Don’t Freak Out Over U.S. Travel Warning About Cancun and Los Cabos. Here’s Why Andres Oppenheimer - Miami Herald
go to original August 25, 2017

Update: Mexico Among the World's Countries Receiving Most Tourists (Prensa Latina)

The U.S. State Department’s new travel advisory warning Americans about the risks of traveling to Cancún and Los Cabos should not be taken too seriously. Compared to some crime-ridden U.S. cities — or the deaths from recent U.S. mass shootings — these Mexican resorts look like safe havens.

The Aug. 22 U.S. travel advisory added the two Mexican tourism resorts, which get millions of foreign tourists a year, to their list of dangerous places around the world. Quintana Roo and Baja California Sur, the states where Cancún and Los Cabos are respectively located, have seen a surge of shootings between rival criminal groups in recent months.

In both cases, the State Department advisory says that “while most of these homicides appeared to be targeted, criminal organizations [and] turf battles between criminal groups have resulted in violent crime in areas frequented by U.S. citizens. Shooting incidents, in which innocent bystanders have been injured or killed, have occurred.”

The warning came as foreign tourism to Mexico rose by 12 percent this year, including an 11 percent rise from the United States, according to Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism Enrique de la Madrid. About 60 percent of foreign visitors to the country come from the United States.

Granted, homicides have risen sharply in Cancún and Los Cabos, and are rising across Mexico. A growing U.S. demand for heroin is leading to greater turf wars among drug cartels. Also, the extradition to the United States of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has triggered a bloody power war within his Sinaloa Cartel.

Cancún’s state of Quintana Roo had 169 violent killings during the first six months of this year, up from 65 during the same period last year, according to Mexico’s National Public Security System. Los Cabos’ state of Baja California Sur reported nearly four times more slayings than last year during the same period.

But when you compare these figures with homicide rates in major U.S. cities, they look small.

While Cancún’s murder rate is 20 people per 100,000 inhabitants and Los Cabos’ is 14 people per 100,000 inhabitants, the equivalent rates for some big U.S. cities is significantly higher: 52 people per 100,000 inhabitants in Baltimore, 50 in Detroit and 20 in Washington, D.C., according to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice figures.

... To their credit, Mexican officials didn’t go ballistic over the latest State Department travel advisory. Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism de la Madrid said his country sees it as a “wake-up call” for Mexico to be more effective in combating organized crime.

Read the rest at Miami Herald

Related: Despite State Department Warning, Mexican Officials Say Popular Resort Areas Are Safe (Travel Weekly)

Related: Tourism Leaders Criticize Adding Cozumel to Mexico Travel Warning (Travel Agent Central)

Related: What the Travel Warning for Mexico Means for Your Wallet (ABC News)

Related: Mexico Travel Warning: What the Update Means for Travelers (Condé Nast Traveler)

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