New State Department Warnings For Travel In Mexico

Mexican Police investigate murders/Photo LaJornada

 Today I read on CNN that the US State Department has increased the severity of their travel warning for Americans traveling into Mexico, I can't help but ask, how many warnings do US citizens need to keep them from traveling right into deaths doorstep?

Of course because I am living in San Diego I hear a lot of the stories that don't make the news because they were close calls, and because of the fact that violence south of the border has become so common place not all of it gets reported. There is large amount of violence that can be attributed to drug activity that is committed by small time gangsters not directly related to the cartels themselves, many of the small time drug dealers and gangs in Tijuana; as well as other border cities  take advantage of the fact that so little of their crimes are prosecuted they can get away with just about anything, and if the big cartels can get away with mass murders these small time characters know they can get away with armed robbery, car jacking and even kidnapping.

Now things we do know as being fact is for instance, back in 2010 one-hundred eleven Americans where killed in Mexico, the total murder rate however was 34,600. All this has been reported in the news with their flashy stories about Mexican troops raiding buildings and farms where they discovered mass graves of mostly immigrants in the middle of raging gun battles, or the bit more quieter story not to long ago about a San Diego area teacher who was kidnapped south of Tijuana and when the family couldn't pay the ransom the teacher was killed.

To add to what we hear about in the news, we also have our ever vigilant US State Department and their fearless leader Hillary Clinton putting out these warnings. As it stands now with the new warning put out today the state department is warning us to pretty much stay out the two Mexican states of Tamaulipas and Michoacan, as well as part of the following nine states; Durango, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Jalisco, Nayarit, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Sonora and Zacatecas. Now what I find strange about this new warning is there is again no mention of the busiest border crossing in the world being on the list, and that would be the border between San Diego (San Ysdrio) and Tijuana, which by the way is also the most concentrated drug and illegal alien smuggling port in the world.

Why isn't Tijuana listed? I'm sure it's not because the area isn't considered dangerous, most likely it's totally political being this is the busiest tourist crossing area for people crossing into Mexico, just keep letting us think that the violence hasn't spread here and people will keep crossing and spending tourist dollars on both sides of the border, loss of those dollars would mean complete economic disaster for both sides of the border.

This is basically what the new warning is saying, first to stay clear of the areas listed in those eleven states, second don't drive at night any where in Mexico and third any time you are tr4aveling on the highways in Mexico stay on the main highways and toll roads, because one of the favorite tactics of carjackers, highway robbers and kidnappers is to blockade a road pretending they are police or soldiers and taking advantage of travelers as well as blocking other parts of main thoroughfares to delay the response of the police or soldiers to the actual crime scenes.

All though the government of Mexico hasn't yet offered a comment on the new warning, many Americans living and working in Mexico have not agreed with these warnings whole heartedly. For example Howard Feldstein who is the head of the Lake Chapala Society a expatriate community in the state of Jalisco said that "Mexico itself is still a great place to retire despite security concerns" and that " Life goes on. The people that live here do not live in fear of moving around freely. We're just, perhaps, more cautious.

Despite of all that is going on down south in Mexico, and the likeliness of the violence spreading into cities like El Paso and San Diego, I am floored daily as I am commuting around the San Diego area when I hear people having "private" conversations on their cell phones talking how they plan to cross the border to party, shop or even to get medical procedures; such as plastic surgery and lipo-suction despite the fact that the dangers are so real. Many people have the same reaction as Mr. Feldstein