Is Mexico Safe?

You summed it up quite well, Sjoerd. Anyone diverting funds from road maintenance is no friend of this community.

How on earth did they control the booth for 15 whole days???

The federal govt lacks the resolve to instruct the GN to do anything. Until recently.....

The local government agency gets a cut.

Easy. Corruption- Mexico has a long history and is considered by many experts to be a failed state.Most government institutions are compromised to one degree or another especially public safety and law endowment

PS - I miss Chango!

Toll booths... Just another example of people in an almost failed economy trying to make a few $. I mind my own business pay my 20 pesos, bless them and ride on.
Everyone is Happy ! All these other theories remind me of the refusal to give a beggar a $1 because “we know they have a brand new car around the corner and they are only posing as a beggar !”
Been Small minded & mean is easy. Opening your mind & heart to a 3rd world economy & its people & contributing a few $’s without judgement & with compassion makes the giver a better person. Open your eyes, the economy & tourist industry has been hit hard and people are struggling in Mexico & the US. People are just trying to live through these tough times any way they can.

Nicely stated.
I deleted several paragraphs of additional thinking. So many cooks in the kitchen

Speaking of infrastructure maintenance there’s a ton of it going on between the SMA turn off and Arco Norte on 57/57D. We saw miles of vehicles crawling along both NBND and SBND through a string of construction zones.

On a related note it’s still not clear to me what the exact role of Guardia Nacional is. Maybe someone can explain this. For the past two days and over 1000 miles I’ve seen traffic stops made almost exclusively by GN and they appeared to be issuing citations. When we bailed off 57 to avoid constructIon GN stopped us and directed us back to the highway. They were manning a checkpoint and (apparently) turning back drivers. That was just plain weird. COVID related??

OYÓ hotels are on my radar screen now. I’m in a King room in México City north of El Centro for under $17USD/nt. Pretty sweet deal.



Google “OYÓ hotels México”

I am told that they are taking the place of the Federal Police.All nice new vehicles and uniforms.I wonder who is paying for it ??

The toll booths south of Guaymas on Mx 15 Were controlled by “locals” when I went through in November and December of 2018 and again in January of 2020. It looked to me like the actual paid workers were still on site with the usual amount of law enforcement present.
And no I don’t reward bad behavior. If the arm doesn’t come down I don’t give them anymore then a friendly wave.

Big weekend coming up in Morelia, The 18th Morelia International Film Festival, and el Día de los Muertos are on tap. Good timing, Morelia and Michoacán have been downgraded to medium risk for COVID. I am pretty sure the downgrade has nothing to do with the 700 million pesos the two events are said to bring into the local economy. Regardless, I'll attend and support the two events as best I can!

Wow, you made that in no time!

I stayed at an OYÓ in Deming New Mexico last year. I think the guy told me that OYÓ stands for On Your Own at least that is what he said.
The place was old but it was clean.

Took that route the other day, t is about 50% of them operating normal, the others have the volunteers taking donations. There were also a few road blocks setup by locals in the small towns, but I was always waived through.

OYO has been going gangbusters in Asia the past few years acquiring, franchising and building new properties. This past year I've seen the same expansion starting here in the US and MX

Hey gang, maybe I wasn't paying attention to all posts in this thread but Medjet as of 10/19/2020 will "transport a member hospitalized with Covid-19 in the contiguous 48 states, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands to a hospital of their choice at home." I recall some posts on the fact you couldn't get transported in the past but now you can. Of course, it would have to be in a place in Mexico that Medjet will go to.

I don't know if this is already on the thread somewhere, but it should be.

This was sent to me today:

"Just wanted to share this photo with you… It's the food court at the Mexico City airport. Out of the 16 restaurants… 10 have closed permanently and the other six may not make it until December"


---Tony