Thread: Tourists shun crime-hit Mexico beaches

Tourists shun crime-hit Mexico beaches

By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 58 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080105/ap_ ... d_tourists

Assaults on American tourists have brought hard times to hotels and restaurants that dot Mexican beaches just south of the border from San Diego.

Surfers and kayakers are frightened to hit the waters of the northern stretch of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, long popular as a weekend destination for U.S. tourists. Weddings have been canceled. Lobster joints a few steps from the Pacific were almost empty on the usually busy New Year's weekend.

Americans have long tolerated shakedowns by police who boost salaries by pulling over motorists for alleged traffic violations, and tourists know parts of Baja are a hotbed of drug-related violence. But a handful of attacks since summer by masked, armed bandits — some of whom used flashing lights to appear like police — marks a new extreme that has spooked even longtime visitors.

Lori Hoffman, a San Diego-area emergency room nurse, said she was sexually assaulted Oct. 23 by two masked men in front of her boyfriend, San Diego Surfing Academy owner Pat Weber, who was forced to kneel at gunpoint for 45 minutes. They were at a campground with about 30 tents, some 200 miles south of the border.

The men shot out windows of the couple's trailer and forced their way inside, ransacked the cupboards and left with about $7,000 worth of gear, including computers, video equipment and a guitar.

Weber, who has taught dozens of students in Mexico over the last 10 years, plans to surf in Costa Rica or New Zealand. "No more Mexico," said Hoffman, who reported the attack to Mexican police. No arrests have been made.

The Baja California peninsula is known worldwide for clean and sparsely populated beaches, lobster and margaritas and blue waters visited by whales and dolphins. Surfers love the waves; fishermen catch tuna, yellowtail and marlin. Food and hotels are cheap.

News of harrowing assaults on American tourists has begun to overshadow that appeal in the northern part of the peninsula, home to drug gangs and the seedy border city of Tijuana. The comparatively isolated southern tip, with its tony Los Cabos resort, remains safer and is still popular with Hollywood celebrities, anglers and other foreign tourists.

Local media and surfing Web sites that trumpeted Baja in the past have reported several frightening crimes that U.S. and Mexican officials consider credible. Longtime visitors are particularly wary of a toll road near the border that runs through Playas de Rosarito — Rosarito Beach.

In late November, as they returned from the Baja 1000 off-road race, a San Diego-area family was pulled over on the toll road by a car with flashing lights. Heavily armed men held the family hostage for two hours. They eventually released them but stole the family's truck.

Before dawn on Aug. 31, three surfers were carjacked on the same stretch of highway. Gunmen pulled them over in a car with flashing lights, forced them out of their vehicles and ordered one to kneel. They took the trucks and left the surfers.

Aqua Adventures of San Diego scrapped its annual three-day kayak trip to scout for whales in January, ending a run of about 10 years. Customers had already been complaining about longer waits to return to the U.S.; crime gave them another reason to stay away.

"People are just saying, 'No way.' They don't want to deal with the risk," said owner Jen Kleck, who has sponsored trips to Baja about five times a year but hasn't been since July.

Charles Smith, spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Tijuana, said the U.S. government has not found a widespread increase in attacks against Americans, but he acknowledged many crimes go unreported. The State Department has long warned motorists on Mexico's border to watch for people following them, though no new warnings have been issued.

Mexican officials acknowledge crime has threatened a lifeblood of Baja's economy. In Playas de Rosarito, a city of 130,000, police were forced to surrender their weapons last month for testing to determine links to any crimes. Heavily armed men have patrolled City Hall since a failed assassination attempt on the new police chief left one officer dead. On Thursday the bullet-riddled bodies of a Tijuana police official and another man were found dumped near the beach.

"We cannot minimize what's happening to public safety," said Oscar Escobedo Carignan, Baja's new secretary of tourism. "We're going to impose order ... We're indignant about what's happening."

Tourist visits to Baja totaled about 18 million in 2007, down from 21 million the previous year, Escobedo said. Hotel occupancy dropped about 5 percentage points to 53 percent.

Hugo Torres, owner of the storied Rosarito Beach Hotel and the city's new mayor, estimates the number of visitors to Rosarito Beach since summer is down 30 percent.

In the city's Puerto Nuevo tourist enclave, which offers $20 lobster dinners and $1 margaritas, restaurant managers said sales were down as much as 80 percent from last year. One Saturday afternoon in October, masked bandits wielding pistols walked the streets and kidnapped two men — an American and a Spanish citizen — who were later released unharmed. Two people who were with them were shot and wounded.

Omar Armendariz, who manages a Puerto Nuevo lobster restaurant, is counting on the new state and city governments to make tourists feel safer. He has never seen fewer visitors in his nine years on the job.

"It's dead," he said.



Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Any one that goes down there is a fool!!

Maybe if they get hurt in the pocketbook enough they'll clean up their cesspool.

This has been happening to San Diego residents who vacation in Mexico for years. The thing that pisses me off is how every San Diego local news outlet refuses to report on these crimes. Recently a family of four was pulled over by a vehicle with flashing lights, then they were driven off road into the boonies and subsequently held at gunpoint and robbed. The father was taken to the back of their truck where they made him unhitch their trailer, because they were too stupid to know how to unhitch it themselves. This all the while the mother and young daughter were harrassed and their teenage son was held at gunpoint blindfolded.

So was this story reported on by any San Diego news station? NOT BY A SINGLE ONE. The only way the local people heard about this incident was because the woman went on a local morning adio show hosted by Rick Roberts, a staunch anti-illegal alien, anti-Mexico corruption crusader. Of course he was immediately blasted as a racist by the local pro-illegal community, saying how people in America are robbed all the time by Americans and how Mexicans are so wonderful, and how Americans are the real criminals, treating Mexicans so terribly and forcing them to resort to crime and illegal entry because we constantly rape their country of resources, etc.

Awhile back, a family was pulled over by real Tijuana police and then taken to an ATM where they made them withdraw loads of cash. Then 4 of them raped the woman in front of her husband and children for hours, then took them to a deserted area outside TJ and let them go. Was this story reported on by the local news? Of course not, it was just a small one or two paragraph story in the local paper, buried way in the middle.

The local news only reports on about 10% of these crimes, and do so almost apologetically, practically defeding the Mexican officials, being sure to point out that the criminals must have been using stolen police unforms and how the Mexican police would never do any such thing. These things happen weekly, if not daily, yet the local news wants to nothing to do with these stories. It's so obvious how they suck up to Mexico, not wanting to offend their huge Mexican audience.

That's why we call San Diego, Mexico's Finest City.

mexico will just send more people here.

You can expect this type of thing to start happening here in the usa soon as well.
also it wont be long until mexican criminals start using heavy firepower here as well. it is only a matter of time.

Mexicans targeting Americans.

That sounds racist to me.

It serves them right. Mexico is one of the most crime infested countries in the world. I hope NO ONE vacations in Mexico until they clean up their government and throw their criminals in jail.

Originally Posted by Bostonteaparty

mexico will just send more people here.

You can expect this type of thing to start happening here in the usa soon as well.
also it wont be long until mexican criminals start using heavy firepower here as well. it is only a matter of time.

You are right. And when these Third World thugs start kidnapping US citizens on US soil I hope all He11 breaks loose.

It (Mexico) is quickly gaining in the homicide category as one of the most violent countries of the world.

Besides, we have many fine beaches and surrounding tourist-dependent areas that could use the business and support. Why not 'stay home' to go on your next beach vacation???

U.S. Department of State issues Travel warnings to U.S. citizens.

[quote]PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This information is current as of today, Sat Jan 05 14:50:57 2008.

Mexico

October 24, 2007


This Public Announcement updates information for U.S. citizens on security situations in Mexico that may affect their activities while in that country. This supersedes the previous Public Announcement for Mexico dated April 19, 2007. This Public Announcement expires on April 15, 2008.

Narcotics-Related Violence — U.S. citizens residing and traveling in Mexico should exercise caution when in unfamiliar areas and be aware of their surroundings at all times. Violence by criminal elements affects many parts of the country, urban and rural, including border areas. In the last twelve months there have been execution-style murders of Mexican officials in Tamaulipas, Michoacan, Baja California, Guerrero (particularly Acapulco), Nuevo Leon (especially in and around Monterrey), and other states. Though there is no evidence that U.S. citizens are specifically targeted, Mexican and foreign bystanders have been injured or killed in some violent attacks demonstrating the heightened risk in public places. In its effort to combat violence, the Government of Mexico has deployed military troops in various parts of the country. U.S. citizens are advised to cooperate with official checkpoints when traveling on Mexican highways.

In recent years, dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped in Mexico and many cases remain unresolved. Moreover, new cases of disappearances and kidnap-for-ransom continue to be reported. No one can be considered immune from kidnapping on the basis of occupation, nationality, or other factors. Criminals have been known to follow and harass U.S. citizens traveling in their vehicles, particularly in border areas including Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, and Tijuana. U.S. citizens who believe they are being followed should notify Mexican officials as soon as possible. U.S. citizens should make every attempt to travel on main roads during daylight hours, particularly the toll (“cuotaâ€