C. 's.''
He conceded that Mexico 's murder rates may have risen in recent months as a result of the cross fire between Mexican security forces and the drug cartels, and between the drug cartels themselves. But he added that they are still significantly below what they were 10 years ago.
Largely for demographic reasons -- Mexico 's birth rates are dropping and large numbers of Mexicans have been migrating to the United States in recent decades -- murder rates in Mexico have been falling steadily for decades. They may have picked up only marginally over the past year, he said.
The U.S. State Department's latest travel alert to Mexico, issued following the killings of the two U.S. consular workers in Ciudad Juárez, says it has temporarily authorized the departure of relatives of U.S. consular workers in the Northern Mexican border cities of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juárez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros, and advises U.S. citizens ``to delay unnecessary travel to parts of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua states.''
As for Mexico as a whole, it says that `` U.S. citizen visitors are encouraged to stay in the well-known tourist areas.''

USE CAUTION

My opinion: Mexico is facing a dangerous rise in violence, and I would not advise you to spend your next vacation in Ciudad Juárez or any other place where the drug-related killings are taking place.
But Mexico is a huge country. To say that it's unsafe to travel to Mexico City , Puerto Vallarta or Cancún -- or that you wouldn't allow your children to spend spring break in that country, as Fox News' right-wing airhead Bill O'Reilly said last year -- is as irresponsible as saying that it's unsafe to travel to some of the biggest U.S. cities.
The State Department's travel alert, while correctly pointing out that the violence is concentrated in some Mexican states, should have put Mexico 's national figures in perspective. It wouldn't be a bad idea if, from now on, it compared them with other countries' murder rates, and with that of its own home city -- Washington , D.C.
aoppenheimer@MiamiHerald.com <http://mx.mc572.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to= aoppenheimer@MiamiHerald.com>

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I/We are familiar with that coastal area between Tijuana and Ensenada, where some scenes for Titanic were filmed, and that it is a popular area for Americans to retire.

It is that area that one of the news reports was referring to, that some of those Americans were shocked that that militia/policia was chasing druggies down the beach, guns ablaze.

But, y'all are probably right. That kinda stuff is probably going on a lot of places, and the dangers in Mexico are probably being overstated.

[sreiml8 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sreiml8]

Maybe not.

Deadly street shootout strikes fear in Acapulco

In the Mexican resort city, gunmen fire at two men in a car and federal police officers. They also shoot at other vehicles, leaving behind casings from AK-47s, which are favored by drug hit men.

By Ken Ellingwood
April 15, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City
A chaotic shootout Wednesday on a hotel-lined boulevard in the beach resort city of Acapulco left as many as six people dead, Mexican authorities said.

Federal police officers patrolling the area came under fire after they heard gunshots and saw attackers shooting at two men in a car, authorities said. The gunmen also shot at other vehicles as they tried to flee, riddling dozens of cars with bullet holes.

The victims included a woman and her 8-year-old daughter. No tourists appeared to have been killed. A federal officer was also slain during the shootout with gunmen, which erupted on busy Miguel Aleman Boulevard, the main tourist drag.

Five people were wounded, according to public safety authorities in Guerrero state.

The midafternoon gun battle could be heard in nearby hotels. Hundreds of spent casings from AK-47 assault rifles -- the type favored by drug-gang hit men -- littered the street. Cars reportedly crashed into one another as innocent drivers tried to escape the shooting.

Guests and workers at the beach-side Hotel Playa Suites, next to where the shooting took place, were rattled by the confusing scene as police poured into the area.

"Police arrived and they kept our guests and workers from leaving, and this unfortunately caused panic among our guests," said Laura Toledo, a reservations manager. "Our customers weren't aware of the shootout, and they became alarmed when so many federal police arrived."

She said most of the guests are foreigners.

In June, 18 people were killed in a fierce battle between suspected drug cartel gunmen and government forces in a separate section of Acapulco's hotel zone, favored by Mexican visitors. None of the dead were tourists.

Wednesday's shootout, in one of the country's best-known resort towns during the spring vacation season, is unwelcome news for Mexican officials. Mexico has repeatedly sought to reassure tourists that they face little risk of being caught up in the country's escalating drug violence because most of it takes place far from resort areas.

More than 22,000 people have died since the government of President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown against drug traffickers in December 2006. Most of the killings stem from feuds between rival trafficking groups along the U.S. border and in key trafficking zones.

Acapulco, which has sought to regain its former glory as a stylish tourist haven, has seen scores of drug-related gang killings during the last three years, though few were in areas frequented by tourists.

The resort is in the Pacific state of Guerrero, an important smuggling corridor and, like many other tourist spots, also coveted by traffickers as a market for street sales.

Turf battles among rival gangs have left more than 300 people dead in and around Acapulco since the Calderon administration's crackdown began, according to confidential government figures cited Wednesday.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/latinamerica/la-fg-acapulco-shooting15-2010apr15,0,7787072.story

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

I/We are familiar with that coastal area between Tijuana and Ensenada, where some scenes for Titanic were filmed, and that it is a popular area for Americans to retire.

It is that area that one of the news reports was referring to, that some of those Americans were shocked that that militia/policia was chasing druggies down the beach, guns ablaze.

But, y'all are probably right. That kinda stuff is probably going on a lot of places, and the dangers in Mexico are probably being overstated.

That's "our" area of Mexico, and we still feel safe there. The crime rate in that corridor is the lowest it has been in 5 years. People felt safe there before the American media started reporting that those who walked the streets in that area were taking their lives in their hands; it's safer now than it was before the media blitz began. No one would say having anything to do with drugs, even in a tangential way, is anything but dangerous, but going to the grocery store, going to the movie, going out to eat, going for a drive along the coast, going to visit friends, etc. is not a problem.

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

This morning's paper yielded "Deadly night in Chicago: 7 killed and 18 more wounded in a matter of hours in shootings." It goes on to say most of the 7 who died had documented gang ties; nobody was in custody in any of the slayings. At least two of the victims died in drive-by shootings, including an 18 year old who was killed as he pushed his son down the street in a stroller.

If that had happened in Mexico, it would have been headline news; in Chicago, it gets a small back page mention. That's the difference in media coverage. That's why some of us say the American media is responsible for instilling paranoia in Americans about traveling to Mexico.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

We have no travel plans to Chicago either.

Funny that you should mention that just now, cuz yesterday I was at a (the) major collector car auction. One of the memorabilia items before the cars was a framed autographed picture of Al Capone and one of the cars was a 1926 something or other that was put into storage in a Chicago warehouse in 1929. It is in original condition, including the shotgun pellet holes in the driver's door header and trunk.

Could it be that Chicago and violence are so old news that it does not deserve front page (as opposed to violence in Paradise, a relatively new development)?