Mike
Contributor
Mexico isn't safer than relation to the US. Mexico as a whole is far more deadly a place then the US. I haven't read any headlines about drug dealers setting any casinos on fire in Las Vegas and innocent people being trapped and burned to death, however I have read these headlines about Mexico.
The truth is that there are PARTS of Mexico that are EXTREMELY dangerous, without anything paralleling it in the USA, and there are parts of Mexico that are just as safe as parts of the USA.
As long as the drug violence remains isolated enough away from tourist areas you can feel relatively safe there. However, those safe areas are being chipped away on a slow methodical march. Acapulco a one time huge American tourist destination has become extremely dangerous and on the State Departments list of places to avoid. There were plenty of people saying not long ago that Acapulco is perfectly safe, the trouble is at the border towns.
There were recent drug related murders of innocents as close as Cancun (outside the beach / tourist area) and there have been isolated incidents of drug violence in Cozumel, with so far limits that have not resulted in the violence spilling onto tourists. Just a short hop away from Cozumel is the Isla of Mujeres, which sits right across from Cancun, it has a rather largish Mexican Naval base and next to it is an area filled with dozens and dozens of confiscated drug runner boats. They are there for anybody to see and cannot be mistaken for what they are. (There aren't too many fisherman who need a fleet of brand new boats all outfitted with triple 250 HP out boards and cheap fishing rods taped to the rigging)
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Last year I and hundreds of tourists watched the Mexican navy surround and confiscate and tow away (very quietly) a 100 foot drug running yacht less than 100 yds off shore on the most popular tourist beach on Isla Mujeres, 50 caliber machine guns pointed and at the ready, two Mexican Navy gun boats involved. A few people on the beach remarked - "isn't it nice how their navy helped tow that guys boat for him", which of course displays to me how naive a lot of us are.
Across the channel from Cozumel in Akumal I've seen the Mexican Army regularly patrolling the beaches at night in search of washed up drugs and drug runners. Just as 5 years ago Acapulco was relatively safe, that has changed, it can change anywhere at anytime. While Cozumel has been well isolated from drug related violence for a long time, that can change at anytime, all it takes is changing circumstances.
In Roatan just a couple of years ago some locals got mixed up with the mainland drug runners and crossed them, stuck their noses where they didn't belong and death and violence flared up on the east end of the island where none had been before, all it takes is something, a relationship, a cousin, somebody doing something they shouldn't, somebody stretching a territory, somebody looking for new opportunities, and violence can flare in any location in Mexico, Cozumel has no magic shield over it, it's just so far remained out of the violence and remained to some degree off the radar, hopefully it stays that way and hopefully someday Mexico gets it's act together in so many ways and the drug wars disappear. But til then the only thing you safely say is so far so good, but let's not be naive about it, everything is subject to change.
The truth is that there are PARTS of Mexico that are EXTREMELY dangerous, without anything paralleling it in the USA, and there are parts of Mexico that are just as safe as parts of the USA.
As long as the drug violence remains isolated enough away from tourist areas you can feel relatively safe there. However, those safe areas are being chipped away on a slow methodical march. Acapulco a one time huge American tourist destination has become extremely dangerous and on the State Departments list of places to avoid. There were plenty of people saying not long ago that Acapulco is perfectly safe, the trouble is at the border towns.
There were recent drug related murders of innocents as close as Cancun (outside the beach / tourist area) and there have been isolated incidents of drug violence in Cozumel, with so far limits that have not resulted in the violence spilling onto tourists. Just a short hop away from Cozumel is the Isla of Mujeres, which sits right across from Cancun, it has a rather largish Mexican Naval base and next to it is an area filled with dozens and dozens of confiscated drug runner boats. They are there for anybody to see and cannot be mistaken for what they are. (There aren't too many fisherman who need a fleet of brand new boats all outfitted with triple 250 HP out boards and cheap fishing rods taped to the rigging)
Last year I and hundreds of tourists watched the Mexican navy surround and confiscate and tow away (very quietly) a 100 foot drug running yacht less than 100 yds off shore on the most popular tourist beach on Isla Mujeres, 50 caliber machine guns pointed and at the ready, two Mexican Navy gun boats involved. A few people on the beach remarked - "isn't it nice how their navy helped tow that guys boat for him", which of course displays to me how naive a lot of us are.
Across the channel from Cozumel in Akumal I've seen the Mexican Army regularly patrolling the beaches at night in search of washed up drugs and drug runners. Just as 5 years ago Acapulco was relatively safe, that has changed, it can change anywhere at anytime. While Cozumel has been well isolated from drug related violence for a long time, that can change at anytime, all it takes is changing circumstances.
In Roatan just a couple of years ago some locals got mixed up with the mainland drug runners and crossed them, stuck their noses where they didn't belong and death and violence flared up on the east end of the island where none had been before, all it takes is something, a relationship, a cousin, somebody doing something they shouldn't, somebody stretching a territory, somebody looking for new opportunities, and violence can flare in any location in Mexico, Cozumel has no magic shield over it, it's just so far remained out of the violence and remained to some degree off the radar, hopefully it stays that way and hopefully someday Mexico gets it's act together in so many ways and the drug wars disappear. But til then the only thing you safely say is so far so good, but let's not be naive about it, everything is subject to change.
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