Travel Warning
Travel warning for Mexico issued
Monday, the U.S. Department of State issued a travel warning to Mexico due to increased violence in the northern part of the country.
Reports range from Americans being followed and harassed, to being mugged and even killed.
The department believes Mexican drug cartels are growing more violent as they fight each other and the authorities.
And there is a huge concern that innocent people will get caught in their crossfire.
The violence in northern Mexico has reached dangerous levels.
As a result, Americans are told to avoid the states of Durango, Coahuila, and Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Baja California.
In daylight, there have been public shootouts in the cities of Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales.
And it was in Juarez on Saturday that two Americans were killed.
U.S. consulate employee Lesley Enriquez and husband Arthur Redelf were followed in their car by hitmen, then shot.
Their infant daughter was unharmed.
The mayor of Juarez told NBC the criminals are becoming more brazen.
"There's a police station very close, this is a very patrolled street, it happened in an instant," Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz.
Also Saturday, another death. The husband of another U.S. consulate employee was gunned down in Juarez.
His two children, ages 4 and 7, were hurt.
"It's a line that we didn't think the criminals would cross, they'd did. it creates a lot of more worries for us," Ferriz said.
And the escalating violence in northern Mexico has created enough concern that family members of U.S. consulate employees living there are authorized to leave.
Mexico is a popular destination spot for some people in the Treasure Valley, especially college students on spring break.
We checked in with a local travel agent Monday and so far no one has canceled their plans to head south of the border.
Global Travel doesn't typically book trips to northern Mexico because there's little interest.
"Most of our tourists are going to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan. They like Cancun a lot, and so they're going to the safer areas," said Evelyn Loveless of Global Travel.
Comments
Putting things in perspective, global terrorism focuses on killing innocent people, but in Mexico, the cartels are focused on killing to control the lucrative drug trade to the USA. The last thing they focus on is killing tourists, as they are potential customers, and you don't go far killing your potential customers. Presently nobody knows why the three killed in Ciudad Juarez were targets of assasination, but they weren't innocent tourist bystanders. On the other hand, in Los Angeles 18 people were killed in one week, yet we don't see a travel alert for Los Angeles, or for that matter for Chicago, Detroit, or New Orleans, where crime is more rampant than most of Mexico. Sadly the world has become very unsafe for anyone traveling. I visit northern Baja every week and haven't seen any evidence of the violence that is highlited in the media. You can walk the streets of downtown Ensenada without fear. I read last week that the US Consul General in Tijuana walks the streets of Tijuana safely. So the use of common sense will keep most out of trouble anywhere they travel, even in Mexico.
Please get your facts straight. The US Government Travel Warning is only for the states of Durango, Coahuila, and Chihuahua; NOT Sinaloa and Baja California. It's bad enough that the local news is generalizing the violence to all of Mexico and scaring travelers...but when our own professional travel reporters are distorting the facts, it just makes our job of selling travel that much harder. Los Cabos and Mazatlan, as well as the more popular locations of Cancun and Puerto Vallarta are still very safe vacation destinations for Americans.
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