U.S. warns against travel to 5 Mexican states

Top trouble spots torn by drug cartel violence

The State Department issued a strict “do not travel” advisory for U.S. citizens regarding five Mexican states because of violent crime and gang activity.

Though the State Department has long recommended that travelers exercise “increased caution” in Mexico in general because of widespread homicide, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery, the new warning elevates the five states to level 4, the highest level of potential danger.

The advisory flags the states of Tamaulipas on the U.S. border and Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero on the Pacific coast, placing them on the same level as war-torn countries such as Syria, Yemen and Somalia.

The states have been plagued with drug cartel activity. Turf wars between cartels have torn apart Tamaulipas, and Sinaloa is home to the cartel of the same name. Michoacan was so dominated by a drug cartel that vigilantes took up arms in 2013 to drive them out.

Homicides skyrocketed in Colima in recent years because of the growth of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, and the state has Mexico’s highest homicide rate — 83.3 killings per 100,000 residents, according to figures from the first 11 months of 2017.

In addition to the level 4 warnings, the State Department singled out 11 states for a level 3 warning, which urges people to “reconsider travel.”

Violence claimed 22,409 lives in Mexico in the first 11 months of 2017, the highest toll since crime statistics began being released in 1997.

The State Department warning did not raise the level 2 warning for Baja California Sur or Quintana Roo, where two popular tourist destinations — Los Cabos and Cancun — are located. The level 2 advisory calls on travelers to exercise caution but does not suggest they avoid the areas.

At least two resorts — Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo and Acapulco — are in a do-not-travel state, Guerrero, and last year, the State Department extended a total ban on personal travel by U.S. government personnel there. The latest advisory threatens to further hurt Mexican tourism, a $20 billion industry accounting for about 7% of the country’s GDP.

The new advisory is the first for Mexico under the State Department’s revamped system, announced Wednesday, for issuing travel warnings.

In November, Mexico’s minister of tourism, Enrique de la Madrid, walked a fine line in acknowledging a crime problem while promoting tourism.

“I’m very respectful of what the State Department has to do. ... What I’m saying is those numbers aren’t necessarily to be considered for tourism purposes because they’re describing (a different) situation,” he told The Dallas Morning

News. “We just want to send a signal, which is true, that our destinations are a safe place to visit.”