96% of Mexico is Safe for Tourists

With harsh headlines about Mexico still dominating the world's press, it might be expected that vacationers would keep away. However, reports are out that demonstrate that tourists, especially in America, are too savvy to be hoodwinked by scare stories. Now the government is fighting back with answers for the country's critics and data for those weary of being spoon-fed bad news.


Cabo San Lucas
23 million international visitors came to Mexico last year, on business or for pleasure; with their numbers boosted by a further 6 million docking for day-trips from the cruise ships. The majority were citizens of the USA. In 2010, 10% more Americans entered Mexico than in 2009. President Calderon informed a Las Vegas conference of travel executives that 'almost zero' of these even encountered drug violence.

The reason is clear. They were nowhere near the trouble. Mexico is a huge country, divided into 2,500 counties. Of these, only 80 counties are experiencing the problems that dominate coverage in the newspapers. That's only 4% of the total landmass. The remaining 96% of the country ranges from 'relatively safe' through to 'completely safe' from drug cartel violence.


Chichén Itzá
Tourism Secretary Gloria Guevara was asked, in a recent interview, where is it safe to travel to? She replied, "I would say they can go to all the tourist destinations because all the tourist destinations are fine. It depends on whatever you like, but there are a lot of places you should visit and have a great time. Stay away from a couple of cities within the border." ('Popular destinations safe, says Mexico tourism minister'.)

This is a message that is supported by the USA's federal travel warning. This was last updated on April 22nd, 2011, and reads,

Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year, including more than 150,000 who cross the border every day for study, tourism or business and at least one million U.S. citizens who live in Mexico.

The Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect U.S. citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations. Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico generally do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major trafficking routes...

...you are urged to defer non-essential travel to the states of Tamaulipas and Michoacán, and to parts of the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi and Jalisco.
Mexico

In short, Mexico's northern border with the USA.


Guadalajara City
This was not the message conveyed by the Texas Department of Public Safety, which issued its own, more extensive warning earlier this year. Spring breakers were told to stay out of Mexico full stop. The penalty for traveling south, the declaration darkly cautioned, would almost certainly be dire. DPS Director Steven C. McCraw was reported widely stating, "Our safety message is simple: avoid traveling to Mexico during Spring Break and stay alive."

He was almost universally ignored. Not only did his predicted bloodbath utterly fail to occur, but the numbers of Spring Breakers reached record proportions in 2010.


Spring Breakers in Cancun
In addition, there has been a steady stream of celebrities crossing the border, for work, pleasure and, in some cases, matrimony, throughout the year. By their very nature, these are the pampered and protected products of film and TV studios or record labels, who would soon be forbidding any destination which might threaten their star.

Yet just today, American journalists were writing, 'Now that Mexico's tourist industry is pulling out of a long, well-publicized slump... we can't help noticing that the uptick parallels an accelerating stream of celebrities visiting the country.' ('Stars head to Mexico for work and pleasure.')


American actors Soleil Moon Frye, Eric Dane, Rebecca Gayheart and their children, on a Memorial Day vacation, in the Four Seasons Resort, Punta de Mita, Mexico
Terry Denton, president of the Travel Leaders/Main Street Place Travel in Fort Worth, explained that, "In the past, people in Texas have rolled things like this off their back because they were savvy with Mexico travel." Though he did report a substantial increase in concerned people visiting his office with their questions, after the DPS warning was issued. "In many cases, we could alleviate any fears and concerns they had by sharing our knowledge of statistics and geography."

However, American travel agencies remained unimpressed with the scaremongering, which could well have hit them right in the pocket. Adventure Travel Trade Association president, Shannon Stowell, was blunt in her response to the issue. "If you look at federal travel warnings, they are very editorial free, just reportage on the facts. But the one that came out of Texas had what I would call an inflammatory message. It was an unfair blanket statement. It's a damage to our membership." ('Tourism groups ask Texas DPS to refine its warnings about Mexico'.)

No-one in government, nor the American tourist agencies, are denying that there are severe troubles in certain parts of the country. Javier Sicilia's peace caravan, which has weaved its route throughout Mexico and is currently at the US border, is just one testimony to that.


Javier Sicilia at the head of the Peace Caravan
President Calderon is the first to admit it. "Yes we have problems... We are dealing with that, we are facing it." He stated, at the Las Vegas conference, but he also commented, "Mexico is a safe place to visit." Because once the hotspot 4% of the country is avoided, then it is.

Tourism Secretary Gloria Guevara also recognized past marketing errors. "We left a gap of lack of information. That gap was filled up with bad news and that happened for a couple years. We realized that was a mistake and we’re fixing it. Yes, we have some challenges but, I haven’t met a country that doesn’t have challenges."

In the meantime, 2011 has been declared the Year of Tourism by Mexico's government; and that tourism is going from strength to strength.

Bono's Birthday Bash in Mexico City

Irish supergroup, U2, were in Mexico last month, as part of their 360° Tour. If the notion of seeing them in concert was enough to excite fans, then what happened next drove them into a frenzy.

Lead singer, Bono, was celebrating his 51st birthday, with crowds gathered at his restaurant to catch a glimpse of the band. That was all the excuse he needed to step out onto the streets. The champagne cork was popped right in the middle of his over-joyed fans.



Bono had already been establishing his Mexican credentials. On stage, he donned a sombrero offered by a fan; wearing it for a chorus of 'The Real Thing' before handing it back. Later, he declared, 'we are Irish Latinos'. The crowd appreciated it. They apparently had adopted Mexican pseudonyms for the event.

Adam was introduced as Rafa Marquez, while 'behind me, he never changes, he still looks 24, the chicharito of the band, Larry Mullen' and Edge was christened Hugo Sanchez.
'Where's Frank?' www.u2.com

Mexico City's Aztec Stadium was packed out for the three nights that they played. Each concert had sold out to its capacity of 105,000 tickets, but a good view was assured by the staging. The 360° Tour refers to the circular platform upon which U2 were playing. Huge screens relayed images of the band above their heads.


The 300k plus crowds in Mexico were just a drop in the ocean for this tour. It has already become the high-grossing tour, by any artist, in history. An estimated $558 million has been made from it.

Since forming, in 1976, U2's activism and promotion of social issues have been as famous as their music. Their trip to Mexico was no exception. From the Aztec Stadium's stage, on the final night, Bono highlighted the plight of victims of drug violence in northern Mexico; and castigated the unchecked flow of arms from the USA. His speech led to a rendering of 'Pride (In the Name of Love)', with slightly altered lyrics to create a Mexican context. (Footage of the event can be found here.)


Mexican president, Felipe Calderon, was in the audience that night. Bono, who seems to have had a private audience with just about every world leader, prominent peace activist and religious representative of the past two decades, was invited to meet with President Calderon.

Their discussions took place behind closed doors, in the presidential offices at Los Pinos, in Bosque de Chapultepec. It is believed that they covered the issues caused by arms and drugs trade, poverty, global warming and Mexico's role as host of the G-20 meeting in 2012.

Mexican Violence Isn't That Widespread

We have covered the drug violence before, in Drug Wars - Cancún is Safe for Tourists. It was heartening to read that, amongst all of the scare stories and misinformation, some of the international news sources are conveying the reality of the situation. Today's blog is a little round up of some of them.



"If you look at history, today we have fewer murders, both in raw numbers and rates," said Mario Arroyo, a researcher with the Citizens' Institute for Crime Studies, a Mexico City think tank.

The statistics show that the most deadly violence is happening in northern Mexico close to the U.S. border where smuggling occurs, and in the states where marijuana and heroin are produced. Also:

• The state with the lowest murder rate is Yucatán, the Gulf of Mexico state known for its beaches and Mayan ruins. Its murder rate of 2 per 100,000 was comparable to Wyoming and Montana.

• Washington, D.C.'s murder rate is nearly quadruple that of the Mexican capital, Mexico City. Washington's murder rate was 31.4 per 100,000 people in 2008; Mexico City's rate in 2009 was 8."
Mexico's violence not as widespread as seems, USA Today, August 2010

"The news media prefer to report horrible events rather than address the reality; Mexico is, in general, a very safe country -- with the notable and news-making exception of Juarez and other border towns -- and has far less violent crime than any large U.S. city," says Barbara Erickson, one of more than a million Americans who lives safely in Mexico.

According to Erickson, a San Miguel de Allende resident, "one would have a greater chance of being hit by lightning than being shot or kidnapped by a drug load's gang."
How Safe is Mexico?, AOL Travel News, March 2010



The Miami Herald went further still. It cited that, while Mexico, as a whole, had a murder rate of 11.5 per 100,000 people, Washington DC has a rate of 31 per 100,000 people, while New Orleans has a rate of 74/100,000! Despite the news headlines, the homocide rate in Mexico has dropped significantly during the past ten years; while modern day murders tend to be 'concentrated in a few cities, mainly in Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Baja California'.

The commentary added, "To say that it's unsafe to travel to Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta or Cancún -- or that you wouldn't allow your children to spend spring break in that country, as Fox News' right-wing airhead Bill O'Reilly said last year -- is as irresponsible as saying that it's unsafe to travel to some of the biggest U.S. cities.

The State Department's travel alert, while correctly pointing out that the violence is concentrated in some Mexican states, should have put Mexico's national figures in perspective. It wouldn't be a bad idea if, from now on, it compared them with other countries' murder rates, and with that of its own home city -- Washington, D.C."
Mexico's drug-related violence isn't widespread across the country, The Miami Herald, March 2010

All of these stories were pretty much referring to the same source. That was the United Nations findings. I went to read the original for myself, but found another great story instead.

Human Trafficking is a global issue. It is effectively modern day slavery; snatching vulnerable people from around the world and selling them onto private individuals or into brothels, usually in another country. Organizations like Amnesty International have long since been campaigning for governments to take note and help those brought into their realm. The United Nations recently came on board and launched its Blue Heart Campaign. Guess which country was the first to sign up for it? Viva Mexico!



"Mexico became the first country today to launch a national version of the United Nations-led “Blue Heart” campaign against human trafficking, which is regarded as one of the most lucrative forms of illegal activity for criminal groups.

“I admire Mexico’s leadership in fighting this modern slavery demonstrated through its strong commitment to the ‘Blue Heart’ campaign,” said Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which spearheaded the global campaign."
Mexico leads countries in UN ‘Blue Heart’ human trafficking campaign, UN News Service, April 2010.

Much kudos too for the USA, which launched its campaign two months later; and Spain, who are gearing up to start their campaign.

Drug Wars - Cancún is Safe for Tourists.

It was Monday morning and the blogosphere was buzzing. Bodies had been found near Cancún! Everyone should run away! Stay at home! Batten down the hatches! Hide under the bed! From the unsettling details of the original news sources, each blogger seemed to build upon the last person's blog, until a wave of hysteria had piled on heaps of fiction as fact. A casual reader would be forgiven for thinking that Cancún tourists were being collected up en masse, taken out to deserted places, then tortured slowly to death.

Er. No.

Let's try and gain some perspective here. Yes, there are drug wars in Mexico. However, Mexico is a very big place and it is important to note where these drugs wars are occurring. They are on the main route between Colombia and the USA. Colombia, where 90% of the world's cocaine is produced; and the USA, which is the main market for the finished product. For this, Mexico is best described as a thoroughfare, a highway, the delivery route. Other types of drugs might be home-grown/produced, but they are mostly all heading in the same direction - up into America. It is in the American border states where trouble flares. The American Government's current travel warning names three of them: Chihuahua, Coahuila and Durango. Cancún is in Quintana Roo.



Because maps don't really give you the scale of distance, let me clarify. Cancún is 2145 kilometers (1333 miles) away from Chihuahua.

Cancún is miles away from the flashpoints of violence.

You might point to the port in Cancún, then move upwards to highlight its marine proximity to the American state of Florida. This is very true, but also extremely problematic. If you read the previous blogs on the pirates of the Caribbean, you will have noted that they died out because the Caribbean Sea became too well policed for piracy to continue. This is still the case. There is a naval base on Isla Mujeres for a start. Plus Cancún relies upon tourism for its economy. Tourists only come if they feel safe. Therefore Cancún is one of the most heavily patrolled cities in Mexico. No city is totally without crime, but the crime rate in Cancún is very low. If you were a drug baron, would you prefer to move unmolested through the jungles and outbacks of central Mexico or run the gauntlet of police, armed forces and customs officers in Cancún?

Cancún is extremely well policed; its economy relies upon keeping tourists safe.

Of course, the sceptics will still be pointing towards those bodies in a cave, which most definitely did occur in Cancún. Yes, it did. The bodies have not yet been identified, but they are unlikely to be tourists. The big clue is in the fact that no tourists have been reported missing. Without an official word on the subject, any attempt to identity them or their murderer(s) is pure speculation. However, it is known that the victims were all Mexicans, which makes it unlikely that they were tourists. Even the lurid details are mostly exaggerated rumour, based on early reports getting it slightly wrong. The victims did not have their hearts cut out. They were stabbed repeatedly in the heart, hence their demise.

Now let us enter the world of speculation: The precedent of previous similiar situations (generally hundreds of miles away) leads us to assume that the six victims were members of a drug cartel themselves. That is how it tends to work. Gang-warfare. Horrific and stomach-turning, but it's gang against gang. It's point scoring. It's a power struggle. It's one cartel saying to another cartel, this is my territory and my livelihood, so go away. Now why on Earth would that point be made by targeting random tourists, rather than, say, one cartel's best delivery men and women? If anything, that's like killing off potential customers!

Cancún is completely safe, unless you're a member of a drug cartel. In which case, you already know the risks.

So why is the American government warning people to stay away from Cancún? Why is the media full of dark portents and dire speculation for the future? And why is there a wave of shrieking bloggers flailing in panicked print and telling us to flee?

To address the first point, Americans aren't being officially warned against Cancún.

Please read the advice for yourselves: US Department of State Travel Warning: Mexico. Here are the relevant bits for the subject of this blog:

Some recent confrontations between Mexican authorities and drug cartel members have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades. Large firefights have taken place in towns and cities across Mexico, but occur mostly in northern Mexico, including Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, Chihuahua City, Nogales, Matamoros, Reynosa and Monterrey. During some of these incidents, U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily prevented from leaving the area. The U.S. Mission in Mexico currently restricts its U.S. government employees’ travel within the state of Durango, the northwest quadrant of the state of Chihuahua and an area southeast of Ciudad Juarez, and all parts of the state of Coahuila south of Mexican Highways 25 and 22 and the Alamos River. This restriction was implemented in light of a recent increase in assaults, murders, and kidnappings in those three states....

... U.S. citizen visitors are encouraged to stay in the well-known tourist areas.

In other words, the warning isn't for the whole country. It's for the border areas, right up in the north of the country. You are far closer to it in California, Arizona, New Mexico or Texas, then you are in Cancún. But if you are travelling, then keep to tourist areas. The message here is clear: the tourist areas are safer.

The first thing that any government does, when trouble strikes, is to remove their personnel from the area. The US Consul is still fully staffed in Plaza Caracol, Cancún. (Surely that is the best posting in the world? Imagine the scene: you've just been made a US ambassador and you're waiting to find out there. Will be it a warzone? Will it be somewhere cold or dull? No, it's Cancún. Hurrah!)

The papers are full of nay-sayers, because that sells newspapers. Have a read of Greenslade's Blog, The Good News About Bad News - It Sells for more about that. Though the crux of it lies here:

... peoples' interest in news is much more intense when there is a perceived threat to their way of life... Fear and poverty stimulate greater interest in news... Note how fear in developed countries, created in recent times by terrorism, also sells many thousands more newspapers.

In short, a headline screaming, 'Lots of Fun, Partying and Alcohol Happened in Cancún', is hardly going to be read, let alone reproduced across the blogosphere; unlike 'People Tortured to Death and Dumped in Cancún'.

As for blogs, many are reactive. This blog is reactive. It's been written as a reaction to the list of other blogs out there telling me that Cancún is now a hotbed of dangerous gang-warfare, with people dragged off the streets and horrificially murdered. *looks out of the window* Really? Because right now it's looking as chilled out as ever. Beautiful people lounging on white sands in front of a turquoise sea. Flip-flops clop-clopping as people drift along the boulevard without a care in the world. Sun rising in a cloudless sky. But what do we know? We only live here.



Though you could have a look through the testimonials of other people who live and work here: Cancun is Safe! That's a website founded by a native Cancunese called Camilo, who became so tired of the smear stories about our amazing city, that he fought back with reality. Please avoid his website if you only like to read bad news.