THE TRUTH ABOUT SAFETY IN MEXICO

Quick Facts:

· If you don't buy or sell drugs you are safe.
· Don't go to places you don't know (same as if you were in the US).
· The violent crimes in Mexico are between drug dealers and other drug dealers (cartel) and law enforcement - not tourists.
·DO NOT GET YOUR CRIME or SAFETY INFORMATION from US border or customs people, they are not well informed and are given the same misinformation as the US news media.

·                     Mexico is safer than the United States (stats below). 

Insurance national

Important Resources and Articles:

Wikipedia US & International Crime Stats and Info:

This clearly shows the danger of the United States, and when globally compared, Mexico does not rank on the list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States 

US Media Campaign Against Mexico:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/al-giordano/2005/01/quottravel-advisoryquot-reveals-us-media-campaign-vs-mexico

CRIME USA vs. MEXICO:

·                     Just about every country in the world now experience increased crime rates. However, there are usually safe areas in every country where the crime rate is lower or non-existent.

·                     The U.S. State Department put out a warning about the violence in Mexico. The report states that 128 Americans were killed in Mexico between January 2005 and December 2007.

Looking more closely at the data, Rosarito Beach, Ensenada, Mexicali, San Felipe, Tecate and Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point) only had 42 homicides in the last three years combined. Those are the largest tourist areas of Northwest Mexico, excluding Tijuana. In Los Angeles County, there have been 103 murders in the last six months. In 2007, there were 324 homicides in L.A. County. People in Los Angeles would probably say that there are certain unsafe areas to avoid. People living in Mexico would say the same thing.

More detailed statistics indicate that he murder rate per 100,000 people in Mexico is about 13. Recent FBI statistics show the murder rate in Baltimore is 43.3, Washington DC is 29.1, and Detroit is 47.3. Surprisingly, the murder rate per 100,000 in New York is now 6.1 as crime diminished significantly.

(Published in the July edition of Mexico Living: 
http://mlguide.blogspot.com/2008/07/is-mexico-safer-than-america.html

TOP 5 COUNTRIES FOR CRIME:

International Crime Statistics
Crime happens all over the world. But where do certain crimes happen more often? Here are the latest statistics from Nationmaster (per capita refers to amount of victims per 1000 people): Mexico is not on the list.

Total Crimes:
1. United States - 23,677,800
2. Germany - 6,264,723
3. United Kingdom - 5,170,831
4. France - 3,771,849
5. South Africa - 3,422,743

Here is the complete list:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_tot_cri-crime-total-crimes

TOURISM: 

·                     In 2007, Mexico ranked #10 in the world for tourism. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_Rankings)

·                     According to Travel Agent magazine, Mexico had 20 million international visitors last year, ranking it seventh among the world's destinations. With $7.8 billion in revenue, the nation has moved up two spots to 14th place among global tourism economies.