U.S. Consulate General Matamoros, Mexico E-mail Website: U.S. Consulate General Matamoros State Department - Consular Affairs 888-407-4747 or 202-501-4444 Mexico Country Information I HAVE TRAVELLED TO SEVERAL MEXICAN CITIES AND HAVE YET TO EXPERIENCE ANY PROBLEMS ALWAYS BEING CAREFUL ABOUT OUR SURROUNDINGS AND ALWAYS USING A CAB RECOMMENDED BY OUR HOTEL FOR ALL OUR LOCAL EXCURSIONS, ALWAYS TIPPING THEM FAIRLY AND ESTABLISHING A TRUSTING RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR DRIVERS AND REUSING THEM. In January, 10 indigenous musicians were ambushed in western Mexico, The deployment of soldiers has failed to quell the violence, In some rural communities, residents have created their own police force because they do not trust the official one, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. 2023 Copyright by Travel Safe - Abroad. It was mid-spring when residents of the wasteland behind Guadalajaras international airport noticed a dog roaming their community with a strange object in its mouth: a human forearm. Go to Mexico! #31 out of 78 in 2021. Its not that bad last time i went was when i was real little. A 2019 study by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights documented the Mechanisms problems in coordinating protective measures, providing resources, and establishing clear procedures. Earlier that year, the Gulf Cartel and the Zetaswho at one point worked togetherbegan a brutal confrontation that led to levels of violence never before seen in . Yucatn has a culture all its own, including dishes that you will find nowhere else (Poc Chuc, Relleno Negro, Cochinita Pibil, Papadzules, Huevos Motuleos, etcetera). Criminal cartels often do so with the tolerance or even involvement of certain public officials, the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights reported in 2013. Mexico's homicide rate has been rising every year since 2014 but it remains well below those of other countries worldwide. There may be some in the northern part, but NOT in Mexico City! Few understand the cartels powers better than residents of the Sierra de Ahuisculco, a mountain range to Guadalajaras west where it runs paramilitary-style training camps and secret laboratories that produce vast quantities of synthetic drugs to traffic north to the US. El Crimen | Mexico Crime Rates, Most Dangerous States, Cartel Violence However, pursuit of justice remains elusive. Mexico has relied heavily on the military for drug control and to fight organized crime, leading to widespread human rights violations. WE WILL EVEN HAVE LUNCH WITH OUR DRIVER TO MAKE US AND HIM FEEL AT EASE. Yes, the number of homicides in Mexico has been on the rise since 2014. Its generally safe to travel alone, as a man or woman, but traveling during night time is not ok I think. I have been back many times, sometimes alone, with my young children and with friends. But one underworld yarn suggests the split actually began three years earlier, in 2007, when one Guadalajara narco spilled a glass of hibiscus tea over a rival during a gathering in the citys east. The government has failed to provide adequate support or protection for the estimated 66,000 people seeking asylum in the US who have been placed in the Remain in Mexico program, including people at high risk of marginalization, like those with disabilities and chronic health conditions, older persons, and children. When it is available, its safer than public transportation. A 2017 law made it illegal to use confessions obtained through torture as evidence at criminal trials. Mexico City Crime Rates and Statistics - Hoyo De Crimen AMLO's 'Hugs Not Bullets' Is Failing Mexico, Mexico's Long War: Drugs, Crime, and the Cartels, Violence Against Journalists in Mexico: In Brief, On the Front Lines of the Hot Land: Mexico's Conflict, War Next Door: Conflict in Mexico is Displacing Thousands, Mexican Drug Cartels Are ViolentBut Not Terrorists. Refworld | Mexico: Criminality, including organized crime; state His successor in office, Enrique Pea Nieto, at first said that he would tackle the roots of the violence but his policy closely resembled that of Mr Caldern, going after the heads of the most powerful criminal organisations. The Lpez Obrador administration has failed to take many of the basic steps recommended by global health authorities to limit the spread of Covid-19. While most areas are safe, there are bad people everywhere, so if your radar is going off, it is doing so for a reason. Data were drawn from two waves of a Mexican national survey of public high school students in Mexico. Every night I cant sleep, thinking about what they did to him, she sobbed. But also very explosive, they added. UNM releases 2021 Campus Security and Fire Safety report In some cases, you can find more than one attraction in the same area, such as beaches, ruins, and lots of variety in Mexican culture. Crime Rate by Country 2023 - Worldpopulationreview In this year's report, discover: The number of consumers impacted by cybercrime and identity theft in the past year How the pandemic has influenced consumers online habits and safety What consumers were doing to proactively protect their digital lives Read This Year's Findings Experts Paige Hanson Chief of Cyber Safety Education, NortonLifeLock In October 2020, Mexico was re-elected to the UN Human Rights Council. The states of Sinaloa, Nuevo Leon, Guerrero, and Michoacan all have do not travel advisories from the state department. Criminal organizations have also been responsible for many disappearances. They often bribe or infiltrate the security forces and pay off or threaten politicians so that they turn a blind eye to their illegal enterprises. Uber releases safety data: 998 sexual assault incidents including - CNN To carry out all of these businesses requires a broad and complex web of corruption that . Some provisions, including those that peg the severity of punishments for sexual offenses to the chastity of the victim, contradict international standards. In 2019, the government reported more than 1,000 femicideskillings of women because of their genderabout a quarter of all women murdered. Last month came another reminder of the cartels punch: the body of a key defector, El Cholo, was dumped on a park bench in Tlaquepaque, a tourist town near Guadalajara famed for its pottery and mariachis. According to OSAC (Overseas Security Advisory Council), Tulum is moderately safe to visit and travelers should exercise increased caution in the area. Mexico is not safe. Healthcare workers have faced attacks and discrimination, and some. His critics argue that the president's lack of a defined strategy to combat criminal groups has led to a further increase in violence. At night the beaches in tourist areas are also potentially dangerous. In 2018, the number of drug-related homicides in Mexico rose to 33,341, a 15 percent increase from the previous yearand a record high. Police are corrupt and do not care. Do not travel there alone and exercise extreme caution. Under several layers of dusky earth they made an even more grotesque discovery. You live in fear. Is Mexico Safe To Visit? Travel In 2022 - Forbes There are many areas which have been relatively untouched by violence. Meridas central mercado spreads over several city blocks. The CNDH reported 2,234 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 198 deaths, as of September 1, in prisons, which are notoriously overcrowded and unhygienic. Portraits of missing people are displayed over a table outside the Forensic Medical Service in Guadalajara, Jalisco. Blend in. Crime Index by City 2023 - Numbeo Mexico Crime Rate & Statistics 1990-2023 | MacroTrends I crossed the Mexican border for the very first time in 1977. Violent crime is a serious concern. Healthcare workers have faced attacks and discrimination, and some healthcare workers say they were fired for protesting a lack of protective equipment at public hospitals. How dangerous is Mexico? - BBC News Field Report from Tamaulipas: English language version of "Informe de campo: Seguridad en Tamaulipas Hoy: Una Paz Simulada." Since 2010, the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas has been in a state of high-intensity armed conflict. Aguilar, 63, said there were dozens of such clandestine burial sites across Jalisco state, a sun-scorched slice of west Mexico that is paying an increasingly nightmarish price for its pivotal role in North Americas multibillion-dollar drug trade. I spent three months in Mexico in 1982 and was married on Isla Mujeres. Matamoros 6/25/2021 - U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Mexico (Video: Reuters) Between January and September 2021, Tulum experienced 65 murders, an 80.5 percent. For a complete crime and safety report for all of Mexico please visit El Crimen. Especially in tourist areas, scammers are on the prowl looking for a victim.Fake taxis, fake tour operators, souvenirs, and timeshares seem to be the most common scams.One very common scam is for restaurants to have a different menu and prices for tourists than what locals get.You won't get much help from the police if you are scammed, so you need to be careful. Most states suspended family visits in response to the pandemic, which left many detained people without access to basic hygiene supplies such as soap. The do not travel designation is because of increased violence, drug cartel activity, and Covid-19. In July 2019, Mexico supported a resolution condemning extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines. Country Summary: Violent crime - such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery - is widespread and common in Mexico. While Cancun is the major tourist attraction, there are beaches just as nice that are not as developed or crowded. By 2016, drug-related homicides had increased by 22 percent, with more than twenty thousand killed, and in 2017 a mass grave containing the remains of more than 250 victims of crime-related violence was uncovered in Veracruz State. Cuadrante coordinates scraped from Ubica tu cuadrante. As a side note, for those that are gamers, you probably know that Forza Horizon 5 is based in Mexico and that game is so beautiful just as Mexico is. The 2021 edition of the Mexico Peace Index a comprehensive measure of national peacefulness with trends, analysis and estimates of the economic impact of violence has been released with good news: Mexico's peace has improved after four years of deterioration. The number of investigations into cases of torture by state and federal prosecutors has risen in recent years, from just 13 in 2006 to over 7,000 in 2019, according to a report by the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights. MEXICO Travel Advisory: Is It Safe To Visit Right Now? Recognizing widespread assertions that the use of military force has only increased the level of crime-related violence in Mexicoand accusations that the military has committed human rights abuses and carried out extrajudicial killingsthenpresidential candidate AMLO promised on his campaign trail to revolutionize the fight against cartels and revert to a civilian-led police force. It is a beautiful city with a rich history and culture, and it is very walkable. 9% of New Mexicans reported having a personal experience with violent crime in the 12 months prior to the surveydown from 14% the previous year. There were 26 of them here. In the last weeks, Michoacn has witnessed shootings, attacks against state police officers, drug cartel members parading through the city, civilians disarming and kidnapping soldiers, while . In October, one of El Chapo's sons, Ovidio Guzmn Lpez, was freed on the orders of the Mexican government after Sinaloa cartel gunmen flooded the city of Culiacn and surrounded security forces to press for their boss's release. While safety actually improved in 90 countries, it dropped in 71 countries (and remained stable in two), for a net loss. And im a mexican btw, i know my country way better than you. Weve been experiencing tough times because criminal groups have been trying to destabilize our state and create an atmosphere of terror, Enrique Alfaro, the Jalisco governor, said last month as hundreds of troops arrived, supposedly to combat the violence. Instead, the vacuum left behind has led to further battles between rival gangs and warring pretenders to the vacant leadership positions. The media is just making Mexico look like a bad place, (which it is on some parts) but for the most part its a safe country if you stick to the good parts. I speak Spanish well enough and this helps so much. Please sort this out, its confusing, from what youre posting most of the dangers of swimming, riptides, sharks etc are in CSL. I had fallen in love with Mexico, and returned soon afterward (1981). Mexico crime rate & statistics for 2017 was 25.71, a 29.11% increase from 2016. The government reported more than 75,000 people disappeared, as of November 2020the vast majority from 2006 onwards. Share this via WhatsApp Mexico's location on the southern border of the US means that for decades it has been home to powerful criminal groups smuggling cocaine, heroine, marijuana and methamphetamines north to the United States, the world's largest market for illicit drugs. From January 2019 to March 2020, the administration of US President Donald Trumpwith the cooperation of the Lpez Obrador administrationsent an estimated 66,000 non-Mexicans who were seeking asylum in the US to await the outcome of their claims in Mexico under the Remain in Mexico program. Alleged Extrajudicial Killings Between 2016 and 2019, police and other security. Nobody touches him. World Report 2022: Venezuela | Human Rights Watch Before being deported to their countries of origin, most people detained by the National Guard are sent to immigration detention centers, where people have complained of crowded and unsanitary conditions. Since 2015 the organized crime rate has deteriorated by 48.1 percent and is mainly attributed. The Mexico 2017 Crime and Safety Report for Mexico City by the US Department of State's Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) indicates that crimes such as armed robberies, kidnappings, car thefts, credit card fraud and residential theft are "daily concerns" (US 24 Feb. 2017). The group marched around the memorial to mourn more recently lost souls, and Mara Guadalupe Ayala, 47, described the disappearance of her 25-year-old son, Alfredo, in September 2019. You should never let your guard down when traveling to such places. Quintana Roo in Mexico remains one of the safest states for tourists, despite rising crime rates and reports of bloodshed sparked by cartel warfare in several parts of the country. Mexican governments have long argued that the majority of the victims have ties to criminal gangs or have somehow become "mixed up" in their illegal business. The US average is 10%. Would I recognize him in a restaurant? Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador, center, stands with Secretary of Defense Luis Crescencio Sandoval, left, and Secretary of the Navy, Vidal Francisco Sobern, in an open military vehicle during the Independence Day military parade in the main plaza, the Zcalo, in Mexico City. I guess San Jose del Cabo is MUCH safer than Cabo San Lucas as it would need a score of 92 to average the two into the 80 score of the two cities, assuming equal weighting on each city 200k vs 150k people. Crime rates and safety concerns during the pandemic. It wont kill you, but it will make you very sick for a day or two. The ITF Road Safety Annual Report 2021 examines the development of road safety in the year 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. We say low because it really is not any different than in the United States.If you stay in tourist areas, use some common sense - don't go out at night alone - there is little danger.There have been some kidnappings, so that could be a danger.It is not good for a woman to be away from tourist areas alone for that reason. VideoRussian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims, The children left behind in Cuba's mass exodus, Xi Jinping's power grab - and why it matters, Snow, Fire and Lights: Photos of the Week. In 2019, President Lpez Obrador deployed the National Guarda branch of the militaryfor migration enforcement. Merida is a large Yucatan city that is often overlooked by American tourists. Hold-ups of buses happen from time to time . Nearby stood Cecilia Flores, 54, whose 28-year-old son, Wilians, was taken in 2019. The next afternoon grieving mothers gathered at the foot of a monument to the six teenage soldiers who died defending Mexicos capital from US troops in the mid-19th century. In May 2020, the president formally deployed the military to assist the National Guard in civilian law enforcement. Their advisories include concerns such as cartel activity, Covid-19, contaminated water, and natural disasters. In 2016the last year for which data is availableMexicos national statistics office surveyed more than 64,000 people incarcerated in 338 prisons. In the face of uninvestigated violence, many journalists self-censor. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. These are operated by well-trained guides and drivers, and they have a lot of tours to choose from. Stay alert and aware of your surroundings. That mainly comes down to it being a big city. That year, 45,500 crimes were registered, followed by 45,336 crimes recorded in. As with journalists, violence against human rights defenders is rarely investigated or prosecuted. President Lpez Obrador said in May 2019 that his government would reject the initiative and re-orient US-Mexican cooperation to target the drivers of migration to the US by reducing poverty in Central America and southeastern Mexico. Preliminary figures released by Mexico's National Institute for Statistics for the first six months of 2019 suggest a drop of 3.2% in homicides compared to the same period the previous year. I have never had any problems anywhere I have gone. At the time . Unlike the United States, the culture and tourist areas are downtown in Mexico. These groups do not just deal in drugs but also engage in extortion, money laundering, human trafficking, people smuggling and contract killings. Much of the violence in concentrated in crime hotspots where gangs are either active or fighting over territory. According to the Peruvian National Police ( PNP ), crime increased 15% in 2021. In some parts of the country, criminal cartels provided food assistance to struggling residents and threatened to enforce pandemic curfews violently. January 9 - Quintana Roo is one of the safest states for tourists to visit in 2023, authorities say. He defended his government's decision to free Ovidio Guzmn Lpez by arguing that the move had prevented a bloodbath. Causes of failure include corruption, inadequate training and resources, and complicity of prosecutors and public defenders with criminals and other abusive officials. I only had time for visiting a few of the many beauties it offers. As of November 2020, many people were still waiting under the program, forced to live in precarious, unsanitary, and dangerous conditions with inadequate support from the Mexican government. Human rights violationsincluding torture, enforced disappearances, abuses against migrants, extrajudicial killings, and attacks on independent journalists and human rights defendershave continued under President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador, who took office in December 2018. Families of victims will be able to submit cases to the committee once they have exhausted their legal options domestically. Its the sisterhood of pain, said the groups 50-year-old leader, Martha Leticia Garca, as they waited to examine images of body parts unearthed from an ever-growing network of mass graves. Cartels target tourists you need to be careful. Public transportation and taxis are safe, but nothing beats Uber as far as safety goes. The fact that you dont experience a crime, doesnt mean crime doesnt exist. The criminal justice system routinely fails to provide justice to victims of violent crimes and human rights violations. The previous high had been on 20 April, when 114 homicides took place.. It assesses how the pandemic has affected mobility patterns and impacted the number of road fatalities. Schools closed in Mexico in March 2020, and the 2020-2021 school year is being conducted remotely, with classes broadcast on television and radio. Since President Lpez Obrador took office and through time of writing, the National Council on People with Disabilities, the principal government body coordinating efforts to implement disability rights, has been effectively non-operational. Some people in rural, often indigenous areas have been unable to participate at all. US Overseas Security Advisory Council issues new Travel Advisory for Mexico The Institute for economy and peace reports that Zacatecas state has the highest murder rate in Mexico, of 97.3 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Officials and experts agree that the real number of Covid-19 infections and deaths is likely many times higher than the official count, which was among the worlds highest at time of writing.