Bandit Country

Posted on 08. Mar, 2009 by Kerry Banks in Living

You may have read recently that Canada and the U.S. have issued travel advisories warning tourists about a rising tide of violence in Mexico. In a press release, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs warned Canadians to “exercise a high degree of caution” when visiting Mexico, ominously declaring: “Armed clashes between security forces and drug groups are commonplace in certain areas and could occur at any time without warning.” The U.S. State Department went even further in its travel alert. It told diplomatic staff to curtail all non-essential travel to Durango and other hot spots. It also warned spring-breakers to keep their wits about them when travelling into volatile Mexican border towns. “Large firefights have taken place in many towns and cities across Mexico. During some of these incidents, U.S. citizens have been trapped, the U.S. report stated.

It is true that a major drug war is currently underway in Mexico. Since January 1, 2009, drug cartel gunmen armed with huge arsenals of automatic rifles and grenade launchers have slain more than 30 police, soldiers and judges in ambushes and assassinations. The attacks come in the wake of a crackdown by Mexican president Felipe Calderon that has sent 25,000 police and soldiers against the gangs and resulted in a record number of busts and extradited alleged kingpins to the United States. All told, some 6,000 people were killed there in 2008 during this bloody narco-insurgency. But it also true that the violence is largely confined to northern border towns such as Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Laredo, Tijuana and Nogales, and has not affected the Mayan Riviera, Puerto Vallarta, Hualtuco, Cancun and the other resorts that most Canadian snowbirds flock to.

These government travel advisories, often written in menacing and exaggerated prose, are clearly designed for the small segment of travellers who never read the news. In truth, these pronouncements are not likely to prevent tourists from running into trouble, but they could have an impact on Mexico’s tourism industry. One need only recall the hysteria that followed in the wake of the admittance of a handful of SARS patients at hospitals in Toronto in 2003. The fallout from that health scare cost Toronto an estimated $350 million in tourist revenues. Last year, 1.4 million people Canadians travelled to Mexico, 20 per cent more than the year before. A decline in free-spending American visitors would have a larger impact since the U.S. supplies close to 80 per cent of Mexico’s annual tourists.

My guess is that the actual risks of travelling in Mexico would not be any greater than they were before, and in my experience, as long as you exercise common sense, this is not a dangerous place. However, in light of the recent events any incidence of violence involving a Canadian tourist in Mexico now gets major media coverage. In January, two Canadians were shot in Cabo San Lucas. The news reports offered no details as to the circumstances other than to say that the shooting occurred in a topless bar at 1:30 a.m. I think you need more details to make a judgement on what actually happened.

Another news story now getting a lot of play is a government report that reveals that almost twice as many travelling Canadians were assaulted in Mexico than in any other foreign country from 2002 to 2007– a total of 172 in seven years. That may sound like a lot until you consider that is taken from a total of about seven million tourists, a ratio of about three assaults for every 100,000, which is a tiny percentage. On a per capita basis, China actually ranks higher in assaults on Canadian tourists than Mexico, and yet no one is raising any alarms about travelling there.

Several years ago, my wife and I flew to Fiji at a time when it had been declared off-limits for tourists by Australia and New Zealand, which supply the bulk of Fiji’s tourism trade. The reason for the travel ban was a political coup staged by a businessman named George Speight and seven followers, who had taken 36 government officials hostage. Speight wanted to overthrow the elected government, the People’s Coalition, a multi-racial grouping dominated by the predominantly Indo-Fijian Labour Party, and replace it with one that was entirely native Fijian. At least that was his public stance. It was later revealed that his motive was more personal: the new government had cancelled a couple of contracts with his company, which had pushed him into bankruptcy.

That coup, like virtually all of Fiji’s frequent coups, was resolved without any bloodshed or disruption of public life. But the governing regime did change as a result of the incident, a development frowned upon by Australia and New Zealand, who issued travel advisories in retaliation. These were inspired by political motives rather than out of an actual concern for the safety of tourists. And they did have an effect. Although our vacation was a carefree success, a number of the Fijian resorts were half-deserted, a situation which was felt most by the employees, who saw their hours and salaries slashed.

Other government travel advisories are harder to explain. For example, you may not be aware that Australia issued a travel advisory in 2008 for Aussies travelling to Canada. The report warned Australians to be aware of “the threat of terrorism, heavy snow, ice and forest fires that can erupt at any time.” British Columbia, in particular, was singled out as being located in an active earthquake zone and “subject to avalanches,” along with Alberta. And all this comes from the country that is home to salt water crocodiles, funnel-web spiders, the Great White Shark, the 10 most deadly snakes in the world and the most venomous creature on the planet—the box jellyfish.

The official Australian Smart Traveller website listed several countries that it considered safer than Canada, including Chile, South Korea and Latvia. God knows where Australia would rank Canada in 2009, with tourists now facing the added threats of gang murders in Vancouver, tasering at airports by the RCMP and beheadings and cannibalization on Greyhound buses.

Photo Credits:

#1: flickr.com

#2: abc.net.au

#3: zelkas.com

Tags: Mexico, Travel Advisories