Mexico responds to U.S. travel alert

The Mexico Tourism Board defended the country as a "safe destination" in the face of an updated travel alert from the U.S. State Department released on Feb. 20. Additionally, the city of Rosarito recently began public security meetings to advise about actions taken to preserve safety and provide a safe environment for tourism in the city. It is a massive effort involving local civilian authority, police, and investigative resources.

This, in partial response to the U.S. agency's use of "strong language" in warning Americans about escalating crime and violence throughout Mexico, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border. However, reading the alert plainly and fairly, it states, "While millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year, violence in the country has increased recently," the State Department said. So while it is true that there have been problems, millions of U.S. citizens "safely visit Mexico each year."

Sensation-seeking reporters on both sides of the border seize on the violence, and ignore the millions of U.S. citizens not only visit Mexico, but live in Mexico full or part-time.

The agency urged Americans to take common-sense precautions while traveling in Mexico, including staying in the "well-known tourist areas" of the cities they visit, and traveling on main roads during daylight hours, particularly toll roads, which are generally more secure.

According to the alert, Mexican drug cartels are "engaged in an increasingly violent conflict, both among themselves and with Mexican security services, for control of narcotics-trafficking routes along the U.S.-Mexico border." In theory, if you do not challenge in this you are not involved.

The Mexican Tourism board said Mexico is a large country with many safe destinations to visit. However, lazy journalists talk about murders taking place in Rosarito, yet never mention that the violence almost always occurred in distant, desolated areas and that innocent tourists are not affected and generally unaware of anything unpleasant. The city limits of Rosarito start at the Tijuana border and go half way south toward Ensenada, and inland many kilometers, up canyons and uninhabited areas.

Just Silly
I have seen Associated Press reports saying that the "residents of Tijuana wake up every morning with bodies in the streets" and heard news hosts breathlessly talk about the cities of Mexico "resembling Faluja, Iraq" in the middle of a terrorist civil war. It all appears silly to those of us living it every day.

"Mexico remains a safe tourist destination, and this is reflected in the 22.6 million international visitors that arrived in 2008, of which 18 million were Americans," the board said. "This number represents a 5.9% increase from the previous year," however the border regions that rely on tourism have been devastated by the lack of visitors.

Common Sense
With a tip of the hat to common sense, the U.S. travel alert states, "The violence associated with drug trafficking is isolated in cities that are far away from tourism destinations. We suggest using common precautions as when traveling to any foreign country." Bravo! In other words, keep your wits about you and stay away from drug-dealers and drug-dealing ways!

Recent confrontations between Mexico's drug cartels and law enforcement "have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades," the alert said. There has been one incident in Tijuana, (will they ever stop showing that ten seconds of video tape over and over again?) far from tourist areas; however, most of these events have taken place in the interior of Mexico and in smaller cities.

Large firefights have indeed taken place in many towns and cities across Mexico but have been particularly violent in Tijuana, Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez. Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez are on the border with the U.S. and the violence occurs there because it is on the drug super-highway to the market up north. The truth is that if you come to Mexico to break the law or act foolishly, you may meet other law-breakers who are not concerned with your safety.

"Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana and Nogales are among the cities which have recently experienced public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues," the alert said, adding that criminals have followed and harassed U.S. citizens traveling in their vehicles in border areas, including Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros and Tijuana. From reading local reports about the cases in Tijuana, (and not to minimize anything,) when you look closely between the lines, most of these "Americans" are Mexican-Americans who may also have a residence in the U.S., but their businesses are in Mexico and they travel back and forth. They establish patterns that the criminals can follow, and because they earn money in Mexico, when they get into their cars returning to the U.S., it is a safe assumption they have cash on them.

In Ciudad Juarez alone, the alert said, more than 1,800 people have been killed since January 2008, and carjackings in the city totaled more than 1,600 last year. Over the years, Juarez has relished it's "wild frontier" image where drugs, prostitution, etc., have been common-place. Now that the professional drug cartels have started claiming territory it is a much more dangerous scene.

More than 6,000 people were killed in a wave of drug violence in Mexico last year, including close to 600 police and soldiers, according to Mexican authorities.

Rosarito's Response
Because the economy of Rosarito is so dependent on tourism, the city has taken strong action to combat the drug violence and official corruption. Since the inauguration of a new administration less than two years ago, over half of the police department has changed because of background checks and competency testing. In addition to the 50% turn-over, the new mayor is hiring to more than double the size of the department. He started by hiring a former Mexican military officers to lead the department and started a incremental wage increase, tied to training, to double the salary of all officers, all directed toward a more professional department.

The Rosarito Police Department now consists of several different divisions, all reporting to civilian authority. In particular, the new Tourist Police is bilingual and now issues bilingual tickets that show the amount of the fine, which can be mailed to a U.S. address. In any action involving a foreign resident, the Tourist Police must be called and in case of accidents or injury, civilian tourist staff is brought to the scene, 24/7. Special three digit phone numbers similar to 911 are available and posted to call for help, and anonymously report corruption.

These are impressive steps to protect the citizens, ex-patriot residents, and tourists alike, however are rarely reported upon.

The State Department said this latest travel alert to Mexico would be in effect until Aug. 20. To read the alert and the State Department's recommendations for safe travel to Mexico, click here.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Murder by the Media: What Misleading News Coverage Is Doing to Mexico

By Hugo Torres

Rosarito Beach, Baja California – In Rosarito Beach, as in much of Mexico, we are fighting two battles these days.

One is against organized crime. The other is against misleading media coverage that wrongly implies that much of Mexico is unsafe for visitors and residents – which is devastating our economy.

Some reporters, stories and outlets have been responsible and balanced, including some of those who know this area best. Many, perhaps most, have not.

The war that Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon has launched against drug cartels (which are fed in part by a US$38 billion yearly U.S. drug market) is indeed a serious one, one of vital concern for both our countries.

We welcome and invite serious and analytical coverage of this struggle. Such coverage can be of significant help to both countries, which have much at stake.

What we don’t welcome is inaccurate, sensationalized, unbalanced and unfair coverage, which provides no insight but only promotes fear and misunderstanding. There has been far too much of this and it continues largely unabated.

Some media reports are simply biased and inaccurate. They are from individuals or media outlets that have an agenda against Mexico and will publish anything to promote it, whether or not it is true.

What is more troubling are reports from mainstream media that present an unbalanced, superficial and worrisome portrait of what life is like in Mexico, including Baja California.

This is sometimes done because sensationalism sells; other times because of lack of understanding: many reporters never even visit. At other times, the situation in one city is presented as if it represents all of Mexico, a vast country.

Reports repeatedly talk of 6,000 drug-related deaths in Mexico in 2008. (That surely is a troubling number, as is the existence of organized crime and the corruption it has caused. We’ve had to work hard in Rosarito to clean it up and it is a continuing challenge.) But what the reports don’t mention when they talk of killings is that Mexico is an immense country of 110 million people.

The reports often don’t mention that while some law enforcement personnel have been killed, cartel members primarily are killing each other as it becomes harder for them to do business, as they fight each other for shrinking territories.

What the reports also don’t mention is that in 2008, according to MSNBC, the murder rate in New Orleans was much higher than that of Tijuana. (Yet you will not see many if any stories warning people not to go to New Orleans. Much of the U.S. media uses far different standards when reporting stories outside the U.S.)

More troubling, the reports seldom state clearly that 90 percent or more of the killings in Mexico are drug-related. The typical resident is not targeted, nor is the visitor. As in New Orleans – as in gang wars in Los Angeles – the tourist is not the target.

Yet, those who watch or read many sensationalized media reports in the U.S. have become afraid to visit our region of Mexico, where tourism has dropped more than 50 percent, a reduction that has caused painful economic hardship here.

Sometimes reports cite, out of context, the U.S. State Department "Alert" concerning travel to Mexico, indicating it advises people not to go.

In fact, while noting that drug-related violence has increased recently in Mexico, the alert (not a warning) in part advises “common-sense precautions such as visiting only legitimate businesses and tourist areas." That’s good advice for travelers most anywhere.

The U.S. State Department also notes that “millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year (including thousands who cross the U.S. land border every day for study, tourism or business).” You can read the entire Travel Alert on the U.S. State Department's website.

Our many frequent visitors and expatriate residents (we have 14,000 in Rosarito alone) are among those who speak strongly of feeling secure here. They know the situation first-hand – not from media reports.

This is not to say that Mexico does not have some crime problems, or that no visitor or U.S. resident will ever be the victim of a crime in Mexico. With more than 20 million annual visitors and hundreds of thousands of expatriate residents, a crime will occasionally happen, just as it does in the U.S. and other countries.

But that is rare here.

More typical is the experience of Jack Flynn, owner of the Professional Longboard Association, who is a part-time Rosarito resident and has been coming here for decades to surf. He never has had one problem. He encourages people – including fellow surfers – to come see for themselves.

A graduate-level public affairs class at Emerson College, a prestigious communications school in Boston, recently began a study on U.S. coverage of Mexico. Already it has found many instances of sensationalism and bias, including from some prestigious media outlets from which better should be expected.

No one at Emerson is getting paid for this project. It is being conducted because the professor of the class, Gregory Payne, saw a vast difference between life in Rosarito, where his family has a home, and what the media was reporting.

He simply could not recognize the safe and enjoyable Rosarito he knows first-hand from the one he was encountering in media reports. He knows that with recent changes, Rosarito probably is safer than ever – despite the impression created by many media reports.

We hope the Emerson project, along with other efforts and the media’s self-examination of its own reporting, will result in fairer coverage in the future. In the meantime, please talk to those who know the area first-hand – or visit yourself – to get an accurate picture.

Right now you’re not getting one from many media reports.

——————————
Hugo Torres is the Mayor of Rosarito Beach (Playas de Rosarito), Baja California, Mexico. He is in his second three-year term as mayor, which began in December of 2007. Since taking office he has reformed the police force, adding a special tourist police force and an office for visitor assistance.