Has the Narco shit changed anyone's "trip to Mexico" plans?

Am I scared to death? No. Am I more cautious than in the past? A resounding..yes. I think the biggest change it's made for us is that we've always driven down, and now we're going to fly. Once we took that step, it was easy to look farther afield. I think there's going to have to be a trip to Costa Rica. It's no more expensive that flying to Mexico and their Adventure trips do sound like fun. And we've been trying to get to Maz and San Miguel for years but never seem to get past Lakeside where we get hung up with friends and lose track of time. So here's to fun and flying!

I know of two groups who have changed plans from driving to flying because they don't want to drive through my area.

I think they are wrong, but I'm not the one doing the driving. I just live here.

If it means peace of mind...I think your friends made the best choice for THEM. Do you do a lot of traveling by car?

After all the crap I had to endure the last trip I made...I will fly the next time,

We were scheduled to move back to Mexico at the end of August - sold the farm, packed up, rented a house. However, we travel from California; have made the drive several times but didn't feel right about it this time. I have a brand new car which I would have had to trade in on something unattractive & we have two dogs, previously rescued from Mexico, that prevented us from flying down. After hearing about the events on the Mazatlan Hwy., we didn't want to risk losing anything, especially our dogs. We also would drive up to the U.S. for a couple of months every year & would dread the drive. Actually very disappointed - we enjoyed the scenic drive, loved to see our friends & will miss living there. Maybe fly down for a week here & there but that's it. So sad.

That's pretty drastic, I'm so sorry this garbage screwed up your moving plans. Could you do an "on hold" till you're more confortable with the situation?

What was drastic was I almost bought a CUBE!!!!! I thought the bandito's & narco's both would rather kill themselves than steal a Cube. Found out, I would rather kill myself than drive a Cube. LOL. We are actually doing an "on hold" - never say never. But, as I & my husband are old farts, we're almost out of the habit of looking for new adventures. Going to move to Canada for a year & then see where we are.

Well we don't intend to change our plans for driving down next time. We're pretty nondescript, and there's nothing much to flaunt. Figure no one would risk their neck over such a paltry prize.
Do all our driving between 9:30-10:00 am and 4:00 or so in the afternoon for a start, none of this starting out early in the morning and driving 'till we drop.
Our truck is 15 yrs old and the trailer 20. Kept up real well, but our little rig is not much of an attention getter. We do our best not to be big and shiny.
To tell the truth, we're more nervous in Arizona than Mexico. The last Az. trailer park we stayed in had the feel of a refugee camp. Folks were real nice, but the ambiance was strained. Lizzy

I have been driving to and from Ajijic twice a year for about 6 years, I know where all the "official stops" are located along the route, this past December, I encountered about double the stops both coming and going,
(I have come thru during christmas before), and the people staffing these point, were not as friendly as they have been in the past. We never bring or take anything illegal, I just got a weird feeling about the whole thing. From now on I'm flying.

I'll also be flying when I come in, for now. I don't have as much time as I had in the past. I used to stay at least 6mo. Right now life is going too fast. Everytime I plan to come down something unexpected pops up. I will wait and see how the hiway sagas unfold and see what else happens. It doesn't seem to bad, but stuff has happened and can happen, just how bad it gets remains to be seen.

Yes, the violence has absolutely kept us from making the long trip that we had planned for years. Both of us are very disappointed, but can not make such a naive decision. We have made several short trips there in the past few years and love Mexico. I know that lots of people stick their heads in the sand and pray that nothing happens, but we can not do that. If we did not have to bring our animals, we might consider other ways to get there, but we can not leave them at home.

We live very close to the Border and hear much more news about the daily violence that goes on all across the Northern portion of Mexico, (like the first 250 miles) than most of you do. Even if we did not get attacked by a criminal gang, caught up in crossfire between ther Military and Narcos, I would prefer not to have to put up with the corrupt Police, that demand Mordidas or hold you on the roadside for hours while threatening you.

Our local News said that since May 25, 2010 there is not much news coming out of Mexico. Some Government Official put a ban on it because it was hurting tourism. They are hoping that people will think that things are better if they quit hearing the horror stories.

Our pets are like our children and after reading about the couple that lost their 3 dogs, truck and all their cash and belongings, there is no way we would take that chance.

I can only HOPE that things will change but I do not have much hope. These criminals are not going away and I can only believe that they will get more violent as their other forms of income is taken away.

I understand that those of you that have their money invested in property there, will not like this posting and I will probably be flamed....but I know a lot of people that feel the same way. We love Mexico and it is a sad situation.

Thanks for posting your thoughts and insights macmember and sorry to hear you won't be coming back. As a property owner and protector of our sons mother I appreciate your perspective as folks who have been here, are there now and pine to return.

Of particular interest in your post is the statement that, "Our local News said that since May 25, 2010 there is not much news coming out of Mexico. Some Government Official put a ban on it because it was hurting tourism. They are hoping that people will think that things are better if they quit hearing the horror stories."

Waaaa? I'm fascinated by that statement and hope you will elaborate in as much detail as possible or maybe post a link. I've got a ton of questions. tx

And thanks again for posting, I've appreciated your posts on TOB and hope you will continue to share your unique perspectives from 'up there'.

Funny, we seem to get all the news here. TV, newspapers, both in English and Spanish.

One source:

By Robin Emmott
Source:Reuters
Mexico drug gang hushes killings with news blackout
11 Mar 2010 15:55:47 GMT



REYNOSA, Mexico, March 11 (Reuters) - A powerful drug cartel is buying off journalists in northern Mexico to work as spies and smother coverage of a spike in killings on the U.S. border in the latest attack on the media in Mexico.

Hitmen from the Gulf cartel based over the border from Texas are paying reporters around $500 a month and showering them with liquor and prostitutes to intimidate and silence colleagues at radio stations and newspapers in towns near the Laredo-Brownsville area, journalists and editors say.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N1141010.htm

VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muyOBjZLY9M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGRigR4ov4o&feature=related


Yep it's happening.

Hmmm, I wonder how this got out then? At least it's not a "Government ban," as asserted by Macmember. People I know that live here are making their usual trips north to San Antonio, McAllen, Tucson, etc.. The only hassles reported so far are a shakedown by a cop over a phony speeding ticket. I guess it's just the difference in perspective.

For years the cartels/bad guys have tried and to a large degree been successful in silencing the media but, to quote again,

"Our local News said that since May 25, 2010 there is not much news coming out of Mexico. Some Government Official put a ban on it because it was hurting tourism. They are hoping that people will think that things are better if they quit hearing the horror stories."

This will be a whole different ball game if it's an act of the government and I wanna know.

It's awfully difficult to silence the internet, which is everywhere now. This forum and others get a lot of traffic, from expats and visitors both.
I think it interesting that there have been so few reports of carjackings and highway robberies, and of course, being hassled by the 'corrupt' police over a traffic ticket; and yet thousands of Lakesiders travel around the area on a daily basis. Hundreds of expats drive back and forth to the US.... without incident. Sound like pretty good odds to me. Lizzy

oncesubtle wrote:Thanks for posting your thoughts and insights macmember and sorry to hear you won't be coming back. As a property owner and protector of our sons mother I appreciate your perspective as folks who have been here, are there now and pine to return.

Of particular interest in your post is the statement that, "Our local News said that since May 25, 2010 there is not much news coming out of Mexico. Some Government Official put a ban on it because it was hurting tourism. They are hoping that people will think that things are better if they quit hearing the horror stories."

Waaaa? I'm fascinated by that statement and hope you will elaborate in as much detail as possible or maybe post a link. I've got a ton of questions. tx

And thanks again for posting, I've appreciated your posts on TOB and hope you will continue to share your unique perspectives from 'up there'.

Bob, I have tried to remember where I read the story about "the Ministerio" banning news from Northern Mexico to the US. I remember the exact date of May 25th for some reason and I remember the term Ministerio being used, but I can not remember where I read it. Living in McAllen, we do manage to get a lot of news from the Northern sections of Mexico. Our daily Newspaper "The Monitor" has lots of info about the vioelnce almost daily. Our TV Stations are full of the Violence everyday. I also read Borderland Beat, which shows and tells the whole story, no matter what! This is what I meant by the fact that we get more info here than you do about the Northern portions of Mexico. If I remember or find it somewhere, I will let you know.

I am not saying that we will NEVER get back to Lakeside, but at this point, we would not take the chance on driving. If something happened to our pets and we could fly, we would do that. There is even a chance that we would make a 2 week trip at sometime, if I ever found a reasonable, trustworthy house/animal sitter.

One of the reasons we were sooooo disappointed about not getting to come, was that we had planned on renting at Casa Dulce. Bob and Sharon are so pleasant and their units are beautiful. We much prefer Chapala to any other area.

If you are truly interested in what is going on in the Northern areas of Mexico and that Jalisco is now being involved more in the violence, read "Borderland Beat" online.

We are getting local news here from posters on web forums. Even the couple who lost their truck and their dogs posted on the forum.

macmember wrote:

If you are truly interested in what is going on in the Northern areas of Mexico and that Jalisco is now being involved more in the violence, read "Borderland Beat" online.

Thanks for you kind words macmember, we do hope you will stay with us on you next visit. And thanks for the suggestion that I read Borderland Beat, now I know why you are afraid to travel to Mexico. I'm also fairly certain it is where you read the article about the Mexican government official banning bad news about Mexico. Borderland Beat, in my humble opinion, is a hit piece funded by the Minute Men or some such organization dedicated to scaring the shit out of any gentle reader. After just a quick read of three articles titled: Pinal County Sheriff: Mexican drug cartels now control parts of Arizona, Review of the Mayhem over the Weekend and my fav. Jalisco in Transition to be a Failed State, it's apparent these guy are practicing some pretty fast and loose 'journalism'.

For openers, my questions would be who funds it and who are they? If that can be answered the Why of why they are doing it will be apparent. (I suspect it's to whip up hysteria to promote a political agenda but then again I'm suspicious by nature.) We'll see.

If I were to create a e-zine or blog to counter Borderland Beat it would titled something like, Gangland America with the banner shouting, "They're Coming After You!" and shock articles like: "Black, Mexican, Asian and Muslim Gangs Unite And Are Now In Control!" "You're Next" "Death Toll 2010 - 23,495!" "Under Your Bed And In Your Closet". Maybe throw in a following ad
w/display photo featuring the new sawed-off Browning automatic 12 gauge shot gun with deep load 22 round magazine (tm). A real crowd pleaser for when you need it the most.

O.k, off the soap box. Thanks again, I appreciate your indulgence and hope to see you sooner than later.

Fear! Fear!! Fear!!!
Gotta sell that ad space.

There are two forces - Love & Fear. You get to choose which governs your behavior....

After some digging I came across the following buried nuggets (disclosures) from Borderland Beat's website. No info. on the parent company, funding or any other information provided.

Borderland Beat

Most of the information and content is derived from open source media, unconfirmed individual sources and personal view point of author. Most content is for information purposes only and is not from direct official sources and in most cases not confirmed. Some content is graphic and discrestion is advised.

Contributors

Buggs
A retired police officer from New Mexico with over 25 years in law enforcement experience. He is also a former U.S. Marine where he was honorably discharged after serving for almost eight years. Reporting from the U.S.

Iliana
Borderland Beat reporter, on both sides among the chaos. Choy!
Covering the cartel soap opera for the best English blog on organize crime on the border. reporting from Tamaulipas.

RiseMakaveli
Reporting from the Norteastern border states, and the organize crime in the area.

Gerardo
Reprting from the border on the U.S. Texas side

So ah macmember, when can we expect your arrival?

Just an FYI; friends drove down yesterday from San Antonio with zero problems. They make this trip 3 times per year. They drive an upscale SUV.

If someone recognizes the following quote as theirs:

"Hi Rolly ~ I wonder if you have heard about yesterday's shootout in which 21 of those involved died? First report said it happened late in the day, on a desert highway 12 miles SOB, in Hermosillo? Since that's not likely, thought I would check with you as to exactly where and when this may have happened?"

[b]They might want to pull their head out of the sand and quit with the denial since this was reported all over the Mexican News in addition to the NOB media. Here is just ONE account:
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/07/29-gunmen-dead-in-shootout-12-miles.html