Is Mexico Safe?

I love the numbers. They go up by 30% every time I hear them.

I don't pass the border; I live here. I'm also not American.

No one's encouraging you to come here, so far we've just asked you not to come here spouting your regurgitated drivel and maybe put off someone who has the sense to respect the opinion of those of us on the ground.

Nothing you've said has any basis in fact, and unlike other threads, your opinion is not only worthless, it's detrimental to others who are looking for real information to help them decide whether to visit.

There's no reason why you should try and prevent others who want to experience something different. Come or don't come. It's all the same to us.

I get my info from the internet silly. Where do you get yours? More facts, 85,000 murders in past 6 years in Mexico.

Thanks for the heads up. I feel safer already. Dont do Disney. Maybe do the dragons tail instead.

If you keep your secret place to ride to yourself then it wont be so crowded when you go riding. Shhhhhhh.

The dragon' s tail? You mean the t- shirt shop along a road with some twists in it?

Larry, your number is way too low, 113 million dead in the last 2 weeks. Craneguy, MikeMike and I are the only ones left alive from the US border to all the way to Guatemala and Belize. Pretty grim, kind of lonesome. Lots of Dos Equis Amber and Sabritas though. I do hate do drink alone.

With all sincerity, I invited you to open your heart and your mind. You have decided not to. Your life is diminished, not by refusing to ride Mexico but by your closed mind and your blind dedication to false information.

Enjoy Florida, 318 miles, 11 curves.

You did read the origional post correct? To each his own. I did not say dont do it I said right now I would not be doing it.

And a few hills if you know where to look.

I always find this mind set amusing. Same ole same ole. I have never been there, will never go there, but I have read or heard...... therefore, I know more about Mexico than any of you who live there and/or ride there on a daily/regular basis.

Personally, I think that they all should ride the hell out of Florida. Better for those of us who actually ride in Mexico. And I also believe that it is a personal decision as to whether or not anyone should or should not ride in Mexico. To each his own. What I still cannot understand, is why do they think that they can come on this forum and say "I read" or "I heard", therefore no one who rides in Mexico actually knows what they actually experienced while riding there? Are we all taking drugs before starting the bike and only riding in an illusion? Must be, because somebody "read" and somebody else "heard" and somebody else saw it on the internet, so it has to be true. Anyone with actual riding experience in Mexico is wrong.

As I said before, those that "read" should make their own risk assessment and ride the hell out of Florida. For those that want more than just riding Florida and are looking for more adventure, Mexico has a lot to offer. But each individual needs to make their decision based on FACTS and not HYPE.

You actually made me google the subject. (by the way, in the first page of results I found estimates from 30,000 dead to 150,000. Very useful) Here's an interesting take from Lonely Planet, who I think we can agree are a pretty well respected and honest voice in the travel business:


Are Americans safer in Mexico than at home?
Robert Reid
Lonely Planet author

Every week or so I get asked,‘Is it safe to go to Mexico?’ I had always said, if you’re thoughtful about where you go, yes. But after my most recent trip there, I’m changing my answer… to a question:
Do you think it’s safe to go to Texas?
To be clear, violence in Mexico is no joke. There have been over 47,000 drug-related murders alone in the past five years. Its murder rate – 18 per 100,000 according to this United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime report – is more than three times the US rate of 4.8 per 100,000. Though Mexican tourism is starting to bounce back, Americans appear more reluctant to return than Canadians and Brits (5.7 million Americans visited in 2011, down 3% from 2010 – and, according to Expedia, more than four of five bookings were adults going without children). Many who don’t go cite violence as the reason.

What you don’t get from most reports in the US is statistical evidence that Americans are less likely to face violence on average in Mexico than at home, particularly when you zero in on Mexico’s most popular travel destinations. For example, the gateway to Disney World, Orlando, saw 7.5 murders per 100,000 residents in 2010 per the FBI; this is higher than Cancun or Puerto Vallarta, with rates of 1.83 and 5.9 respectively, per a Stanford University report (see data visualization here, summarized on this chart, page 21). Yet in March, the Texas Department of Public Safety advised against ‘spring break’ travel anywhere in Mexico, a country the size of the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy combined. Never mind that popular destinations like the Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica have far higher homicide rates (36, 42 and 52 per 100,000). Why the singular focus?
Before you nix Mexico altogether, consider these five things:
1. Mexico may be more dangerous than the US overall, but not for Americans.
According to FBI crime statistics, 4.8 Americans per 100,000 were murdered in the US in 2010. The US State Department reports that 120 Americans of the 5.7 million who visited Mexico last year were murdered, which is a rate of 2.1 of 100,000 visitors. Regardless of whether they were or weren’t connected to drug trafficking, which is often not clear, it’s less than half the US national rate.
2. Texans are twice as safe in Mexico, and three times safer than in Houston.
Looking at the numbers, it might be wise for Texans to ignore their Public Safety department’s advice against Mexico travel. Five per 100,000 Texans were homicide victims in 2010, per the FBI. Houston was worse, with 143 murders, or a rate of 6.8 – over three times the rate for Americans in Mexico.
3. And it’s not just Texas.
It’s interesting comparing each of the countries’ most dangerous cities. New Orleans, host city of next year’s Super Bowl, broke its own tourism record last year with 8 million visitors. Yet the Big Easy has ten times the US homicide rate, close to triple Mexico’s national rate.
Few go to Ciudad Juarez, a border town of 1.3 million that saw 8 to 11 murders a day in 2010 (accounts differ – CNN went with 8). It’s unlikely to ever be a tourism hostpot, but things have been quietly improving there. By 2011, CNN reported, the homicide rate dropped by 45%, and the first six weeks of this year saw an additional 57% drop, per this BBC story.
If that trend in Juarez continues all year, and it might not, the number of homicides would have dropped from over 3000 in 2010 to 710 in 2012. Meanwhile New Orleans’ homicide rate is increasing, up to 199 murders last year, equivalent to 736 in a city with the population of Juarez.
4. By the way, most of Mexico is not on the State Department’s travel warning.
The best of Mexico, in terms of travel, isn’t on the warning. The US warns against ‘non-essential travel’ to just four of Mexico’s 31 states (all in the north: Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango and Tamaulipas). The warning goes on to recommend against travel to select parts of other states, but not including many popular destinations such as Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, the Riviera Nayarit, Cancun, Cozumel and Tulum.
Meanwhile, 13 states are fully free from the State Department’s warning, including Baja California Sur, Yucatan, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guanajuato and others.
5. Malia Obama ignored the Texas advice.
Of all people, President Obama and first lady said ‘OK’ to their 13-year-old daughter’s spring break destination this year: Oaxaca. Then Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum made snide remarks over that, perhaps overlooking that Oaxaca state has a smaller body count from the drug war than his home state’s murder rate (Oaxaca’s 4.39 per 100,000 to Pennsylvania’s 5.2).
Oaxaca state, not on the US travel warning, is famed for its colonial city, Zapotec ruins and emerging beach destinations like Huatulco. Lonely Planet author Greg Benchwick even tried grasshoppers with the local mezcal (Malia apparently stuck with vanilla shakes.)
So, can you go to Mexico?
Yes. As the US State Department says, ‘millions of US citizens safely visit Mexico each year.’ Last year, when I took on the subject for CNN, one commenter suggested Lonely Planet was being paid to promote travel there. No we weren’t. We took on the subject simply because – as travelers so often know – there is another story beyond the perception back home, be it Vietnam welcoming Americans in the ’90s or Colombia’s dramatic safety improvements in the ’00s. And, equally as importantly, Mexico makes for some of the world’s greatest travel experiences – it’s honestly why I’m in this line of work.
So yes, you can go to Mexico, just as you can go to Texas, or New Orleans, or Orlando, or the Bahamas. It’s simply up to you to decide whether you want to.
Robert Reid is Lonely Planet’s New York–based US Travel Editor and has been going to Mexico since he was three (most recently to Chacala).


Read more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/blog/2012/04/30/are-americans-safer-in-mexico-than-at-home/#ixzz2Eym7KeCr

Sorry bud, it just ain't true. I was beheaded 3 weeks ago by a Narco that mistook me for an American. That'll teach me to wear a Hawaiian shirt and knee socks!

My lack of a head is quite possibly the reason for my poor typing. I feel I'm better off without it. I'd have whiplash by now I'd be shaking it so hard.

(and no smart remarks about talking out my ass! )

Ive never ridden in Florida but I've heard that it's hot, humid, flat and full of drug addicts, pedophiles, and WT. I don't want to go there. I'm not saying you shouldn't go, just saying, I wouldn't go there right now.

My favorite, as reported before, is the guy who bails out on a hotel or motorcycle tour reservation with us because "his sister's neighbor's best friend's hairdresser's cousin went to Peñasco in the motor home and they were hassled and their stuff stolen. No arguing. The info is definitive.

Larry, an update on the numbers. It is now 113 million and 1. Just me and MikeMike now, Craneguy lost his head. Since everyone else is dead, the perp must be a Guatemalan from M13 passing through. Those bastards. (Probably heading for the US to get free health care)

Was in Mexico for about 3 weeks last month. While there, I was killed 2 times. Am I only counted once in the 13 million or am I counted twice?

That depends. Were you killed one of those times by John McAfee during a daring, daylight cross border murder spree from Belize? If so, that counts separately and we will have to bump the number again. Somehow I think you are making up the "killed twice" story to screw me up and make me look foolish in Larry's eyes. If I find out this is the case I guess I'm out of luck since you have already been killed twice and it would feel like piling on if I killed you again.

SR,
You are absolutely right. I decided to test the water and did a ride down to Key West in October. I saw all that stuff and even more. I'll be in Mexico next month.

Typical American. Just had to one-up the locals didn't you. Well the joke's on you; we only went to one of your funerals. We felt the second was redundant. (and when I say we I mean not me coz my headless body was still being held for ransom)

We did however hold two wakes. No sense in missing an opportunity to get drunk.

Seriously though, thanks for stopping by and presenting the facts.

Your numbers are a little off though. It's only 6.5 million dead. The other half are in the US where I hear they were resurrected under Obamacare. They now vote republican and use only synthetic oil and their front brakes.