war in Mexico

[schmalts]

I just would not feel safe going on vacation there.


CULIACAN, Mexico – Police hunted Tuesday for 27 farmworkers who were kidnapped in northwestern Mexico by dozens of heavily armed men wearing military-style uniforms.

Assailants roused the farmworkers from bed before dawn Monday at a vegetable farm just outside the Sinaloa state capital of Culiacan, then drove off with the group in a caravan of sport utility vehicles, according to a statement from state Attorney General Alfredo Higuera.

The victims, all men between 16 and 61 years old, made less than $10 per day.

Higuera said the motive in the mass kidnapping was still being investigated. But local news media reported that a drug gang may have kidnapped the men to make them work growing marijuana.

The owner of the vegetable camp has family ties to Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, a suspected leader of the Juarez drug cartel, according to a statement from the office of joint police and military operations in Culiacan.

Also Tuesday, 21 police were arrested in the northern border city of Tijuana on suspicion of working with criminal gangs, said Rommel Moreno, attorney general of Baja California state, where Tijuana is located. Two of the officers were state police and the rest came from municipal ranks, Moreno said.

Moreno declined to release further details of the case to avoid compromising the investigation.

Police corruption is a key impediment to Mexico's efforts to root out drug gangs and other criminal groups.

More than 4,000 people have been killed across the country this year as cartels battle for drug routes and lash back at President Felipe Calderon's national crackdown on organized crime.

On Tuesday, the body of a 28-year-old man was dumped in an empty lot in the beach resort of Rosarito, outside Tijuana. The victim was still carrying a loaded gun.

 

[Delw]

schmalts
this has been going on since mid last year and its pretty bad. they have been killing most of the police force in boarder towns along the Az mexican border. they must have gotten most of them cause in the last 2 weeks I havent heard of a mexican cop killing killed and then thrown on school property. this is were they normally throw the bodies is on a school play ground.
I think on the average its 20-40 a week in the killings.

Its also happening here in AZ out kidnappings have gone up alot. there are 2 a week for the most part that are reported. most are not reported. they are all pretty much illegals.

 

[MNHunter]

Well, I wouldn't vacation in the places where this happens. Not every place in Mexico is like this. That would be like not vacationing in Hawaii because of some shit that went down in Harlem.

I love Mexico. Never once felt unsafe in the places I've been. Then again, I don't make it a habit to wander around at night in downtown (name your city in MX), just like I wouldn't wander around at night in many of the places in the US I've been to.

 

[pa mt man]

Just got back from Cabo san Lucas last night. Didn't have any problems. Did drive through four road blocks from Totos Sontas to Cabo Pulmo. Kind of scary them guys toting those automatic weapons. Once they see it's a Gringo driving,they flag us on.

 

[cjcj]

Well, I wouldn't vacation in the places where this happens. Not every place in Mexico is like this. That would be like not vacationing in Hawaii because of some shit that went down in Harlem.

I love Mexico.

W.T.F. ? Mn .....Harlem is not is Hawaii.. your post makes no sence

Resorts are nice anywhere...Would you live in Mexico?

Longer, taller fencing gives illegal migrants a higher hurdle

by Sean Holstege - Nov. 13, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
NACO, Sonora - Mario Garcia Salcido and a friend left home in Culiacán for this dusty speck of a border town last week, headed for jobs in an Idaho milk-processing plant.

They met up with the tallest obstacle the U.S. government has ever erected along the Mexican border: an 18-foot, mesh-metal fence west of here, with poles sunk deeply into concrete.

Garcia hoisted his friend, who wouldn't identify himself, up the barrier, and in 20 minutes, they clambered into the United States illegally. An hour


The tallest portions of the fencing are 15 to 18 feet high, aimed at stopping both pedestrians and vehicles. The shortest barriers are 3 to 4 feet high and designed to stop vehicles in remote areas.

The large fences stretch in broken but growing segments across the 1,950-mile border. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says it has put up 114 miles of truck barricades and 118 miles of new 15- and 18-foot fences. That's about half of the total planned.

The fences are high enough to deter some would-be illegal immigrants. But the Border Patrol and immigrant-aid centers report that people are devising ways to scale the fences, be it by two-by-four ladders, tree limbs or rope - and some are injuring themselves in the process.

The Border Patrol says the fence is doing its intended job.

"The border fence is a speed bump in the desert," spokesman Mike Scioli said. "It slows them down long enough for us to respond."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff talks of the fence as just one facet of a more comprehensive strategy to secure the border. The fence is intended to complement, not replace, extra agents, surveillance sensors, inland checkpoints and technology

 

[MNHunter]

Eactly my point CJ. Harlem is not Hawaii and not evey place in Mexico is like every other place in Mexico. I've been to some resorts as well as "off the beaten" paths. My point is I wouldn't not go to one part of Mexico because of some shit that went down in another area. I don't think Mexico in general is an unsafe place.

 

[Tom]

Well, a friend from El Paso, TX tells me even the locals won't go accross the border there anymore because of all the killing. Its a dangerous part of Mexico right now.

MNHunter, you have any data on a safe place to go?

 

[MNHunter]

Looking for a vacation Tom?

I don't have any problem traveling up and down the Yucatan Peninsula. Granted, much of it is resorts but you can get off the beaten path. I also had a great time this year around Los Cabos and up to La Paz and Loretto. Never once felt my wife or I were in danger.

Similarly, I wouldn't think twice about going to many of the large cities in Mexico.

Along the MX/US border, I probably wouldn't venture very far.

I've felt more threatened in some Eurpoean countries than I have in Mexico. I've even tried to pass as a Canadian once to avoid a confrontation. Not too hard being from MN!

 

[Delw]

The whole entire country is dangerous. when you have no LAW and ORDER anywhere. Not just certain parts of mexico but everywere.

The resorts are not safe either as most of the resort owners have ties to the cartels. one fo the mexican lake resorts were people go fishng the owner was murdered a few months ago... wanna bet he had ties to the cartels? there even more at risk cause they are far out in the boonies. If you have money or tied into the drug cartels, police departments , have friends are that cops in mexico your a target its pretty much that simple. always has been for year now its just getting worse and will continue to get worse in the next 2 years.

 

[Tom]

I'm not vacationing in Mexico, I'll tell you that. Too much risk and too many places on this side of the border with plenty to do and see. Here's a last Jan. article. It says Cabo San Lucas was safe back then, but not the Baja noth of there.
*******************************
Mexico Crime Wave Has Tourists On Edge
Recent Violence On Mexico's Baja California Peninsula Is Driving Visitors Away
PLAYAS DE ROSARITO, Mexico, Jan. 7, 2008

A handful of recent attacks since summer by masked, armed bandits has spooked even longtime visitors to Mexico's Baja California peninsula. The comparatively isolated southern tip, with its tony Los Cabos resort, shown here, remains safer and is still popular with foreign tourists. (AP (file))



(AP) 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.

 

[MNHunter]

I guess I'm not as paranoid as some people are.

North Baja is one place I would not go. South Baja? Can't wait to go again!

 

[Delw]

I guess I'm not as paranoid as some people are.

North Baja is one place I would not go. South Baja? Can't wait to go again!

I dont think of it as "paraniod" I think of it as lessoning the odds of getting killed.

I have a bunch of friends that are going down that way pretty soon, I am pretty worried about them, they are driving and towing there 30-60k bass boats to boot.

 

[cjcj]

Hope, they come home with those boats Delw... I will never go to Mexico Again... unless "they" allow me to take firearms.....So I guess i will never go again EVER!

 

[Delw]

I passed up many many trips to Mexico and some awsum fishing because of the BS and me not being allowed to carry a firearm for protection.

Right around when our first kid was born I was going on a trip to baccaracc (think that was the lake) I had to cancel due to delivery time. Lucky for me. three groups went. My group got robbed and left on an island, the other group one of the guys had a ak-47 shoved in his mouth ( I didn't know him at that time, now hes a good friend). the other group didn't get off so well, they had to fly home with one of there friends that were shot and killed. He was a dentist or doctor from Minnesota.
since then I almost went a few times but always read somehing in the paper that kept me from going.

 

[stanley]

The whole entire country is dangerous. when you have no LAW and ORDER anywhere. Not just certain parts of mexico but everywere.

The resorts are not safe either as most of the resort owners have ties to the cartels. one fo the mexican lake resorts were people go fishng the owner was murdered a few months ago... wanna bet he had ties to the cartels? there even more at risk cause they are far out in the boonies. If you have money or tied into the drug cartels, police departments , have friends are that cops in mexico your a target its pretty much that simple. always has been for year now its just getting worse and will continue to get worse in the next 2 years.

The whole entire country is dangerous???? Huh?? Most of the resort owners have ties to the cartels?? Too funny!!!! Proof???? Have you actually checked the ownership of the resorts??? Last time I stayed at a nice resort in Mexico, it had the name HILTON on it. Cartel ties???

Like you Del, I live here in Phx. I was born & raised in a small mining town here in southern AZ, I vacation in Rocky Point on occasion, and I hunt the 36's regularly. A blanket statement that the whole entire country is dangerous??? Most resort owners having ties to cartels??? Seriously, you seem a bit paranoid...

I have to admit that I'm on guard a bit when I take my family to Rocky Point, but I really don't worry that much....

S.