SUNDOG
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Just How Safe is Mexico Right Now?
Just How Safe is Mexico Right Now?
Doug Bower
Doug Bower
October 28, 2006
In a column I wrote in August 2005, entitled, Kidnapping Americans
in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, I said this about the American press and
their coverage of the events then taking place in the border city:
"The "Spotlight Fallacy" is simply this: "This line of reasoning is
fallacious since the mere fact that someone or something attracts the
most attention or coverage in the media does not mean that it
automatically represents the whole population. For example, suppose a
mass murderer from Old Town, Maine received a great deal of attention
in the media. It would hardly follow that everyone from the town is a
mass murderer. The Spotlight fallacy derives its name from the fact
that receiving a great deal of attention or coverage is often
referred to as being in the spotlight."
Once again, the American press, this time NPR News[ii], is
spotlighting the events now taking place in Michoacan.
In the article, Mexico's Drug Wars Leave Rising Death Toll, author
Lourdes Garcia-Navarro writes:
"Mexican and U.S. officials are meeting Thursday in Laredo, Texas, to
discuss concerns about growing drug violence in Mexico. U.S.
Ambassador Tony Garza has advised U.S. citizens to exercise extreme
caution when traveling in Mexico because of "the rising level of
brutal violence.""[iii]
The author goes on to mention the hideous fact that the level of
violence is becoming even more brutal:
"More than 1,500 people have died in narcotics-related killings this
year alone. In recent months, dozens of people have been beheaded and
tortured as cartels across Mexico fight for the lucrative drug-
trafficking routes into the United States."[iv]
I chose to bring this issue of Crime in Mexico back to my column
writing because it is once again affecting the decisions of potential
expats and, in some cases, tourists who come to Mexico for retirement
or even to visit. I understand Americans being afraid of coming here
when the American press spends an unbalanced amount of time and print
in spotlighting these events without reporting the "rest of the
story."
When I wrote my article on the kidnapping of Americans in Nuevo
Laredo, I contacted one of the authors (a member of the Texas press)
who had written the article. Living in Mexico City, the most crime-
ridden city in the country, she agreed with me that much of her
article and what she had contributed to the reporting of this news
had been horribly twisted out of context. She told me that her
reporting had been spotlighted to create the impression that, "We
American expats have to dodge bullets every time we walk out our
front doors."
As an American expat living in Mexico now for more than three years,
let me just say: We are not having to dodge bullets each time we
leave the house nor are we in danger of having our heads whacked off
by murderous drug lords.
Look, I get that Americans considering coming to Mexico to visit or
expatriate are at the mercy of a press in America that has, for all
practical purposes, gone a bit loony. I realize if you had to depend
on the press to find out whether or not it is safe to venture out of
your house, you would never walk out the front door. You would, in
fact, think that the United States was the most dangerous place on
the earth to live from what the press reports each day.
In May 2006, the American press reported more than ten events that
ranged from parents offering their adolescent children heroine to
some guy in Oklahoma plotting and partially carrying out the
cannibalistic murder of his ten year-old neighbor. Another guy in
Pennsylvania got mad at his brother so he beat him to death with a
tire iron, then chopped him up and threw the body parts out the car
window all over the county.
You would think, as do many Latinos and Europeans, that America is
not the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, but rather the
Land of the Mass Murderers and the home of the Serial Killers.[v]
And why does the rest of the world see America in this light? Partly
it is due to the spotlight fallacy in which the whole is judged
according to the few who are spotlighted by the press. Partly it is
because it is true.
America is a violent place.
But, not all of America is a violent place.
Do you get that?
Saying that the drug-trafficking violence happening in one part of
the country (and it is horribly violent and brutal) makes all of
Mexico a dangerous place to live or visit is like saying when the
last L.A. riots occurred, no one should have come to visit or live in
Kansas City. Statistically, roaming the streets of south L.A. is far
more dangerous than walking down the street in Overland Park, Kansas.
The truth is that you are more likely to become a homicide statistic
in America than you are in Mexico.
Read this quote from our book, GUANAJUATO, MÉXICO Your Expat, Study
Abroad, and Vacation Survival Manual in The Land of Frogs:[vi]
"In the year 2003, in Mexico, there were 13 murders for every 100,000
inhabitants in the entire country. In that same year, in the United
States, that was the same homicide statistic for the state of
Louisiana. These stats come from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports for
the year 2003. "Another conclusion that can be drawn from the State
Department report, which some in the U.S. government might find
shocking, is that Mexico appears to be a safer place to be for U.S.
citizens than their own homeland. The State Department figures show
that a total of 77 U.S. citizens were murdered in Mexico during the
two-year period ending Dec. 31, 2004. That's for the whole country.
By comparison, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, in 2003
alone, 109 people were murdered in the mid-sized city of Milwaukee.
In Washington, D.C., where State Department officials cook up their
policies, a total of 248 people were murdered in 2003, the FBI report
shows. New York City weighed in with 597 murders that year." —Bill
Conroy NarcoNews.""[vii]
Murder is horrible but somehow we are even more repulsed when the
murder victim's heads are removed and displayed for the entire world
to see. The drug lords who are killing those associated with the drug
trade have learned well from the Islamic terrorists how the terror
effect is effectively achieved by chopping someone's head off and
throwing it onto a dance floor—which happened recently in Mexico.
Three points Americans seem never to notice:
1. The beheadings in Mexico happened to those who have associations
with the drug trade. They are not innocent American expats or
tourists.
2. Americans forget their own violent history with organized crime
and those murdered by Mob Bosses for much of the same reasons Mexican
Mobsters are murdering those who worked for them: botched deals,
cheating their bosses, suspected of ratting to the feds, cops who
have the gall to confront them.
3. The drug trafficking violence is the competing for the profitable
drug market driven directly by thousands of American drug addicts.
Americans never want to acknowledge their part in all of this mess.
If Americans didn't provide the demand, there would be no drug
marketing. But, somehow, it is all Mexico's fault and Americans are
innocent victims. The criminals in Mexico would not be wasting their
time if there weren't money to be made off Americans addicts.
If statistics mean anything, let me leave you with this one. This is
from the book, THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO:
"Americans must take a long, hard look at the so-called dangers in
Mexico. For example, Mexico is not one of the most dangerous
countries in the world. According to online almanac website,
www.aneki.com, the United States of America is in the top 16[viii]
most dangerous countries in which to live. Mexico is not even on the
list."[ix]
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Bruce R Leech
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6796
Registered: 9-20-2004
Location: Ensenada formerly Mulege
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Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
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Sundog is there anyway you could stop sending me all of those emails, you are spamming me to death here. I have used the unsubscribe thing on your
news letter many times but they keep coming, lots of them.
thanks
Bruce
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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Bruce R Leech
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6796
Registered: 9-20-2004
Location: Ensenada formerly Mulege
Member Is Offline
Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
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Sundog is there anyway you could stop sending me all of those emails, you are spamming me to death here. I have used the unsubscribe thing on your
news letter many times but they keep coming, lots of them.
this is getting ridicules sundog make it stop you are driving me crazy with your spamming. I never asked for your news letter and you are flooding me
with them
thanks
Bruce
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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tmcca
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: 11-7-2006
Location: Coarsegold, CA
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bajaguy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9247
Registered: 9-16-2003
Location: Carson City, NV/Ensenada - Baja Country Club
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Mood: must be 5 O'clock somewhere in Baja
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How safe????
Fortunately, Mexico (Baja) is safer then being in Las Vegas
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Lee
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3501
Registered: 10-2-2006
Location: High in the Colorado Rockies
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| Quote: | Originally posted by bajaguy
Fortunately, Mexico (Baja) is safer then being in Las Vegas |
Exactly.
Is Baja safe? Compared to where?
Side streets off Bourbon Street, New Orleans?
Safe compared to the Meatpacking Distsrict, NYC, after dark?
Safer than The Mission District, San Francisco, or Lake Merritt, Oakland around midnight?
Baja is safe.
These other places? Not safe.
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Summanus
Nomad
Posts: 481
Registered: 10-15-2006
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John Day Wilderness, Oregon..safe
all of Saskatchewan...safe
Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming..safe
99% of Alaska...safe
Northwest Territories...safe (polar bears are unsafe from humans)
The Hampshires, New York...safe
Montana...safe and for sale
Ensenada..not safe
Rosarito...not safe
Tijuana..are your kidding?
Sea of Cortez ..drug panga routes...not safe
Baja road...suicidal
beaches...14 die in polluted Santispac water from athletes foot.
Cabo and La Paz...14 new drug & rehabilitation centers. (the ones at the Pemex stations soliciting your pesos.)
No...Baja is no longer safe. Stay away. See places above:
Summanus....ancient Roman Nightly Thunder God. He liked refrieds too.
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Lee
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3501
Registered: 10-2-2006
Location: High in the Colorado Rockies
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Summanus
John Day Wilderness, Oregon..safe
all of Saskatchewan...safe
Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming..safe
99% of Alaska...safe
Northwest Territories...safe (polar bears are unsafe from humans)
The Hampshires, New York...safe
Montana...safe and for sale
Ensenada..not safe
Rosarito...not safe
Tijuana..are your kidding?
Sea of Cortez ..drug panga routes...not safe
Baja road...suicidal
beaches...14 die in polluted Santispac water from athletes foot.
Cabo and La Paz...14 new drug & rehabilitation centers. (the ones at the Pemex stations soliciting your pesos.)
No...Baja is no longer safe. Stay away. See places above: |
I was wrong and your right.
Baja appears, indeed, to be very unsafe.
I would definitely stick with the safe places up North.
What was I thinking?
Let's include some of the more notorius Pemex stations. Very unsafe.
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bajaguy
Elite Nomad
Posts: 9247
Registered: 9-16-2003
Location: Carson City, NV/Ensenada - Baja Country Club
Member Is Offline
Mood: must be 5 O'clock somewhere in Baja
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Hopefully everybody will move to the safe areas and I will have Ensenada all to myself
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Summanus
Nomad
Posts: 481
Registered: 10-15-2006
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bajaguy, the following may help you:
1979..trailer full of household goods bought in Tijuana was stolen from Ensenada motel parking lot. My wife is a non-believer, but I expect to hear
from the Ensenada police any day now.
1985..motorhome broken into downtown Ensenada while parked on Malecon next to statue of famous lawmaker. Police were called..and called...and called.
A young kid walked over and said he saw a policeman coming out of the motorhome door some time back.
1995..wife is missing in Ensenada. Could not find police to report action.
1995..after marrying nice Ensenada gal, had our Just Married sign stolen from car belonging to missing what's-her-name..car was spraypainted with
graffitti.
2004..accousted by police for parking our travel trailer under statue of famous lawmaker on malecon. We paid for the grass replacement and moved on.
Summanus....ancient Roman Nightly Thunder God. He liked refrieds too.
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