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 News from Around the Americas | September 2006 
Americans Warned to be Careful when Traveling to Mexico
 S. Lynne Walker - Copley News Service
| | The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico advised U.S. citizens to exercise extreme caution when traveling in Mexico because of a rise in "brutal violence," often linked to drug trafficking. |
The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico on Thursday advised U.S. citizens to exercise extreme caution when traveling in Mexico because of a rise in "brutal violence," often linked to drug trafficking.
The statement by Ambassador Tony Garza stopped short of warning travelers not to visit Mexico. But it advised them to stick to well-known tourist destinations and main roads and refrain from displaying expensive-looking jewelry.
"This message alerts U.S. citizens to the rising level of brutal violence ... The bottom line is that we simply cannot allow drug traffickers to place in jeopardy the lives of our citizens," Garza said. "More must be done. Together, we can restore order and successfully take on those who are undermining our society."
The statement follows a wave of drug-related violence this year that has claimed more than 1,500 lives across Mexico, many in states on the U.S. border. The bloodshed, which is attributed to rival gangs battling over smuggling routes into the United States, has included beheadings, grenade attacks and execution-style hits on several police chiefs.
Last week, an armed gang rolled five human heads onto the dance floor of a cantina in Uruapan, Michoacán.
Garza singled out the city of Nuevo Laredo, across the river from Laredo, Texas, as being particularly dangerous.
He reported that this week, armed men went into a Nuevo Laredo hotel and held up 25 people who were going to work for a Texas-based company, assaulting and threatening to kill them. Furthermore, he said there were 20 unresolved cases of U.S. citizens who had been kidnapped in Nuevo Laredo during the last two years.
"The recent increase in these crimes is cause for alarm for any number of reasons, among them that the crimes put a strain on travel and tourism, on the business and investment climate, and on the bilateral relationship we share," Garza said. "Local law enforcement in Mexico has struggled to come to grips with rising drug warfare."
REPEATED WARNING
Garza issued a similar warning last year, igniting anger from some Mexican officials who said he was exaggerating the situation and failing to explain that U.S. drug consumers and gun sellers fueled the violence.
President Vicente Fox has called for the "mother of all battles" against drug traffickers, mobilizing thousands of soldiers and federal paramilitary police and arresting several high profile mobsters. |
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