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 Travel & Outdoors | February 2007 
Visitors to Monterrey Cautioned by U.S.
 El Universal
Monterrey - A wave of daylight cop killings and gang-style executions has prompted U.S. authorities to caution visitors to Mexico´s leading northern city.
"Visitors are urged to remain vigilant" while in Monterrey, said a report by the Overseas Security Advisory Council, an advisory body involving U.S. business interests abroad and the U.S. State Department.
The annual report is not an official government travel advisory but it marks the first time U.S. officials publicly singled out Monterrey, the capital of the border state of Nuevo León, for the escalating drug violence in Mexico.
"We are concerned about the increasing security problems in the Monterrey area," said Todd Huizinga, the Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Consulate General in Monterrey. "Our first job is to protect American citizens."
Monterrey has been relatively immune to the beheadings, grenade attacks and killings that claimed some 3,500 people across Mexico in the last two years. However, the city´s slice of the nationwide drug cartel turf war is growing.
Five police officers were killed in a span of 23 days this month and 2006 saw a record of more than 50 "executions," according to the local press.
"Law-abiding U.S. citizens are not the targets of the violence but have become victims by being at the wrong place at the wrong time," the report said.
The report pointed out a number of common-sense travel tips and again warned about the drug-related violence along the border, a recurring theme in official U.S. travel warnings.
The report, produced by the Regional Security Office at the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, advised travelers headed through Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros and Reynosa to do so by day and to stick to toll roads when driving.
U.S. impresarios in Monterrey have long enjoyed the city´s reputation as one of the safest places to live and do business in Mexico but companies are investing more in security, according to local business leaders.
Yet many are not bothered by the growing security concerns, which are considerably greater in Tijuana or Mexico City. |
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