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It doesn't affect foreigners...it's cartel on cartel violence. I lived in MX fulltime 2008 thru 2012, and moved back earlier this year. I walk to dinner nightly with no worries and do the same when I am in other MXN towns/cities. Overall I feel far more comfortable and safer in MX than in the US...I am a somewhat older (age 65) female out alone at night. In the US I can be viewed as a vulnerable person out after dark, on foot. But in MX the elderly (ouch I hate thinking of myself that way), are far more respected than in the US. I am afforded the front of the line at tiendas by teenagers...imagine that at a 7-11 anywhere in the US!!
Interesting stats from Lodestar's post. I believe the murder rate is mostly cartel-related, as well. I've lived in Mexico 25 years, haven't encountered any violence, but I don't go into any drug hot-spots, exercise the kind of prudence you'd be wise to use anywhere in any big city (if I have to go to one). The one million or so expats from the U.S. and Canada, mostly retired folks, generally enjoy a tranquil life here, as do the majority of the Mexicans. I am not ignoring the murder rate, by any means. It's a terrible situation being caught up in the inter-cartel turf wars and some innocents pay with their lives - bystanders, family members, journalists, politicians who have said they want to crack down on the cartels. But it's a fallacy and an over-generalization to say that the entire country is dangerous, same as looking at big-city violence in the U.S. and applying those stats to anywhere-USA.
Location: San Diego CA>Tijuana, BC>San Antonio, TX
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I saw this article containing a table showing 21,000 murders through September 30th. The table aggregates the stats by state with the following states having the highest numbers of murders.
This ranks homicides for all 228 countries in the world. The top 25 worst are almost exclusively Latin American or Caribbean countries. They not only have high homicide rates, but I'm sure very high other violent crime rates (assault, armed robbery, etc...). Latin America is a very crime ridden part of the world.
Mexico as a country is #23 (out of 228) with a homicide rate of 16.35 per 100,000. The US is #97 with a homicide rate of 4.88 per 100,000. El Salvador is #1 with a homicide rate of 108.64 per 100,000 (yikes!).
With that said, I am also of the belief that tourists and people not involved with the cartels are totally safe in Mexico. I go there for vacation and will continue to. I feel bad for Mexico if news like this hurts some tourists towns where hard working Mexican people earn their incomes.
What I don't understand is how Mexico still can't get control of this stuff after all these years. Mexico now has the 14th largest GDP in the world and growing, above countries like Australia, Spain, etc... Its a country full of terrific hard working people. They are no backwater, and the country has improved in so many ways. It just confounds me that will all this positive growth, they are unable to stamp out the 3rd world type of cartel violence that occurs there.
This ranks homicides for all 228 countries in the world. The top 25 worst are almost exclusively Latin American or Caribbean countries. They not only have high homicide rates, but I'm sure very high other violent crime rates (assault, armed robbery, etc...). Latin America is a very crime ridden part of the world.
Mexico as a country is #23 (out of 228) with a homicide rate of 16.35 per 100,000. The US is #97 with a homicide rate of 4.88 per 100,000. El Salvador is #1 with a homicide rate of 108.64 per 100,000 (yikes!).
With that said, I am also of the belief that tourists and people not involved with the cartels are totally safe in Mexico. I go there for vacation and will continue to. I feel bad for Mexico if news like this hurts some tourists towns where hard working Mexican people earn their incomes.
What I don't understand is how Mexico still can't get control of this stuff after all these years. Mexico now has the 14th largest GDP in the world and growing, above countries like Australia, Spain, etc... Its a country full of terrific hard working people. They are no backwater, and the country has improved in so many ways. It just confounds me that will all this positive growth, they are unable to stamp out the 3rd world type of cartel violence that occurs there.
All about values. The values of voters, the values of average citizens and the values of those in power.
Voters don't seem to care about these things in large numbers, they are just asking for the same thing they have been asking for the last 100 years or so. Make more jobs happen, give us more money, don't ask for taxes or any shared sacrifice to get progress.
The average citizen just doesn't care that much as long as his life isn't directly affected. Did any of my "good" family members suffer from serious crime? No, well then this is someone else's problem. Most don't have a job or business that gets affected by corruption, by a shakedown, by police or public officials screwing them over. So all those things that hurt the economy aren't his problem.
And those in power have horrendous values, but this is how its always been. You get into politics to get power and money. You see it like an American sees going to get an MBA and working for an investment bank. Getting into a position of real power is done for the money. Its not a bribe, its a fee for me bestowing some benefit on you. For many countries this would be seen as corrupted values but for many others its just seen as a way of life.
So how you going to change all that? Tell a voter who has carved out an existence that looks a lot like that of most people of their class level they should demand more? Tell an average citizen they should pay more in taxes and deal with a lot of hassle so that crime can be stamped out? Tell a politician who thought he was getting into a high paying career that he should do it for lousy wages and a sense of public service?
I have these conversations with a number of Mexican citizens, all are my in-laws. This kind of stuff might as well be a calculus class to them. They really don't care and never think of these things. If Mexico allows someone to get a place to live, to have a family, to have a few nice things in life...well its doing just fine and all this other stuff is noise they don't want to be involved in. That's why this is never really going to change.
In the UJSA, more than half of all homicides involve people who are in the same family or close friends or acquaintances. in America, you are wonderfully safe from being murdered as long as you don't hang out with murderers. I don't think there is any reason for Mexico to be any different.
No mattter where you go in the world, it is foolishly paranoid to think you are going to be murdered by a stranger walking down the street. Why do so many have this clinical psychosis?
If you don't associate with a criminal undereworld, just come and go as you please in complete safety -- nobody is going to kill you.
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