Travel In Convoys; Mexico Warns Tourists

[Lucky]

In what must have the Mexican chamber of commerce in a lather , the Mexican government has warned tourists traveling to the country for the holidays to travel in convoys to ward off bandits or drug cartels. Federal protection is available to those who register their travel:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-convoys-20101124,0,4279540.story

[Guest CharliePS]

In what must have the Mexican chamber of commerce in a lather , the Mexican government has warned tourists traveling to the country for the holidays to travel in convoys to ward off bandits or drug cartels. Federal protection is available to those who register their travel:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-convoys-20101124,0,4279540.story

That didn't help that group of 20 guys who went to Acapulco together recently, and were all found together in a mass grave. I think I'll stick with Disneyland.

[Lucky]

I'd rather be shot in Mexico than hear that damn song "It's A Small World" over and over.

[Guest epigonos]

Damn, damn, DAMN I get tired of this topic. I go to Mexico all the time and have NEVER had a problem.

Concerning the twenty guys who went to Acapulco together and were found in a mass grave, I have a few questions.

1. Who were these guys?

2. Where were they killed?

3. Where they tourists?

4. Were they connected to the drug cartels?

5. What were they doing when they were killed?

6. What time of the day or night were they killed?

I have traveled to Acapulco, during November, for years and have NEVER been concerned, at any time or any place, about my safety. Now I certainly don’t frequent parts of town known to be problem areas. I stick to the standard tourist areas. I really have never seen much point in visiting the slums which, in most cities including many in the U.S., are known to be crime infested.

Besides Acapulco I have visited Cancun, Chichen Itza, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Morelia, Patzcuaro, Puerto Vallarta, San Miguel de Allende, and Tulum and have ALWAYS felt safe. Now if you really want to take a chance try visiting certain parts of Los Angeles, Detroit, or New Orleans late at night.

[Guest CharliePS]

Damn, damn, DAMN I get tired of this topic. I go to Mexico all the time and have NEVER had a problem.

Concerning the twenty guys who went to Acapulco together and were found in a mass grave, I have a few questions.

1. Who were these guys?

2. Where were they killed?

3. Where they tourists?

4. Were they connected to the drug cartels?

5. What were they doing when they were killed?

6. What time of the day or night were they killed?

I have traveled to Acapulco, during November, for years and have NEVER been concerned, at any time or any place, about my safety. Now I certainly don’t frequent parts of town known to be problem areas. I stick to the standard tourist areas. I really have never seen much point in visiting the slums which, in most cities including many in the U.S., are known to be crime infested.

Besides Acapulco I have visited Cancun, Chichen Itza, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Morelia, Patzcuaro, Puerto Vallarta, San Miguel de Allende, and Tulum and have ALWAYS felt safe. Now if you really want to take a chance try visiting certain parts of Los Angeles, Detroit, or New Orleans late at night.

I understand where you are coming from, because I have reacted the same way when people question neighborhoods I have lived in or played in. When people say they are frightened to even walk there, I usually pooh-pooh their fear. We all tend to underestimate the dangers in a place where we have never had a problem. Does that mean that the places I moved in were actually safe? Not really: it may only mean that I knew my way around well enough to avoid danger, AND I was lucky (no, not "Lucky"). The first time one gets mugged in Central Park, or a friend gets shot outside a popular gay bar, those places suddenly seem much scarier. So, I won't be wandering around East LA or Carson tonight, because I don't know my way around, and I don't want to trust to luck. The same for some of those towns in Mexico.

By the way, the men who were killed were a group of friends from the same town who went to Acapulco every year on holiday, and the police have found no reason to suspect they were involved in the drug traffic. The last time they were heard from, they were searching for a hotel in Acapulco. Where and why they were killed is unknown.

[Lucky]

Epigponos, please feel free to travel to any hot spot you wish, however dangerous. It's called adventure travel, but in this case, maybe suicide travel is more appropriate. What's the difference here? It's the MEXICAN GOVERNMENT ITSELF making the warnings. Disregard them at your peril.

[Guest zipperzone]

Damn, damn, DAMN I get tired of this topic. I go to Mexico all the time and have NEVER had a problem.

I think you have your head buried in the sand. Just because you have always been safe/lucky doesn't mean that things haven't changed. When their own government is issuing the warning I think it is very foolish to disregard it.

[RA1]

I have been to places where the government, either ours or theirs or both, were issuing warnings BUT I was on business AND I kept "moving", something that I consider key to staying out of trouble. I am not so sure I would seek to "vacation" in "hot" places unless I had special knowledge of what and how to do. Of course, as Lucky says, do what you think best.

Best regards,

RA1

[TampaYankee]

Given the hypothetical choice of Mexico or Colombia, considering the relative risks and rewards, I'm headed to Colombia.

[Guest epigonos]

What we might want to seriously consider in an outright ban on the travel of U.S. citizen to Mexico much like the ban we have on Cuban travel. That way we could destroy the Mexican tourist industry (the number two source of income), thus putting hundreds of thousands of people out of work. We could then station hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops and border guards along the border to prevent these people from entering the U.S. illegally. Doing this might even help our current unemployment numbers. One slight consequence of this, however, would likely be one hell of a social revolution precipitated by millions of starving Mexicans. The possible outcome of such a revolution could easily be that the, extremely well-armed and organized, cartels win and assume control directly or indirectly through a puppet. Now, of course, the United States could NEVER stand for such a government controlling our southern neighbor. We could then send in the army and assume control of the eight Northern Mexican states. It is in these states that the produce, meat products and industrial parts and equipment that are exported to the U.S. are produced. In honor of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo that the Japanese created in Manchuria in the 1930’s we might want to consider calling the new state Mexchukuo.

Ridiculous you say. All we need do is assist the Mexican government to fight and to destroy the cartels. Now if anybody thinks that is going to happen they have their heads up their asses. No U.S. administration Democratic or Republican is ever going to clamp down on the laundering of billions of cartel dollars by U.S. banks. The banks are making millions if not billions by providing the cartels with this service. No U.S. administration Democratic or Republican is ever going to clamp down on the manufacturing, sale, and export of major arms from the United States to Mexico. The manufacturers and arms salesman are making millions if not billions by providing the cartels with this service.

Now you say well the U.S. government might go after the drug users in this country. Now if anybody thinks that is going to happen they have their heads up their asses. The government, over the years, has spent billions of dollars on the LOST war on drugs. As long as the American public insists on seeing users as helpless victims NO actions against them will be taken

Now you say well the U.S. government might legalize the use of drugs and thus destroy the cartels by this means. Now if anybody thinks that is going to happen then they have their heads up their asses. The majority of people in the U.S. will NOT tolerate even the idea of legalization. The American public refuses to accept the fact that as long as there is a demand for ANYTHING there will ALWAYS be a supply.

So in the end all hail Mexchukuo

[Lucky]

Epigonos, I also feel bad for the Mexican people that drugs have essentially destroyed their country. And it isn't the Mexican appetite for drugs, it's the American's. I would love to travel through Mexico as I have in the past, enjoying the small towns, the handicrafts, the beautiful scenery, and even eating some of the walking Mexican food- you know, the food with the shiny black hair and sparkling brown eyes?

But can't do. It's become too dangerous. Americans want their drugs and we give the Mexicans guns to make sure the drugs get to us. We've corrupted their police and their legal system, if not their whole government.

So, on the same day that many of us are stuffing turkey, other Americans are stuffing their noses. Since they don't live in the poor sections of town, our police can't touch them. If they do get caught, they get a program that almost always fails.

In the meantime, Mexicans are so afraid that even their government feels the need to warn people coming into the country. I've been robbed by Mexican police, but drugs are robbing Mexico.

[Guest zipperzone]

Epigoos: You seem to have some sort of fixation with people sticking their heads up asses. KINKY

[Guest epigonos]

It is interesting to note that the twenty “tourists” murdered in Acapulco were not “foreign tourists”. It just so happens that they were “Mexican tourists” from the city of Morelia in the state of Michoacan.

Currently the major Mexican cartels are divided into two large factions. The first includes the Juarez Cartel, the Tijuana Cartel, the Los Zetas and the Beltran-Leyva Cartel. The second includes the Gulf Cartel, the Sinaloa Cartel and the La Familia Cartel.

Acapulco just happens to be in the state of Guerrero which, in the past, has been one of the major strongholds of the Beltran cartel. A small sub group of the Beltran-Leyva Cartel currently headed by Hector Beltran-Leyva is called the Cartel del Pacifico Sur and operates in and around Acapulco. It also just happens that Michoacan is the major stronghold of La Familia cartel. Tragically the twenty “Mexican tourists” from Morelia were mistakenly thought to be members of the La Familia Cartel by members of the Cartel del Pacifico Sur.

To the best of my knowledge only two American tourists have been murdered recently in Mexico. One was a cartel hit and the other was the results of a burglary.

In the first case a Southern Californian high school teacher and local city council member was visiting the Northern Mexican hometown of his wife. The wife was born and raised in the town. They were out drinking in a bar at 3:00 a.m. in a part of town know to be infested with cartel members. They were drinking with some people thought to be drug dealers. The husband was NOT familiar with the town or its cartel ties. His dumb bitch of a wife, being from the town, had to know the situation and got her poor dumb husband killed for no reason other than her own fucking stupidity.

In the second case a man and wife from Northern California were staying in a condo in Puerto Vallarta. The condo in which they were staying just happens to be in the same building in which I rent a condo, though not the same one they were in. Their condo is on the second floor at the corner of the building and had a wrap-around balcony. The balcony is easily reached by standing on a car parked on the street below the balcony. Unfortunately and foolishly the couple had gone to bed without not only locking the sliding glass door to the balcony but they also left the door wide open. A thief entered the condo early in the morning and when the husband confronted the thief stabbed him several times and he died.

[Lucky]

Epigonos- up for a trip to Monterrey?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/27/monterrey-mexicos-wealthi_n_788745.html

[Guest epigonos]

Monterrey, the major industrial city of Northern Mexico, doesn't really offer anything of interest for "foreign tourists". Additionally I really am cautious about visiting the area in Mexico that extends about one hundred and fifty miles south of the border.

[Lucky]

Monterrey, the major industrial city of Northern Mexico, doesn't really offer anything of interest for "foreign tourists". Additionally I really am cautious about visiting the area in Mexico that extends about one hundred and fifty miles south of the border.

We could travel in a convoy...that would be safe.

[RA1]

I have loved convoys since the days of CB radio. Am I beginning to sound like a certain poster whose name starts with "G"?

Best regards,

RA1

[TotallyOz]

I'd rather be shot in Mexico than hear that damn song "It's A Small World" over and over.

LOL