 |
|
|
 Travel & Outdoors | June 2005 
U.S. Sees Crime Spike On Border
 Laurence Iliff - Knight Ridder Tribune
U.S. authorities are warning Americans away from Mexican border areas such as Nuevo Laredo because of drug violence, but the average tourist may face more danger on a Cancun beach, on the Pacific Coast, or in culturally rich Mexico City.
In June alone, two 18-year-old American women were raped in separate incidents in Cancun, in what some activists call an epidemic that is being swept under the rug by U.S. and Mexican authorities. One victim was from Houston and her attacker was a hotel security guard.
On the other side of Mexico, two Americans, a 22-year-old man from Houston and a 16-year-old girl from Miami, were killed during a highway robbery last fall in Guerrero. The state is home to the Acapulco and Ixtapa resorts.
In the Mexico City airport, criminal gangs target Americans who have exchanged currency or withdrawn money from ATMs, following them into the city in order to rob them, U.S. officials say.
Police complicity is common in crimes that run from simple extortion to "express" kidnappings for the purpose of emptying ATM and credit cards.
"In several cases, tourists have reported that men in uniforms perpetrated the crime, stopping vehicles and seeking money, or assaulting and robbing tourists walking late at night," says the U.S. State Department's consular information sheet for Mexico.
While dozens of Americans have gone missing in areas along the Texas-Mexico border, authorities on both sides say the vast majority were likely involved in the drug trade.
So how safe is Mexico for Americans? Probably as safe as anywhere in the United States, officials say, but visitors often let down their guard and do things they wouldn't do at home. Especially youths, who find Mexico's 18-year-old drinking age reason enough to party.
"Cancun is one of the safest places in Mexico and one of the safest places in the world," said Mayor Francisco Alor Quezada. "But it is also not the exception to the fact that bad things happen everywhere."
Parents, he said, should tell their children: "You can't come here to do things that would be illegal in the United States. You should behave here like you do in your own country, especially for your own safety."
The No. 1 problem for Americans, especially young ones, in such places as Cancun, Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta is too much alcohol, U.S. and Mexican authorities say.
Many victims of robbery and rape in beach areas are blind drunk and trying to stumble to a hotel whose name they may not remember. Some locals are waiting for such victims.
Americans under the influence of alcohol often commit crimes themselves, including rape, seeming to forget that not only does Mexico have laws, but that some of them are more severe than in the United States.
During Acapulco's increasingly popular spring break period, an overenthusiastic college student stole a Corona beer truck and crashed it. He was jailed until he came up with the funds to pay for the damages.
"They relax their discipline and do illegal things," said Jorge Munoz, the attorney general for tourism in Guerrero, a special post to help visitors interact with the legal system.
Munoz said he was not familiar with a local media report that Acapulco police forced an American tourist to withdraw money using his ATM and credit cards. The case against the police was dropped because the victim could not return to testify.
Munoz said police have no right to harass tourists and may not ask visitors randomly for identification, a typical entree into seeking a bribe.
With the exception of Mexico City, where crime has risen sharply over the last 10 years, Mexico probably is no more dangerous than in the past, many authorities say.
By the numbers
10 million: Approximate number of U.S. visitors to Mexico annually.
10,000: People who sought help from U.S. authorities last year to resolve problems.
52: Reported crimes in the Mexico City consular district with Americans as victims for the 2004 fiscal year.
192: American deaths reported in Mexico in the 2004 fiscal year. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us