Is Mexico Safe?
As an American living in Mexico, I get asked about this a lot, and more often than not, I have to listen to the opinions of many Americans who've never been to Mexico, but have been spoon-fed the conventional wisdom of the MSM regarding drug cartel murders in Mexico. In short, the reality on the ground here is so at odds with the MSM narrative of Mexico as a failed state controlled by the cartels, that narrative seems ludicrous. That's not to say that the drug cartels aren't insanely violent, or that mutilated bodies of cartel targets don't turn up on an almost daily basis, and I don't mean to suggest that bad things don't happen to innocent travelers here, as they do as they do around the world. Over at Adventurerider.com, there's a thread with the same title as this post which now has over 550 pages of 8000+ comments from experienced Mexico motorcycle riders. Most of the comments are common sense tempered with experience traveling in Mexico, and every so often someone who has never been to Mexico, and has no intention of ever coming to Mexico pops onto the thread to admonish the other readers that no matter what our own experiences dictate, we are not safe traveling here, and in fact are more at risk here than just about anywhere else on the planet. Meanwhile, I've logged over 35k miles of solo travel here, and some with my blonde girlfriend on the back of my motorcycle with nothing but good stories to tell of a friendly, happy people who will pitch in to help you at the drop of a hat when you are in need. That narrative does not sell advertising so well as the bodies suspended from bridges or heads-in-sacks on the highway stories do however.
From a Huff Post/Lonely Planet blog:
What you don't get from most reports in the US [about Mexico] is statistical evidence that Americans are less likely to face violence 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 according to 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?
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.
In closing, I note that It's more than interesting to see how the conventional US perception of the adjacent country to its south has been formed by a media that focuses largely on the salacious, titillating, and macabre. That the reality of living in Mexico is so at odds with the narrative spun by the MSM, only makes me wonder, and fear, what other perceptions held by Americans captive to gathering their information from these mainstream sources are being seriously manipulated.
Read the article: Are You Safer In Mexico Or America?
