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Don’t Take Spring Break in Tijuana - New Travel Alert for Mexico

The US Department of State has released another travel alert, warning Americans that travel in Mexico is growing increasingly dangerous. It’s becoming one of the kidnapping capitals of the world, and the government’s crackdown on drug cartels has made those criminals increasingly desperate and dangerous. This alert from the Bureau of Consular Affairs delineates that most serious crimes, like armed robberies, carjackings and worst, are escalating.

Violence isn’t exclusive to Mexico, of course; there are plenty of places here in the USA where we shouldn’t walk alone late at night either. However, the dangers of Mexico - particularly in the border states of Chihuahua, Tijuana and Juarez - cannot be understated at this time. Drug traffickers have the local police outgunned, and those policemen may be corrupt anyway (local governments are also suspect). One of the worries that I, as a Southern Californian, have is that Tijuana is a very, very popular vacation destination for Spring Break. It’s an easy hop from San Diego, and college students love to go to TJ for binge drinking and other…shall we say, incautious behaviors of young adults. Tijuana especially, right across the US border, is not a place I’d want any young person I know to spend their Spring Break. With all the fun things to do in safer destinations, Spring Break shouldn’t be a cause for alarm.

Now, Mexico is a large country; many beautiful states therein are still safe for Spring Break. Except for the Mayan Riviera and the Yucatan Peninsula, however, they’re just not hugely popular tourism draws. Drug cartels are effective at corrupting local governments and police officers, and their supply of guns and other weapons is scary. Young adults from the USA are not exempt from planned kidnappings, either. They may even be targeted. This Spring Break, take your vacation somewhere other than a Mexican border state. These vacations are supposed to be fun and frivolous, not frightening and possibly violent.

USA-Mexico Border (wiki commons)

Source: MudslideMama