| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico 
Cancun Bar Attack is More Bad News
 Laura Bly - USA Today
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September 01, 2010
| | Readers, what do you think? Has the escalated reports of violence in parts of Mexico impacted your vacation choices? | |
At least eight people died after attackers hurled gasoline bombs into a crowded Cancun bar early Tuesday. Although the bar is outside the popular resort zone in a residential area unfrequented by tourists, the apparent drug-related killings are among the latest in a string of bad news for Mexico's beleagured tourism industry.
Early Wednesday, the bridge that connects Puerto Vallarta and the Pacific Coast resort area of Riviera Nayarit collapsed in rain-swollen currents, stranding travelers. The bankrupt Mexican airline Mexicana suspended operations last weekend, leaving passengers across several continents. And on Friday, the U.S. State Department extended its Mexico travel warning to note that children of U.S. government personnel are being ordered to leave the business capital of Monterrey because of concern about recent gun battles and kidnappings in the city.
"Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year, (and) resort areas and tourist destinations do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major drug trafficking routes," the current advisory notes. Nevertheless, it adds, "violence has occurred throughout the country, including in areas frequented by American tourists."
A USA TODAY story reported that according to the latest official statistics, "the horrific violence that is jacking up the national death toll is largely in nine of Mexico's 31 states," and that while Mexico's 2009 murder rate was still more than twice as high as the U.S. rate, the murder rate of 2 per 100,00 in Yucatán, the Gulf of Mexico state known for its beaches and Mayan ruins, was comparable to Wyoming and Montana.
But a recent McClatchy analysis of a new "Routes of Mexico" tourism campaign encouraging Americans and Canadians to visit more off-the-beaten-path destinations showed that, using the State Department advice as a guideline, "four of the 10 routes should be avoided and one is questionable." Among the no-gos: A trip that includes a visit to the colonial town of Morelia and travel through rural areas of Michoacan, winding up in Acapulco. The State Department urges Americans to avoid all unnecessary travel to Michoacan, and Acapulco was the site of a daylight shootout between police and drug traffickers in the hotel zone on April 14 that left three people dead.
The Cancun attack came hours after Mexican police apprehended Edgar Valdez Villareal, a suspected Texas-born drug trafficker known as "La Barbie" for his blonde hair and fair complexion. U.S. authorities say he has smuggled thousands of kilograms of cocaine from across the border in Mexico. In May, Cancun's mayor was arrested on suspicion of protecting two violent drug gangs as he campaigned for governor.
Many in Mexico's tourism industry, still recovering from last year's swine flu, say U.S. perceptions don't match reality.
"Tourism has dropped dramatically, and many small businesses have been forced to close. It is a difficult time made more frustrating by the knowledge that visitors to our part of Mexico are perfectly safe," Tony and Cheri Head, co-owners of the Luna Blue Hotel & Garden in Playa del Carmen wrote in an e-mail. "We hear the same story from guests: their families, coworkers and friends warned them not to come to Mexico as it was too dangerous. The violence in northern central Mexico is indeed extreme and horrifying. However, it is a problem which does not threaten the peace or the beauty of Mexico's Caribbean coast, and (Tuesday's bar killings) in a non-tourist neighborhood far from the hotel zone in Cancun have done nothing to change that perspective."
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