Is It Safe to Visit Mexico? The Answer Is Yes--and No

Given the recent news of robberies, killings, rapes and kidnappings in various regions of Mexico, it’s not surprising that many people are wondering out loud if the country is safe for tourists. Many Mexico-watchers say the country’s domestic instability is at its most troubling level since the sudden devaluation of the peso in 1994.

But any would-be traveler needs to remember that in many ways, asking if Mexico is safe is about as sensible as asking: “Is the United States safe?”

Parts yes, parts no.

Most of the Mexican destinations frequented by American tourists--resorts such as Cabo San Lucas, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, and also colonial cities such as Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende and Morelia--continue to do business as usual, with no reports of unusual threats to visitors. Just as the 1992 riots in Los Angeles had little effect on anyone’s vacation in Big Sur, the current crime wave in Mexico City doesn’t necessarily carry implications for every resort.

But if you’re headed for Mexico City itself, you underestimate its troubles at your own risk.

The U.S. State Department on April 29 warned of “critical levels” of crime in the capital, stopping short of steering travelers away altogether. But its counsels caution on many fronts: Take only taxis that have been summoned by phone (and get a license number when you order the car). Don’t drive at night. Don’t wear fancy jewelry or clothing. Whenever possible, use indoor ATMs in daylight hours. Beware of spiked drinks in nightclubs. Don’t walk on empty beaches, amid off-the-path ruins or on undertrafficked trails. And be extremely cautious in Mexico City’s Zona Rosa nightclub area and the neighborhood near the U.S. Embassy, both said to be hot spots for street crime.

But perhaps most troubling to travelers will be this State Department sentence: “In several cases, tourists report that uniformed police are the crime perpetrators, stopping vehicles and seeking money or assaulting and robbing tourists late at night.”

Overall, the State Department reports, taxi robberies, armed robberies, purse-snatching and pickpocketing are the most common crimes in Mexico City, but it notes that sexual assaults against women have increased markedly, and other sources say kidnappings are up too. In two widely reported cases in April, a CNN camera crew was robbed at gunpoint outside the Mexican Foreign Ministry, and a magazine reporter from Texas was shot and critically wounded in a taxi hijacking that began in the capital city’s popular Plaza Garibaldi.

Though Mexico City remains negotiable in the eyes of government and corporate travel-security experts, I’d choose an awful lot of other vacation destinations first.

The Canadian government advises Canadian tourists in Mexico City that criminals commonly force victims to withdraw money from ATM machines (sometimes holding them long enough for two forced withdrawals, just before and after midnight). The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office counsels British tourists in Mexico City not to give out telephone numbers because “such information has been used to extort money” from travelers’ family and friends in Britain.

At the New York-based Kroll-O’Gara Co., which since 1995 has been selling “risk mitigation” advice on foreign destinations to corporate travelers, senior managing director Christopher T. Marquet says that “most people can stay out of trouble” in Mexico, especially in resort areas, and suggests that the recent flurry of incidents in Mexico has prompted “a fever pitch” that overstates the degree of troubles.

However, Marquet says he would put Mexico City alongside “higher risk cities” such as Algiers, Bogota (Colombia), Johannesburg (South Africa), Moscow and Rio de Janeiro right now. He adds that crime is a substantially smaller threat, although in some cases rising, in 10 other Mexican cities that his company regularly evaluates.

Another area that crops up often in warnings about Mexico is Chiapas, the southern region where guerrillas have battled with government troops on and off. Recently there have been reports of increased antipathy toward outsiders. If you’re a casual tourist, experts say, it’s hard to imagine that seeing Chiapas is worth the risk.

Tourist-related crime occasionally has flared in other spots around Mexico, too, including in April a rape and murder of a woman on a beach about 35 miles outside the Pacific coast town of Puerto Escondido. More often, problems are dominated by the pickpocketing and purse-snatchings that accompany tourist attractions worldwide. On the whole, authorities say, resort areas have suffered relatively little in Mexico’s recent run of troubles.

“I cannot recall us ever having any particular problems with Mexican ports of call,” says Carnival Cruise lines spokeswoman Jennifer De La Cruz. In all, the line has seven ships calling weekly at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, Ensenada and Cozumel, with occasional calls at Acapulco, Huatulco, Manzanillo and Zihuatanejo.

John Slocum, president, of Amerispan Unlimited, a Philadelphia company that arranges Latin American language study trips for Americans, says he has been receiving more phone calls from concerned customers in the aftermath of recent television newsmagazine reports about crime in Mexico. But Slocum says that he’s seen no change in reports on the experiences of Americans he has directed to Mexico. In the last six months, Slocum said, his company has sent roughly 200 students to Mexican language schools, and in that time the worst crime his customers have reported is the disappearance of $20 from a guest room’s night stand.

Reynolds travels anonymously at the newspaper’s expense, accepting no special discounts or subsidized trips. He welcomes comments and suggestions, but cannot respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053 or e-mail chris.reynolds@latimes.com.