Is the Big Bend area safe to visit right now? (San Antonio: military, dangerous)

[gerfox]

I was planning a weekend trip with my family next week and am wondering if the area is safe after having heard all those stories about drug violence spilling in from Mexico. We'd be going rafting on the Rio grande too. Should I just cancel the trip for now or maybe go to Big bend but not go near the Rio grande?
Thanks.

[Cathy4017]

I just got back from Fort Davis-Alpine-Big Bend. Big Bend is getting hot now, but I didn't feel unsafe in any part of the park. We entered at Panther Junction and went on down to the river at Rio Grande Village. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, and everything was fine.

We didn't go rafting this trip, though. I'd definitely talk to some of the outfitters and park rangers before going rafting.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by gerfox

I was planning a weekend trip with my family next week and am wondering if the area is safe after having heard all those stories about drug violence spilling in from Mexico. We'd be going rafting on the Rio grande too. Should I just cancel the trip for now or maybe go to Big bend but not go near the Rio grande?
Thanks.

To tell you the truth, I don't know anything about that area.
But I've been doing A LOT of research on places to visit in Mexico (from San Antonio)
and I've noticed that South of Big Bend... there's pretty much a whole lot of nothing.

I believe that area is either a desert or a huge area controlled by the mexican cement companies.

I would think that "dangerous people" would rather work in areas close to big border towns where they'd have "workers" on both sides of the fence.

[jtur88]

It would be extraordinarily difficult for anyone, regardless of purpose, to get from anywhere in Mexico to that border area. There is a little village of Boquillas on the Mexican side of the river, but it is over 100 miles by back-breaking unpaved road from there to any kind of civilization in Mexico. In other words, there is simply nobody over there. Don't worry about it.

There is also a Mexican village opposite Lajitas, outside the park to the west, where people used to be able to cross in a rowboat, or drive across when the water was not too high. But it is technically illegal to cross there or at Boquillas, and the border patrol has cracked down and stiff fines will be assessed anyone who crosses there. The Lajitas crossing is also more than 50 miles from a decent road in Mexico.

There could be some activity around Presidio/Ojinaga, but a month ago, I spent an hour or two in Presidio, and (amazingly) didn't even see a single green and white border patrol vehicle while I was there. So I am assuming there is not much scary border activity in that general area. Ojinaga also looked pretty normal---the town is growing very fast, but i didn't see anything suspicious there, nor was there much traffic on the road into Ojinaga. There is a rigorous military checkpoint outside Ojinaga, so the Mexican government is trying to be a deterrent.