Travel alert for Nogales called prudent response
US consul in Sonora advises caution, not fear, in coping with violence there
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.08.2008

Shortly after the U.S. Department of State issued a Mexico travel alert with warnings of drug-related violence in Sonora, the U.S. consul in Nogales was asked for advice by a member of his church.

"She says, 'Brother Dinkelman, my parents are visiting and we have a time share in San Carlos that we were all planning to go to with my kids next week, but you've got this travel advisory and I don't know what to do,'" said the consul, John Dinkelman, recalling the e-mail. "I wrote her back and said, 'Dear sister, enjoy the beach.' "

He also recommended that they be more aware of their surroundings and avoid traveling at night between urban areas. A week and a half later, the woman approached Dinkelman at church.

"She says, "Oh, we had a wonderful time, and you know the beach was just empty,' " Dinkelman said. "I was very happy for her, but I was also saddened because her line that the beach was empty was in a way to me a message that fewer people are willing to take responsibility for their own safety and would rather just blow it off and not go.

"Therein lies the rub," Dinkelman said. "When people go on vacation, they don't want to worry about personal safety. . . . Sadly, in the world we live in, this is not the case. People get killed all the time in violence around the world, including in the United States. . . . What we are seeing now, unfortunately in the Arizona-Sonora area, is that this risk is starting to affect what used to be considered our own safe little backyard."

The warnings were included to ensure that U.S. citizens are fully aware of increased risks associated with the rising tide of drug-related violence in the region, not to tell people what to do, he said.

"Our job is not to stop you from doing something. It is to make sure your decision to do something or not to do something is a fully informed one," Dinkelman said. "The people of Tucson have every right, as long as the Mexican government allows them, to come anywhere in Mexico they want to come."

But while he emphasizes that the alert isn't a stop sign at the border, he stands by the department's decision to add Nogales to the alert alongside notoriously dangerous cities such as Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez and Laredo due to the irrefutable rise in bloodshed.

The 2008 body count in the border city has exceeded 100, more than double the 2007 total and triple the 2006 total. On Thursday alone, three people were gunned down and killed in Nogales, including one man in front of dozens of people at the Estrella Blanca bus stop located one block east of the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, Sonora.

During an interview last week at his office at the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, Sonora, Dinkelman, who has been consul in Nogales, Sonora, since August 2007, discussed the violence and travel alert in depth. Here are some excerpts from the conversation:

About the Department of State's decision to include Nogales in the new Mexico travel alert:

"When we sense an increase in Americans victimized in violence situations or when we ourselves are experiencing a change from the norm, we coordinate that through an extensive network of security officers and consulate officers to make sure the information is standardized. Every six months we have issued some sort of travel notification to American citizens. The only thing that happened different on Oct. 15 that didn't happened April 15 or the October before was that Nogales happened to be mentioned and everybody locally went, 'Well, why is this?' The reality is that we have seen an increase in violence throughout the area. . . . As we see violence increasing south of the border we have a responsibility to make sure that the uninformed American who is considering traveling here be as fully informed as possible.

"It would be a dereliction of our duty to not let American citizens know what we were sensing as to what was going on in those areas."

On what factors play into deciding what to include in a travel alert:

"It is literally a tightrope. And, as a public servant in a post-9/11 environment, I feel that weight very strongly because the last thing I want is for an American citizen to fall in harm's way and be able to credibly say nobody made an attempt to tell me that what I was about to do was dangerous. That's terrible. But, at the same time, we live in a free society and the last thing I want is to stop someone from doing whatever it is they choose to do. So, the fine line, the tightrope, is providing you, the media, or the American citizen who has the ability to go online and research for him or herself, to get all that information possible and make an informed decision."

On how much the Department of State weighs potential effects on tourism or local commerce in issuing alerts:

"Of course we have to weigh it, but everything has to be subordinated to the safety of our citizens. If it's a choice of making sure the restaurateur on the beach at spring break has enough business or that those American students are fully informed and safe — what should we choose? It's not my choice; I am simply a public servant making the information available. . . . My colleagues in Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez and throughout all the cities in Mexico and frankly throughout the entire world have the same responsibility, and we are in it together. The unique situation here is that unlike my colleague who sits in Durbin, South Africa, and is worried about a different situation of safety for the Americans who travel 20 hours by plane to get to his district, mine are simply people who may just want to go lunch for an hour and a half. And so, the casual nature of the visitor to Northern Sonora is much different, compounded of course by the familiarity. How many thousands of people in Tucson know a nice restaurant just south of the border? And, when they have a visitor come from New York or Chicago, they say, 'Hey let's go to Mexico for the afternoon, buy a couple trinkets, do something fun and we'll bring you back.' . . ."

Have there been any U.S. citizens harmed by drug violence in Nogales:

"Americans walking down the street who happen to be in a gunfight — no. Americans driving down the road and perhaps having to hear something — unquestionably. There are just too many Americans running around Nogales to where someone is not going to be affected. (But) harmed (knocks on wooden table), not yet."

On the reaction he has received since the alert came out on Oct. 14:

"There has been some reaction locally from north of the border which was, 'Oh, we are afraid we are never going down here again,' which was just as dismaying (for the reasons I cited with my friend from church) as the press, dare I say pooh-poohing it a bit as being an overreaction a bit on our part. It's in the middle. Things are worse. Is there chaos south of the border? Definitely not. Are things the way they were in 1955?
Definitely not? But are things as peaceful in Tucson as they were in 1955? I dare say not, either. Our job is simply to make sure that everyone is aware of that."

On how the rising violence and subsequent alert has affected residents in Nogales, Sonora:

They are under considerable mental stress, Dinkelman said. That's because they are suffering from a three-pronged effect: fewer visitors, a bad economy and increased drug violence.

"There are a few hundred thousand very good, very decent, honest, normal, working Nogalenses who live in this city who are confronted with these three things. . . business is bad, violence is increasing and our neighbors no longer come to visit because they are scared of what is going on in our town."

On the efforts by Mexican President Felipe Calderón to discourage the drug cartels:

"I applaud them. I stand up, I cheer, give me pompoms. The Mexican government is going to heroic lengths to fight what is an ongoing threat to both of our nations. They are doing us the honor of putting themselves on the line in a battle in which we are both continuously engaged."

On his own worries for his wife and children:

"My wife takes the children to school in Arizona every day and drives them home every day, and along her pathways to and from our home in Nogales there have been various acts of violence at various levels of severity. Am I concerned about her and my children? Of course I am. Am I also concerned about her and the children on Interstate 19? Yes. Did I call my wife who was at the Tucson Mall a few weeks ago when somebody was shot by the Oro Valley police in front of the Wal-Mart? Of course, because she was two blocks away. But the funny thing is, as Americans, I think we blow off a little bit more the violence at the Wal-Mart as being part and parcel of life, but because there is violence south of the border we might take that as a little bit more intimidating, which we should. We should be scared — I don't want anyone dropping dead because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think keeping it a realistic analysis as to what's going on is critical. That's what the travel advisory is for, to let people be informed about what's going on, and choose what to do."

On the future of the conflict:

"I'm not going to even try and act as a prophet and tell you where this is going. I can tell you that as the violence continues, the consulate will remain vigilant in reporting what is going on here and coordinating with our sister consulates and our embassy to make sure citizens in the United States are given a completely clear picture of the true level of violence in Mexico. We are not swayed by any other factor than the potential threat to the American citizen, because that is our job."

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