How safe is travel in Mexico?
That question depends: where are you going?
So says Carol Pucci, a staff columnist for the Seattle Times.
“The State Department warns against travel in the border towns of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juárez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros, but most beach resorts and other historical spots popular with American tourists are unaffected,” she says.
As a new travel warning by the US State Department points out, the areas of concern are not the beach resorts or historical cities most Americans visit, but rather the border towns, specifically Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juárez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros.
“Too often in the past, these types of government alerts have taken a broad-brush approach, simply advising against travel to a country as a whole,” she writes.
What’s different about this warning following the shooting in Ciudad Juárez of three people with ties to the American consulate is its level of detail, and the way it targets only towns where drug-related violence has been rampant.
“This could have something to do with the fact that Mexico’s tourism economy is fragile, and the US government doesn’t want to do anything that might damage it, but let’s hope it also has something to do with a new, more responsible approach to travel warnings in general,” she says.
As the State Department points out, millions of US citizens safely visit Mexico each year. Nearly a million Americans live in various parts of the country, enjoying the benefits of an inexpensive retirement and low-cost medical care.
By David Wilkening
David
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