U.S. expands Mexico travel warning

More violence over a wider area in Mexico has caused the U.S. State Department to expand a warning against travel to the country.

The new warning includes the Gulf of California resort area known as Rocky Point, and the area in Mexico around the border crossing near Nogales, just south of Tucson, Ariz. It also warns of continued problems with violence and crime in popular tourist cities such as Monterrey and Acapulco.

A travel warning is the highest caution that the State Department
can issue. It usually deals with civil unrest and long-term problems
involving crime and violence. There are currently 35 countries with
travel warnings, including Afghanistan, Iraq, the West Bank, Colombia, North Korea and Haiti.

While most of the new warning centered on ever higher levels of violence in the areas of Ciudad Juarez, near El Paso, Texas, and Matamoros, near Brownsville, Texas, the long list of violent regions included Northern Baja California:

“Targeted (drug cartel) assassinations continue to take place in Northern Baja California, including the city of Tijuana.
You should exercise caution in this area, particularly at night. In
late 2010, turf battles between criminal groups proliferated and
resulted in numerous assassinations in areas of Tijuana
frequented by U.S. citizens. Shooting incidents, in which innocent
bystanders have been injured, have occurred during daylight hours
throughout the city. In one such incident, an American citizen was shot
and seriously wounded.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Sunday that Baja California
officials have protested the warnings, saying the broad condemnation of
the region don’t take into account inroads made against the cartels in
recent months.

U.S. government officials have walked a fine line in
recent years, issuing alerts and warnings to protect citizens while
simultaneously praising Mexican government efforts to fight the drug
cartels. The cartels make their money shipping narcotics to users in the United States and many of the weapons used in the violence are procured legally and illegally from the United States.

The latest warning points out that hundreds of thousands of Americans visit popular tourist destinations in Mexico each year without any problems. The language was an attempt to differentiate between resorts such as Cancun and Cabo San Lucas
and the violent border regions. Mexican officials, however, have
complained that the travel warnings damage tourism to all parts of the
country.

Fresh reports in recent days point to mass graves of
up to 177 people, many who were evidently pulled from buses traveling
just 90 minutes south of the U.S. border. The latest incident occurred
in San Fernando, a town on Highway 101 in the state of Tamaulipas that is on a popular route to Brownsville.

A Washington Post
story Sunday estimated that 35,000 people have died or disappeared in
drug-related violence in the region over the past four years. Almost
all are Mexican citizens. No major drug violence has targeted tourists,
though visitors in areas covered by the warnings are in danger of
getting caught in the crossfire of gun battles or being swept up in
kidnappings or other drug cartel activity.

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(c) 2011, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).

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