Thread: U.S. issues Mexico travel alert Texas border among the areas

U.S. issues Mexico travel alert
Texas border among the areas of mounting violence

April 21, 2007, 9:00AM
By PATTY REINERT and DUDLEY ALTHAUS
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

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Travel warning for south border WASHINGTON — The State Department warned Americans on Friday to be careful while traveling in Mexico — including the Texas-Mexico borderlands, Monterrey and Acapulco — because of recent drug-related violence and kidnappings.

"U.S. citizens residing and traveling in Mexico should exercise caution when in unfamiliar areas and be aware of their surroundings at all times," the department said in a statement that fell short of an official warning against traveling to the country. "Though there is no evidence that U.S. citizens are specifically targeted. (But) Mexican and foreign bystanders have been injured or killed in some violent attacks, demonstrating the heightened risk in public places."

The advisory said drug violence was present in many parts of the country, urban and rural, in recent months, including the execution-style murders of Mexican officials in Nuevo Laredo.

In recent years, dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped in that border city, across from Laredo, Texas, and more than two dozen cases remain unresolved. New cases of kidnappings continue to be reported, the department said.

"Drug cartel members have been known to follow and harass U.S. citizens traveling in their vehicles, particularly in border areas including Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros," across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, the department said.

The advisory said American citizens should try to travel on main roads during daylight hours and to stay in well-known tourist destinations and areas with better security.

Besides the border areas, the broad advisory says extra precautions should be taken when traveling in the Mexican states of Michoacan, Baja California, Nuevo Leon and Guerrero. Nuevo Leon is the home of Monterrey, an important city for U.S.-Mexico business interests, and Guerrero is home to Acapulco, one of Mexico's top tourist destinations.

"We ask U.S. citizens to exercise all due caution while in Mexico and remain vigilant for any situation that could become dangerous," said Tony Garza, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.

The advisory was not well-received by many Mexicans, coming as it did amid the headlines surrounding the killings of 32 students at Virginia Tech. An editorial cartoon Friday in Reforma, Mexico City's largest newspaper, depicted the pistol-wielding perpetrator of the Virginia shootings with a sign, in English, saying "Warning: Mexico is too dangerous."


Extraditions spur violence

The body count from gangland violence in Mexico has mounted steadily during the past four years as rival gangs battled for control of lucrative smuggling routes into the United States for cocaine, marijuana and other narcotics.

Police — some of whom, analysts say, were in the employ of one gang or another — have been singled out in recent months. Eighteen have been killed in the Monterrey area alone since the first of the year.

The violence has worsened since Mexico extradited to the United States several drug-gang bosses. In Tijuana on Wednesday, according to wire service accounts, four masked gunmen in the employ of a drug cartel stormed a large hospital and battled police in an attempt to free confederates. When the smoke cleared, two of the gunmen were in custody, and two police officers were dead. A third person also was killed. The police did not say what happened to the other two gunmen.

Among those extradited to America was Osiel Cardenas, the head of the Gulf Cartel, based in the Mexican cities bordering far South Texas. His gang has been fighting for years with a rival group based in the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa for control of Monterrey, Nuevo Laredo and other cities near the Texas border. But since Cardenas' extradition for trial in Houston, Mexican authorities say, his underlings have been fighting one another as well for control of the organization.

Earlier this week, Mexican soldiers detained more than 100 local police officers in Nuevo Leon state for questioning about suspected ties to drug traffickers. None of the officers was a member of the force in Monterrey.

By some official counts, there have been at least 700 drug slayings in Mexico this year, including about 50 in Monterrey. More than 2,000 killings were recorded in the country last year. Twenty-one people died in a single day of violence nationwide this week.

Reinert reported from Washington; Althaus from Mexico City.

patty.reinert@chron.com; dudley.althaus@chron.com


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4735804.html

Mexico travel advisory issued

Drug-related deaths prompt U.S. warning; border states included


12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, April 21, 2007
By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News
acorchado@dallasnews.com

MONTERREY, Mexico – The U.S. State Department warned Americans this week of drug violence in several parts of Mexico, including states along the Texas border. The travel advisory comes as emboldened traffickers have posted written death threats against government officials and their families – attaching them with ice picks to the bodies of murder victims, U.S. and Mexican officials said.

In the past month, at least three bodies have been found in the Monterrey area with messages accusing Nuevo León state authorities of favoring rival cartel groups and warning of reprisals against them and their families, authorities said.

"This won't end until you understand," one note said.

"The environment has never been this tense," said a U.S. State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We've never seen our counterparts as worried about their personal safety as they are today."

"We're all walking on eggshells," said a Nuevo León state official, "hoping that the messages they're leaving behind aren't directed at us."

Direct threats against government officials and their families are unusual in Mexico, authorities say.

While confirming the threats, the Mexican official reiterated President Felipe Calderón's vow to crack down on drug traffickers, whose turf battles so far this year have claimed the lives of more than 700 people nationwide. Last year, more than 2,000 people were killed.

Mr. Calderón, who recently disclosed that he too had received death threats, said: "I want to reiterate that we will not only persevere in our cause, but the more violence we face from those who criminalize our youth, the more energetic the response will be from the government."

Two of the states listed in the State Department's travel advisory border Texas: Nuevo León, "especially in and around Monterrey," and Tamaulipas, "particularly Nuevo Laredo." The travel advisory also includes the popular beach city of Acapulco.

While much of the violence is between rival cartels battling over control of drug routes into the United States and for new emerging drug markets in Mexico, the U.S. government warned that foreigners also faced risks.

"U.S. citizens should make every attempt to travel on main roads during daylight hours," the State Department said in the announcement, which replaces one issued in January.

The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Tony Garza, added: "We ask U.S. citizens to exercise all due caution while in Mexico and remain vigilant for any situation that could become dangerous."

U.S. officials also expressed concern for American citizens and investments in Mexico, particularly in the northern region, which has been hit hard by drug violence this year. As many as 50,000 Americans live in the Monterrey area, and 1,200 U.S. businesses have investments there, representing about half the region's $14.4 billion in foreign investment, U.S. officials say. That makes the situation "a great national security concern for us," the U.S. official said.

Alejandro Paez y Aragón, secretary of economic development for Nuevo León, said in an interview that foreign investment in the state continues unabated, but acknowledged: "Foreign companies, particularly American firms, are increasingly raising concerns about the security situation in our state. That is a big concern for all of us."

The killings continued across Mexico this week, including 22 deaths reported Monday. In the northern city of Hermosillo, Sonora, an unknown assailant tossed a grenade into the offices of Cambio newspaper, breaking windows but not causing any injuries.

The attack came a day after gunmen kidnapped a reporter, Saul Noe Martínez Ortega, who had been investigating drug violence for the Diario de Agua Prieta newspaper, also in Sonora.

Since 2000, at least 33 journalists have been slain or disappeared in Mexico, making it one of the most dangerous countries for journalists.

Officials on both sides of the border warned that violence in Mexico will continue to surge as the demand for drugs within Mexico grows. Traditionally, Mexican traffickers refrained from selling drugs to Mexican youths, preferring to focus on U.S. drug demand.

But Mr. Calderón said drug traffickers are today solely focused on profits. He said the country has nearly 1 million Mexican drug addicts, adding that many become addicts by the age of 12.

"That's why they're pushing them into drugs, so that they can make them slaves to their addictions and force them to buy their drugs," he said.

"This is all part of the drug traffickers' diabolical plan," José Santiago Vasconcelos, deputy attorney general for international affairs, said in an interview. "We're talking about a nightmare for our children, and when I say children I mean that in the broader sense, U.S. and Mexican children. Only when we start talking about our children as being both U.S. and Mexican, only then will we alter the battle against traffickers."

Few cities across Mexico represent a more attractive market for drug traffickers than Monterrey, where the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels are waging war. The city is prosperous and close to the Texas border. The suburb of San Pedro García Garza has the highest per capital income in Latin America.

Nuevo León's police forces, which have boasted as being among the most professional and cleanest in the country, got a black eye this week when Mexican troops swept into several cities in the Monterrey area and detained more than 133 police officers for investigation of possible ties with drug gangs.

At a police station in suburban San Nicolás, just as roll call ended Thursday, a police officer took out his gun and shot two of his colleagues and then himself. One of the officers died and the other was in critical condition. The shooter, Gabriel Rangel Calderón, died at the scene. He left behind a suicide note, but authorities did not disclose what it said.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 105b0.html

Best just stay away from that country all to gether, after this week end in DC we are going to be liked even less.

I agree. I'm never going to travel to Mexico again.

You can't avoid it, they're importing all their violence, corruption and filth into America and our spineless politicians do nothing.