Have gun, will travel

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Mexico’s secretary of tourism, Rodolfo Elizondo, told reporters this week that Mexico’s spasm of narcotics-related violence isn’t affecting the tourism trade.

He should check the numbers. Through the first 11 months of 2007, the number of international visitors to Mexico’s border cities was down nearly 8% to 65.7 million, according to data from Mexico’s central bank.

Most of those tourists are American day trippers crossing the border to buy low-cost prescriptions, visit relatives or enjoy a spicy meal. But the rising body count is making many enchilada lovers lose their appetites.

As reported by Times colleague Richard Marosi today, nine people were shot to death in Tijuana on Tuesday alone in apparent retaliation for a recent crackdown on organized crime. Among the dead were Tijuana police commander Margarito Pérez Saldaña, his wife and two daughters, the youngest aged 12. The assassins had earlier killed three of the policeman’s neighbors — a young couple and their 3-year-old son — in an apparent case of mistaken identity.

Though Mexicans have borne the brunt of the drug violence and mayhem, Americans aren’t exempt. A string of recent attacks on U.S. tourists in northern Baja has shocked longtime visitors to the area. Some are vowing never to return.

Tourism chief Elizondo might want to give them a call and get up to date on the situation.

— Marla Dickerson in Mexico City