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U.S. State Dept Issues Travel Warning for Mexico
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_2100.html
January 26, 2005
This Public Announcement is being issued to alert U.S. citizens to the current security situation along the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border in
the wake of increased violence among drug traffickers. Although the majority of travelers in the region visit without mishap, violent criminal
activity, including murder and kidnapping, in Mexico's northern border region has increased. The overwhelming majority of the victims of violent crime
have been Mexican citizens. Nonetheless, U.S. citizens should be aware of the risk posed by the deteriorating security situation. This Public
Announcement expires on April 25, 2005.
Violent criminal activity along the U.S.-Mexico border has increased as a product of a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of
the lucrative narcotics trade along the border. The leaders of several major criminal organizations have been arrested, creating a power vacuum. This
has resulted in a wave of violence aimed primarily at members of those trafficking organizations and criminal justice officials. However, foreign
visitors, including Americans, have been among the victims of homicides and kidnappings in the border region in recent months.
Mexico's police forces suffer from lack of funds and training, and the judicial system is weak, overworked, and inefficient. Criminals, armed with an
impressive array of weapons, know there is little chance they will be caught and punished. In some cases, assailants have been wearing full or partial
police uniforms and have used vehicles that resemble police vehicles, indicating some elements of the police might be involved.
U.S. citizens are urged to be especially aware of safety and security concerns when visiting the border region. The majority of the thousands of U.S.
citizens who cross the border each day do so safely, exercising common-sense precautions such as visiting only the legitimate business and tourism
areas of border towns during daylight hours. It is strongly recommended that red-light districts and neighborhoods where street drug dealing occurs be
avoided.
U.S. citizens who are victims of crime in the border region are urged to contact the Consular Section of the nearest U.S. consulate for advice and
assistance.
The U.S. Consulate General in Tijuana, which covers the states of Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur, is located at Ave. Tapachula 96,
Colonia Hip?dromo. The Consulate General's telephone number is (52)(664) 622-7400, the fax for the office of American Citizen Services is (664)
686-1168, and the Consulate General's web address is http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/tijuana/Teacs.htm .
The U.S. Consulate in Nogales, which covers northern Sonora, is located at Calle San Jose, Fraccionamiento Los Alamos. The Consulate's telephone
number is (52)(631) 313-4820, the fax for the Consulate is (52) (631) 313-46-52, the e-mail address for the Consulate is nogales7@prodigy.net.mx and
the Consulate's web address is http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/nogales/NE_Introduction.htm .
The U.S. Consulate General in Ciudad Ju?rez, which covers the state of Chihuahua, is located at Avenida Lopez Mateos 924 Norte. The Consulate
General's telephone number is (52)(656) 611-3000, the fax for the Consulate General is (656) 616-9056, the e-mail address for the Consulate General's
Office of American Citizen Services is cdjamericancitizens@state.gov, and the Consulate General's web address is http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/mx2/wwwhmain.html .
The U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, which covers northern Coahuila and northwestern Tamaulipas states, is located at Calle Allende 3330, Colonia
Jardin. The Consulate's telephone number is (52)(867) 714-0512, the e-mail address for the Consulate's Office of American Citizen Services is
NuevoLaredo-ACS@state.gov, and the Consulate's web address is http://nuevolaredo.usconsulate.gov/nuevolaredo/index.html .
The U.S. Consulate in Matamoros, which covers eastern and southern Tamaulipas state, is located at Calle Primera #2002, Colonia Jardin. The
Consulate's telephone number is (52)(868) 812-4402, the fax for the Consulate is (868) 812-2171, and the Consulate's web address is http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/matamoros/matamoros1.html .
Americans living or traveling in Mexico are encouraged to register with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate through the State Department's travel
registration website, https://travelregistration.state.gov , and to obtain updated information on travel and security within Mexico. Americans without Internet access
may register directly with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. By registering, American citizens make it easier for the Embassy or Consulate to
contact them in case of emergency.
Updated information on travel and security for Mexico may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 within the U.S., or from
overseas, 1-317-472-2328. U.S. citizens should consult the Consular Information Sheet for Mexico, the Worldwide Caution Public Announcement, and the
travel publication A Safe Trip Abroad, all of which are available on the State Department's Internet site at http://travel.state.gov .
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Bruce R Leech
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Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
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that is a PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT not a Warning. there is a big difference. please don't post it as a warning.
Please check the website
[Edited on 1-28-2005 by Bruce R Leech]
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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Anonymous
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State Department warns of travel to Mexico border
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/27/border.kidnappings/
At least 27 Americans have been kidnapped in past 6 months
January 28, 2005
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- At least 27 Americans have been abducted along the border with Mexico in the past six months because of increased violence among
drug traffickers, prompting the U.S. State Department to issue a warning to travelers.
Of the 27, two were killed, 14 were released and 11 remain missing, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday.
The abductions do not include "express" kidnappings in which Americans are forced to withdraw large sums of money from ATMs before they are released,
Boucher said.
Boucher said he understood the Mexican government may not be happy with the travel warning, but "we do feel that it's important to tell Americans
about the security situation near the border."
"We have worked closely with Mexican authorities to take the appropriate steps to ensure the safety and the security of U.S. citizens in Mexico,"
Boucher said.
"And in situations where Americans are victims of crime, we do follow those cases very closely as the Mexican authorities try to arrest and prosecute
those who are responsible."
Boucher emphasized that "a vast majority" of Mexicans and Americans crossing the border do so "without any mishaps or difficulties."
In its public announcement released Wednesday, the State Department said "violent criminal activity along the U.S.-Mexico border has increased as a
product of a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade along the border."
An underpaid and under-trained police force in Mexico and a weak judicial system add to the problems, according to the warning.
"Criminals, armed with an impressive array of weapons, know there is little chance they will be caught and punished," according to the statement.
"In some cases, assailants have been wearing full or partial police uniforms and have used vehicles that resemble police vehicles, indicating some
elements of the police might be involved."
The travel warning, which expires April 25, calls on Americans to avoid areas where illicit activity occurs, "visiting only legitimate business and
tourism areas of border towns during daylight hours."
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Anonymous
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U.S. tourists cautioned about jaunts to Mexico
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-02-03-mexico-trips_x...
By Danna Harman, USA TODAY
2/4/2005
MATAMOROS, Mexico ? Melba Fassold's posse of five retired Texans, with little Mexican flags pinned to their lapels, crosses the border at 9:30 a.m. By
10, they're sipping pink drinks downtown. By noon, they have exhausted the offerings at the old marketplace, picking up cheap prescription drugs and
cactus-shaped floor lamps.
Next stop for Fassold's $20-a-day tour is Garcia's for $8.99 enchilada and fajita specials, then maybe a slow afternoon samba on the dance floor ? all
before her tour group heads back home to the USA, five minutes away.
Tens of thousands of American citizens make the short trip across the Rio Grande every day to Mexican border towns. Business executives commute to
work at hundreds of U.S.-owned manufacturing plants. Teenagers come to party because the legal drinking age, 18, is barely enforced.
Mexican-Americans visit relatives. Tourists come by the busload to shop, eat and ? as sightseer Patty Hafer, 61, of Chappell, Neb., puts it ? "do the
Mexican scene."
Americans traveling across the border might want to rethink that scene, the U.S. State Department says. On Jan. 21, the department cautioned Americans
about the Matamoros area. Five days later, it broadened the announcement to cover the entire border with Mexico.
At least 27 U.S. citizens have been abducted or have vanished along Mexico's border with Texas over the past six months, caught in what U.S. officials
have described as an escalating turf war between competing drug lords. Fourteen have been released; two have been found dead. The fate of the others
is unknown. By contrast, three or four such abductions were reported each year since 2000.
Yvette Martinez, 27, and Brenda Cisneros, 23, friends from Laredo, Texas, went to hear Mexican singer Pepe Aguilar in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, in
mid-September and have not been heard from since; Gerardo Contreras, 18, from San Antonio has been missing since May, when he went into the Mexican
town of Piedras Negras to attend his sister's baby shower; and Charles Rogers, an oncologist from Brownsville, Texas, was abducted at his clinic here
and released only after his wife paid a hefty ransom.
Almost all 27 abductions have taken place in Nuevo Laredo and towns east of it along the border to Matamoros. The towns sit across from RV parks and
condominiums in Texas, home of many "winter Texans" ? Northern snowbirds who come to the Lone Star State to escape the cold.
The U.S. consul in Matamoros estimates that 100,000 Americans ? mainly winter Texans but also businesspeople and spring breakers ? are expected to
cross into Matamoros this year alone. The vast majority of them, Fassold says, are perfectly safe.
"If you look for trouble, you can find it," says Fassold, a St. Louis native who started the first day tours across the border to Matamoros 35 years
ago. She echoes the Mexican government's claims that the incidents of violence were connected to the drug trade.
Fassold, a self-proclaimed "Mexico-history nut" sports a dyed-red bouffant hairdo and enormous tinted glasses. She says the danger is being
sensationalized by the media and hurting Mexico's reputation. "If you are not looking for trouble, you have nothing to fear," she says.
John Naland, the U.S. consul general in Matamoros, disagrees. The problem, he says, is that these days trouble might find you.
Two weeks ago, six off-duty prison guards from Matamoros' maximum-security prison were murdered, allegedly as a result of orders from drug lords
inside the prison.
"It was the straw that broke the camel's back," Naland says. "It's one thing for bad guys to kill other bad guys at 2 a.m. ? but when a powerful drug
cartel takes out six innocent people in cold blood in the early evening, it's time to worry. ... Anyone could walk into this."
The State Department announcement about Matamoros was issued the next day. The following week, the State Department extended the advisory to the
entire 2,000-mile border, from Matamoros in the east to Tijuana in the west.
"It's not a red light," Naland says. "It's blinking yellow."
"And what ... does that mean?" says Emigdio Manuel Garcia, owner of Garcia's. His 3,000-square-foot pink complex, yards from the border, features a
full-service pharmacy (no prescriptions required), a crafts market, a restaurant and a bar. It takes up the entire block and employs 550 workers.
Garcia's, he says, can get "pretty crazy" on Friday nights.
But perhaps not tonight. Since the advisory, business has been slower than usual. A nine-person staff of waiters has been cut to four. The five-man
bar band plays to an empty lounge.
"This should be our best season," Garcia says.
Anger has been the typical Mexican reaction to the advisory and to the letter sent by U.S. Ambassador Antonio Garza to Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis
Ernesto Derbez expressing concern that the Mexican police were incapable of "coming to grips" with border violence. Derbez called the U.S. position
"exaggerated and outside the scope of reality," on national TV.
Aides to President Vicente Fox issued a statement implying that the warning was an attack on Mexican sovereignty.
Mexican authorities are trying to calm the situation and ensure that Fox's campaign against the drug lords does not falter. More than 650 federal
police and 30 tanks were dispatched to patrol the region this week. They set up checkpoints, searched houses and surrounded the Matamoros prison.
(Related story: Border patrol attacks rise)
In a phone conversation with President Bush on Monday, Fox offered assurances of his government's "commitment to contributing to the consolidation of
a safe and modern border," according to his office.
The mariachi band at Garcia's is on a break, replaced by a soulful keyboardist giving a soft rendition of Don't Cry for Me, Argentina. A table full of
American businessmen are tapping their feet to the music and indulging in flaming bananas with vanilla ice cream. They come every day for lunch from a
nearby plant that repairs cable TV boxes, says Tom Arce, controller at the factory.
Across the room, by the wooden dance floor, a waiter is courteously giving Fassold, the tour guide, a kiss on the cheek.
She will be back tomorrow, as always, with a new group. They will probably need just a small table.
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JESSE
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I think the U.S. goverment has the right to issue as many warnings as it wants, its their citizens. But the truth of the matter is, that considering
the millions of americans who visit Mexico every year, things are as safe as ever for the average tourist.
Unless you like to venture to border town, in red zone districts, and like to get women and drugs, then your odds are definately higher than average.
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