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 Travel & Outdoors | May 2007 
‘Mexico Not Doing Enough to Protect Tourists’
 Agence France Presse
Ottawa - Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has lashed out at Mexican authorities for failing to protect tourists and potentially tainting a crime investigation, after a Canadian man was allegedly beaten up.
He also warned Canadians to “exhibit caution” when traveling to Mexico, even to upscale seaside resorts. Canadian opposition parties called for an outright travel ban to Mexico.
“We expect that these investigations will be thorough,” MacKay said. “I’m not going to pretend that we can superimpose a Canadian standard in what takes place in another country, most notably Mexico.
“But in cases where public statements jeopardising evidence and investigations are made and it affects directly the safety of Canadians, we need to expect more of allies like Mexico,” MacKay stressed.
The minister’s comments follow public statements by the attorney-general for Quintana Roo state, Bello Melchor Rodriguez y Carrillo, concerning the case of Canadian tourist Jeff Toews.
The 34-year-old was found seriously injured on Sunday after visiting a nightclub with his wife in the Caribbean resort town of Cancun, a top attraction in the western Mexican state.
According to reports, Rodriguez y Carrillo said Toews likely fell from the second floor of his hotel.
But Toews’s family does not believe that conclusion, and MacKay said that Rodriguez y Carrillo’s public comments ahead of an investigation were “wholly inappropriate”, “very troubling” and “disturbing”.
Toews, who was still alive but brain-dead after the suspected beating, was flown home on Wednesday.
Critics accused Rodriguez y Carrillo of bungling a 2006 investigation of a Toronto couple murdered at a Mexican resort, and even lying about the details.
Domenic and Nancy Ianiero were found with their throats slit in their hotel room in Playa del Carmen, Mexico in February, 2006.
The case remains unsolved.
MacKay said he advised his Mexican counterpart, Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa, of “the growing concern in Canada for instances such as this when violence may be involved”.
In January, another Canadian was killed, this one outside a nightclub in Acapulco, in the southern state of Guerrero, on Mexico’s Pacific coast.
Local authorities said that he was struck by a car in a hit-and-run accident.
However, his family and friends suspect that he was beaten to death, according to reports.
Last month, two Canadians were also injured in a hail of bullets in the lobby of an Acapulco hotel. |
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