Juarez Says "Thank God for Acapulco!"
Is There Still Violence in Mexico? Read on
El Mas Triste Recuerdo de Acapulco
Mexico is on schedule for 2017 to become
the bloodiest year in recent history, with more than 12,000 murders in the
first six months of 2017. June was the deadliest month in the past two decades.
For
each of the past five years, Acapulco has suffered the highest homicide rate in Mexico.
Last year there were
918 killings there, the highest count in Mexico for the fifth straight
year. This year homicides are on schedule for about the same count. Some 5,000 security forces are deployed
there, and the string of hotels and restaurants along the beach brims with
federal and state police, soldiers, marines and municipal forces. Tourists must be protected at all costs, so yes, feel free to take your vacation there. But the rest of the city is vulnerable. So be careful.
Most of Acapulco has been taken over by neighborhood gangs, with names like 221 or Los Locos. Gang members tend to develop specialties: extortion,
express kidnapping, car theft, murder. The dead include barbers, tailors,
mechanics, tinsmiths, taxi drivers—any small business person who refuses to pay extortion fees. Twenty or more of these
groups operate in Acapulco, often moonlighting for larger drug cartels who
contract them for jobs. For more on this, read Borderland Beat's story, with wonderfully gruesome pictures, here.
The situation is only marginally better in Sinaloa state, where the State Department in late December (Trump was not yet President) issued a travel advisory warning for 15 of the 18 municipalities in the state. Mazatlan, like Acapulco a thriving beach town, is not on the list, nor is Los Mochis and Topolobampo. But the capital city of Culiacan is.
Here is what the State Department says about violence against US citizens:
U.S. citizens have been murdered in carjackings and highway robberies, most frequently at night and on isolated roads. Carjackers use a variety of techniques, including roadblocks, bumping/moving vehicles to force them to stop, and running vehicles off the road at high speeds. There are indications that criminals target newer and larger vehicles, but drivers of old sedans and buses coming from the United States are also targeted. U.S. government personnel are not permitted to drive from the U.S.-Mexico border to or from the interior parts of Mexico. U.S. government personnel are prohibited from intercity travel after dark in many areas of Mexico. U.S. citizens should use toll roads (cuotas) whenever possible. In remote areas, cell phone coverage is limited or non-existent.
Here is what the State Department says about Juarez:
Exercise caution in all areas. U.S. government personnel are prohibited from traveling after dark west of Eje Juan Gabriel and south of Boulevard Zaragoza. Defer non-essential travel to the areas southeast of Boulevard Independencia and the Valle de Juarez region.
For the entire State Department travel warning on Mexico (updated recently) read here
