Mexican Violence Elicits a Travel Warning

Well, better late than never on this.  The date of the report is 27 August 2010, but this is the 28th.  But, I doubt anyone is making vacation decisions based upon this blog.  Here is a website with the full Department of State report.

The Department of State has issued this Travel Warning to inform U.S. citizens traveling to and living in Mexico about the security situation in Mexico.  The authorized departure of family members of U.S. government personnel from U.S. Consulates in the northern Mexico border cities of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros remains in place.  However, based upon a security review in Monterrey following the August 20, 2010 shooting in front of the American Foundation School in Monterrey and the high incidence of kidnappings in the Monterrey area, U.S. government personnel from the Consulate General in Monterrey have been advised that the immediate, practical and reliable way to reduce the security risks for children of U.S. Government personnel is to remove them from the city.  Beginning September 10, 2010, the Consulate General in Monterrey will become a partially unaccompanied post with no minor dependents of U.S. government employees.  This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning for Mexico dated July 16, 2010 to note the changing security situation in Monterrey.

Millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year.  This includes tens of thousands who cross the border every day for study, tourism or business and at least one million U.S. citizens who live in Mexico.  The Mexican government makes a considerable effort to protect U.S. citizens and other visitors to major tourist destinations.  Resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico do not see the levels of drug-related violence and crime reported in the border region and in areas along major drug trafficking routes.  Nevertheless, crime and violence are serious problems.  While most victims of violence are Mexican citizens associated with criminal activity, the security situation poses serious risks for U.S. citizens as well.

I did pick up a new acronym in the larger article at the link—DTO.  A DTO is a drug-trafficking organization.

Think about this as a set of connections.  To allow drug smuggling operations to work the DTOs find that they must have some degree of control of or cooperation from police organizations in Mexico, to keep their path free for the movement of drugs.  Illegal immigrants♠ coming north to the United States complicate border patrolling and sometimes help DTOs bring in drugs.  The illegal immigrants provide a larger sea within which the DTOs can operate.  Also possibly moving within this sea of illegal immigrants are potential non-state sponsored terrorists (or even state sponsored terrorists).

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I wonder if Commonwealth Attorney General Martha Coakley thinks that illegal immigrants are still illegal as they cross the border and only become legal once they are established inside one of the four states that border Mexico.  Or, maybe, she thinks that they are still illegal until they get to Massachusetts, where it is not illegal to be illegal.