BajaNomad

Residents use common sense to stay safe in Mexico

Gypsy Jan - 1-3-2013 at 02:35 PM

From The IMPERIAL VALLEY PRESS

January 01, 2013|By CHELCEY ADAMI | Staff Writer

"Valley residents who regularly travel to Mexico say they simply exercise caution and common sense down here, undeterred by a U.S. Department of State's November travel warning to some parts of Mexico.

In a state by state assessment, extra precaution particularly at night was advised for northern Baja California including Mexicali and Tijuana, but no advisory is in effect for southern Baja California.

For the one-year period ending in July 2012, the number of murders in Mexicali increased by 43 percent, from 127 in the preceding year to 181, according to the report with Tijuana showing 351 murders for the same year.

Twenty-five U.S. citizens were the victims of homicide in Baja California in the year period ending July 2012 with a majority of the murders narcotics related.

The travel warning writes that there's "no evidence that Transnational Criminal Organizations have targeted U.S. visitors based on their nationality," adding that resort areas and tourist destinations generally don't see drug-related violence or crime as much as border regions or areas along major trafficking routes.

However, it does state that U.S. travelers should be aware that there is generally a violent struggle between Mexican and U.S. governments and narcotics traffickers for control, and 113 U.S. citizens were reported murdered in Mexico in 2011 as well as 32 in the first six months of 2012.

Gun battles, kidnappings, disappearances, carjacking and highway robbery were all specifically cited as possible dangers.

"To reduce risk, if absolutely necessary to travel by road, we strongly urge you to travel between cities throughout Mexico only during daylight hours, to avoid isolated roads, and to use toll roads whenever possible," the travel warning writes.

Bob Ham, Imperial County's intergovernmental relations director to the board, spends more than half his time in San Felipe and even spent the New Year holiday there with family.

"Most of the stuff you hear is in the big cities when people are in the wrong part of town, dealing with the wrong element and it's the same thing that happens in Los Angeles, Chicago or New York," he said. "People should look at the murder rate where the State Department warns against and compared it to neighborhoods in major cities."

He stated that most of the violent crime involving U.S. citizens in Mexico included people somehow involved in crime themselves.

"I don't get myself involved in drugs, or trafficking or guns or anything like that, and if you get down into all those statistics, that's what it is all about," he said. "If you're law abiding and go into tourist destinations or into Mexicali, we think Mexico is safer than many of the cities in the United States."

Ham laughed while recalling that his friends in New Jersey asked him if he was scared being in Mexico while his San Felipe friends told him to be careful when visiting New Jersey.

The University of San Diego Trans-Border Institute's December News Monitor reports that drug-related homicides, or "ejecuciones," are down in 2012 for the first time in nearly a decade after seeing them rise annually since 2006 with the biggest jump in 2009.

One of the most consistent sources of this kind of information is the Mexico City-based newspaper Reforma, although they have stopped reporting on weekly "ejecuciones" since Nov. 30.

Calexico resident Arnold Brown travels into southern Baja California annually with a group of Valley resident for the races as well as a few other times a year.
As a retired law enforcement officer, he said you just need to be careful of your surroundings.

"We see a lot of people from the Valley. It's good," he said.

Calexico resident Celia Romero agreed.

She goes to Mexicali once every week or every two weeks and goes into other parts of Mexico a couple times a year. She also said that those U.S. citizens affected by violence in Mexico are usually somehow involved in crime.

"For the most part, it's not just innocent bystanders," she said. "As long as you stay in the tourist area and don't go off the beaten path, it's pretty safe. Nothing has really stopped us from going down there."

Staff Writer Chelcey Adami can be reached at 760-337-3452 or cadami@ivpressonline.com

sancho - 1-3-2013 at 03:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Gypsy Jan
Twenty-five U.S. citizens were the victims of homicide in Baja California in the year period ending July 2012 with a majority of the murders narcotics related
"no evidence that Transnational Criminal Organizations have targeted U.S. visitors based on their nationality,"





This has been the point I've tried to make with friends,
etc., with zero success, that when they read x numbers of US
Citizens killed in Mex, that US Citizens is a broad term, yes
they may have been born here, they have ties ties in Mex
and are not Gringo tourist looking for a margarita and a
pinata. However I'm sure the residents of the Imperial Valley feel
quite at home in Mex as opposed to a visitor from Kansas