Thread: Expatriates in drug violence-riddled Mexico: Stay or go?

Expatriates in drug violence-riddled Mexico: Stay or go?

By David Agren, Special for USA TODAY Updated 4m ago

SAN JUAN COSALÁ, Mexico — Pedro Toro Calvario, 15, stepped out for tacos with two cousins one night in April in this village of close-knit families on idyllic Lake Chapala.

He never returned. One of the cousins was found among the dismembered remains of 18 people stuffed into two vehicles abandoned along a highway.

"This is a situation no one ever imagined," says Agustín Vázquez, Pedro's uncle and the owner of a restaurant popular with expatriates. "The psychosis here is incredible."

Horrific violence between warring drug cartels has been a fact of life in Mexico for years. What is most frightening to Mexicans here, though, is that the victims were selected because they were innocent.

Captured Los Zetas territory boss, Juan Carlos Antonio Mercado, said he ordered the murders to spread fear and reinforce the reputation of his cartel as a syndicate that will stop at nothing to dominate the drug trade.

Such grisly violence against ordinary people seemed unimaginable to the residents of San Juan Cosalá and nearby villages, and has rattled the Americans and others who have moved to the region to spend their lives in the sun.

"It's paradise lost, at least for the short term," says Steven Miller, a retired Air Force major from Las Vegas who has spent most of the past eight years in the Chapala area.

Miller says he's going to move elsewhere in Mexico, while his companion plans on selling her Chapala-area home.

The gorgeous sunsets and idyllic boating scenes on Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest, have drawn thousands of home buyers from the United States and Canada. Many are Baby Boomers whose kids are grown and who planned to live out their retirements in small towns nestled among flower-covered hills in a perpetual spring-like climate.

Easy access to amenities such as well-stocked department stores and high-quality health care has added to the attraction, as do property tax bills that run about $200 a year. But now, these expatriates find themselves caught in the middle of a conflict few of them understand and, worse, have little influence to do anything about.

Mexico's federal police blame the May 9 massacre — one of three mass slayings in the month — on a turf war between the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas as the criminal groups make bloody excursions into their rival's territories.

"The Zetas started to steal drug shipments from the Sinaloa (Cartel) due to a shortage of cocaine in South America," says Alberto Islas, owner of the Mexico City consultancy, Risk Evaluation. "This has led to an escalating war."

The local real estate association reported having more than 700 houses on the market in December 2011, and a drop in sales of more than 50% from the peak year of 2007 is blamed by the association on a slumping U.S. economy rather than insecurity. Still, locals are taking no risks these days.

"All you can do is come to work and go home as fast as you can," says Martha Díaz, a mother of seven and cook at the local American Legion post. "Everyone with children is extra careful about where they're going."

Businesses have been closing early, and locals and expatriates are venturing out less.

Vázquez says his lunch crowd of expatriates has shrunk by 90% since the massacre. He says he is worried about the many halcones, or spies, who are in the area working for the cartels, saying he had expected the influx of soldiers patrolling the streets to calm the local population.

What calms locals, though, concerns some expatriates, many of whom are having second thoughts about a region where foreigners would buy houses within days of arriving.

"(I'm) not sure I want to live in a place the army has to be called in," says Beverly Wright, a retired teacher who has split the past eight years between the area and McAllen, Texas.

Crime outside of the drug violence was never a major issue here, but reports are growing of cartel thugs terrorizing people in general. The Guadalajara-Chapala highway was blocked last year by men who hijacked vehicles.

A rash of home-invasions included the death of American Christopher Kahr, 69, who was shot in November in his garage while unloading groceries.

People here say Kahr's murder had nothing to do with organized crime, but it woke up the expatriate community to worsening safety. Some foreigners protested outside City Hall and formed the Community Safety Initiative, which proposed safety ideas like establishing an anonymous hotline for crime tips. A chapter of the Guardian Angels is being formed to patrol one of the villages.

Many expatriates say they're taking precautions but are not overly concerned.

"Sensible foreigners are not scared," says Rob Parker, a retired Canadian politician.

Some foreigners do not come here to simply lie out on patio furniture. Writer and Iowa native Judy King says they are active in the community, involving themselves in charitable projects and developing ties with residents and neighbors that make Mexico more of a home than a retirement community.

It is just as important to the locals, too, that the foreigners feel safe and at home. Vázquez says the foreigners support local businesses and hire maids, gardeners and construction workers — often paying them better than the going rates.

"You couldn't imagine the situation if the foreigners left," he says.

Expatriates in drug violence-riddled Mexico: Stay or go?