Violence triggers travel advisory for Mexico

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The U.S. State Department has renewed travel advisories to Mexico because of continuing violence and kidnappings, particularly in border cities under siege by warring drug gangs.

Visitors are warned to “stay in well-known tourist destinations and tourist areas of the cities with more adequate security.” High profile killings in Acapulco and the business capital of Monterrey have included those cities on the warning list. Don’t flash jewelry or wads of cash, the government warns; leave your itinerary with loved ones before you leave; stay on main highways; avoid demonstrations.

The advisory was issued by Tony Garza, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico who married the country’s richest woman, the billionaire heiress to a Mexican beer empire. Being a Mexican American of humble origins who blew into town and snagged the country’s most eligible bachelorette seems to have amplified resentment against Garza’s various travel warnings over the past two years.

The timing on this one, days after the Virginia Tech slayings, didn’t help.

The Reforma newspaper on Friday ran a cartoon with the caption, “Warning: Mexico is too dangerous!” over the image of a young man pointing two handguns.

Posted by Sam Enriquez in Mexico City