| | |  Editorials | Issues | July 2009 
How Safe is Travel to Mexico?
 Dennis D. Jacobs - Chicago International Travel Examiner
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July 08, 2009
| | A Mexican Navy sailor stands guard as seized drug is burned in the port town of Progreso, Mexico, Thursday, June 25, 2009. At least a ton of cocaine found inside frozen sharks were incinerated by the Mexican Navy. (AP/Russell Chan) | |
Your odds of dying from other than natural causes on a trip to Mexico are pretty low - around 1 in 100,000. But how does that compare to other popular destinations for Americans traveling abroad?
According to the latest information from the U.S. Department of Commerce, 20.3 millions visited Mexico in 2008, making it the most popular foreign destination for American travelers. In second place was Canada, with 12.5 million visitors. Of those, the U.S. State Department is aware of five deaths from non-natural causes. Thus, your odds of suffering such a demise on a trip to Canada is about 1 in 2.5 million.
Based on the 2008 data, your odds in the UK would be approximately 1 in 400,000, in France, about 1 in 700,000, in Italy, about 1 in 200,000.
“It is safe for Americans to travel to Mexico,” asserts Eduardo Chaillo, director of the Mexico Tourism Board for North America, “although there are some precautions that have to be taken when traveling to specific counties.”
He says the counties are all along the U.S. border with Mexico, where the Mexican government is trying to clamp down on illegal drug trafficking.
“They are five or six counties out of about 2,000,” he notes.
Murders
According to a U.S. State Department list of deaths of Americans abroad from non-natural causes, 56 Americans were murdered in Mexico in 2008. Of these, 16 died in Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, and 12 were murdered in Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego.
“Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, and Nogales are among the cities which have recently experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues,” a State Deparment Travel Alert advised Americans in February. “The situation in Ciudad Juarez is of special concern. Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in the city since January 2008. Additionally, this city of 1.6 million people experienced more than 17,000 car thefts and 1,650 carjackings in 2008.”(at)There was one murder of an American in Acapulco in 2008 and another in Puerto Vallarta, but Chaillo says tourist resorts are safe.
What about the recent gunfight in Acapulco?
“That was an isolated incident,” Chaillo responds, adding that it was not near the tourism center of the city. “On the police side, it was very successful. They took away a lot of cocaine. They took away a lot of weapons.”
Maureen Webster, founder of Mexicovacationawareness.com, paints a less rosy picture of travel to Mexico.
“People are going down there blind,” she says. “Don’t ever be alone, even inside the resort.”
Drownings
Webster’s son, Nolan, drowned in a hotel pool in Cancun in 2007. Is this a common occurrence?
The State Department list includes 21 drowning in 2008 in Mexico. Only one was in Cancun, but there were several others elsewhere along the Riviera Maya in the state of Quintana Roo. There were four drownings in the Cabo San Lucas area.
Not all swimming deaths go into the books as a drowning. In March of this year, a 47-year-old Des Plaines man, Arnie Piechocki, went for a swim in the ocean near Cabo San Lucas alone and suffered a broken neck, perhaps from a powerful wave slamming his head against the ocean floor. He died after being transported to a San Diego hospital, meaning his death will not show up on the list of Americans dying abroad.
“Of course, we have accidents,” Chaillo says, when asked about such incidents.
For Webster, though, each accident is a personal story, like that of John, a 43-year-old Canadian citizen who drowned in Mexico in March. His mother suffers from dementia. His 80-year-old father is her primary caregiver. John was their only son. Webster says it was the seventh drowning in the same area within a couple of weeks.
“The ripple effect is just so many lives are destroyed,” she says. “[And] it’s not just people dying.”
Kidnappings
“In recent years, dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped across Mexico,” the State Department Travel Alert warns. “Many of these cases remain unresolved.”
Mario Gonzalez Roman, a security advisor to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico for 28 years, says “well-organized criminal gangs,” often with connections to drug trafficking, are behind many kidnappings.
“Kidnappings are more frequently ending in tragic circumstances,” he wrote for solutions abroad.com. “In one instance a kidnapped girl was murdered, even after her father paid the negotiated ransom.”
One of the most recent stories on Webster’s website concerns Ron Scheepstra of Lufkin, Texas, who has been missing in Mexico since April 11. Scheepstra, 49, was fly fishing with three friends when he disappeared.
“All signs lead to the fact that he must have been abducted,” Webster says.
Rapes
Webster’s website has attracted the attention of a number of women who report they were raped while vacationing in Mexico.
A common theme running through the rape stories is a lack of concern on the part of Mexican authorities regarding the rape reports. Authoritative data comparing the incidence of rape in different nations is difficult to find. Definitions of rape differ from country to country, as does the willingness of women to report the crime. Available statistics, though, suggest that rape is far more prevalent in Mexico than most other countries.
This is the second in a three-part series of articles on the safety of travel to Mexico for Americans. To read Part One, click here.
Dennis D. Jacobs is an Examiner from Chicago. You can see Dennis D.'s articles on Dennis D.'s Home Page. |
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