We’ve all seen the headlines – “16 police officers arrested in connection with Mexico mass graves”,”U.S. expands Mexico travel warning over violence”, and “429 Bodies Found Since April in 2 North Mexico States” – and I have to admit, they’re pretty daunting.
How Safe is a Trip to Mexico?
Violence is basically the only thing you hear about in Mexico these days, and it’s being shouted so loudly by the media that it’s hard to ignore or hear anything to the contrary.
Don’t Listen to the News About Mexico
The problem with listening to the news outlets about Mexico and how safe it is to travel there is that they are in it for the ratings and viewership. They’re only going to post the most sensational and often gut-wrenching stories, all in an attempt to steer your eyeballs in their direction. Fair and balanced reporting in order to show both sides of the story doesn’t really happen much these days. So when you decide if you should go to Mexico in the middle of a drug-cartel sponsored bloodbath, or anywhere else questionably safe, it’s best to trust your own judgement and look at the facts.
The Yucatan Peninsula is Especially Safe
For my trip to Mexico, I wasn’t too concerned about the violence. “Not too worried about beheadings and AK-47 wielding thugs making roadblocks?” you ask? Well, not really. See almost all of the violence has taken place in the North of Mexico, with the remainder following a clear path from the South to the North.
This makes perfect sense when you think about it: it’s violence related to drug trafficking people! It’s in a clear line from the areas where drugs are grown (South of Mexico) to where they’re sold (the United States). Of course I’m over-simplifying and there are problems around certain port areas as well (such as Acapulco), but this is the gist of it. It makes no sense to bring things up to the Yucatan Peninsula, adding thousands of kilometers and gaining nothing.
When dealing with the violence of drug-trafficking, stay off the highway and you won’t get run over. As you can see from the Google driving directions, there is quite a bit of distance between San Fernando in Tamaulipas and Cancun. The whole Yucatan peninsula is really outside of the danger zone – just go to this page and scroll down. You’ll see an info-graphic breaking down how many deaths there are in each state, and you’ll see why there isn’t much to worry about in the Cancun area.
Kassi says
Yours is a clever way of tihnikng about it.