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

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

Hey. Anybody know who this turkey is? Lizzy

It doesn't matter, just another PITA.

Would that be the pain in the ass, or the flat bread variety?( I looked it up )

I have just now run into this particular piece of flatbread on some of the other threads. Poor soul seems to have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning...with an itch! lizzy

Source - McAllen Police Department Crime Records Bureau - Stats 2009

Population 137.000

Murders - 4
Rape - 20
Robbery - 132
Aggravated Assault - 194
Total Violent Crime - 350

Burglary - 797
Theft - 6785
Motor Vehicle Theft - 441
Property Crime Total - 8023

How safe would you feel living in McAllen?

I'd be more worried someone wuz going to steal my I Pod!!

bobnliz wrote:I have just now run into this particular piece of flatbread on some of the other threads. Poor soul seems to have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning...with an itch! lizzy

"Flatbread" (PITA) hahahahaha, I do believe you've just coined a word Lizzy and I think it'll stick. It's a beauty?

To oncesubtle re: "if I were to create an ezine...". Excellent! This totally puts it into perspective! I wish you would create that ezine - thanks for my morning smile.

cosalamx wrote:Source - McAllen Police Department Crime Records Bureau - Stats 2009

Population 137.000

Murders - 4
Rape - 20
Robbery - 132
Aggravated Assault - 194
Total Violent Crime - 350

Burglary - 797
Theft - 6785
Motor Vehicle Theft - 441
Property Crime Total - 8023

How safe would you feel living in McAllen?

You don't have to have a brain to guess why those figures are so high. McAllen is one of those towns that could be classified with the "Sh*tole towns of the US".

No problem, ya just live in one of those exclusive gated communities. But, man, that has to be one of the worst climates I've every experienced. We're talking super sticky hot combined with endless wind and 4 engine mosquitos that can fly right through it and take a half pint of blood at a sitting.

No thanks!

Since we have been here since 2001 and own two homes here at Lakeside and in Chiapas, we can´t change plans to retire to Mexico but I can tell you unequivocally that, today, if we were contemplating the decision as to where to retire, we would not move here - period.

In 2001, we turned down Colombia because it seemed out of control and any country in Central America was out of the question so Highland Mexico was a natural for us. Then, Calderon´s idiotic war started (ostensibly) in 2006 and turned an already diysfunctional country into a madhouse with periodic massacres that defy imagination.

We have thought this over. We wish to stay in Mexico and Chiapas seems relatively safe in the highlands where we live but this piggish and repulsive violence with rotting and dimembered bodies poured out into public places is beyond comprehension. Who in their right mind would. today, move into such an out-of-control and utterly corrupted hellhole where absolutely on one can be trusted - especially the authorities.

Keep your head in the sand - that´s the safest place for it.

Hound Dog....I agree with your assessment and after 6 years of living Lakeside, I am leaving to return to Canada.

I finally made the decision to move there in March. I read the news reports and commentary with trepidation and mounting concern but not to such an extent that I entertained reversing my decision. It seemed to me that the situation there would not be allowed to continue indefinitely and would normalize after some undetermined amount of time. That, coupled with a somewhat fatalistic leaning in my attitude ("when your number is up..." ) has kept me on course for my arrival in Late July or Early August.

Not to suggest that there is absolutely no doubt in my mind but all of the positives of the area still apply and I still look forward to being there full time - it can't get here fast enough.

I find it interesting that Nieto has tapped a Columbian general as his senior advisor on the (losing) "war" on drugs. Today, the FARC is still in business and still producing cocaine. However, it appears that involving the civilians in the conflict has pretty much ended. With this appointment and with his statements that he wants to concentrate on the crimes that are heavily impacting the civilians in this country, extortion and kidnapping, perhaps he is indicating that the new government is going to focus on making the streets safe and let the Americans and Canadians deal with their own drug problems instead of taking them on here.

And maybe not. It is worth waiting to find out IMO. I've also often wondered if part of what is going on prior to the election next week is that the narcos are really stirring things up to encourage people not to re-elect the PAN and its failed drug strategy.

Both of these ideas are pure speculation on my part. Who knows, we may wake up next week to find that we are living in a merely dysfunctional country again.

rjf1943 wrote:Hound Dog....I agree with your assessment and after 6 years of living Lakeside, I am leaving to return to Canada.

And don't you think that it can be as quiet as it has been for the past 6 weeks just like it was all along for 10 years, before the Zeta cartel takeover of Ajijic. Everything will change for the better once Calderon is gone very soon, no matter who gets in.

If you're leaving to return to Canada, have you not felt safe renting in Los Arroyos Sur for the past 3 years, where there has never been a robbery.

All I can say is good luck moving back because the Administrator of this forum who lived in Vancouver all his life said, NEVER NEVER would he move back to your sh*tty climate most of the year. And the highest cost of living in Canada.

AXIXIC - Welcome to Ajijic. You are making a very smart decision. In general, most Gringos do not feel not threatened here. The positives absolutely outweigh the negatives.

rjf1943 wrote:Hound Dog....I agree with your assessment and after 6 years of living Lakeside, I am leaving to return to Canada.

We moved here permanently 3 months ago. Right in the heart of probably the worst criminal activities in this area. We moved here with full knowledge of what was happening and had no hesitations what so ever. Shit can happen anywhere. For those that expected paradise then it is no wonder the balloon has been burst. Mexico has had this sort of criminal activity for a lot longer than people can remember (maybe not in this exact area) and I can recall hearing stories of murders and mayhem in Mexico 30 years ago. One of the biggest changes is the forms of communication that now exist to make everyone very aware of what is going on immediately after it occurs. I imagine 10 years ago if something happened in this area barely 20% of the expats would ever hear about it.......

The situation has caused my wife and I to go from an active "I can't wait to move" to "waiting to see the results of the election and its aftermath".

We are hesitant to put ourselves that far out of our comfort zone. The leaving an area we have been in all our lives, moving a lot of miles from kids and g'kids is a giant step in itself. When the violence is added it makes the decision to move to Lakeside a bit more than overwhelming.

I'm more than willing to carefully consider the move when I read all the posts from the residents there. Thanks for your discussions of the reality.

CanuckBob wrote:

rjf1943 wrote:Hound Dog....I agree with your assessment and after 6 years of living Lakeside, I am leaving to return to Canada.

We moved here permanently 3 months ago. Right in the heart of probably the worst criminal activities in this area. We moved here with full knowledge of what was happening and had no hesitations what so ever. Shit can happen anywhere. For those that expected paradise then it is no wonder the balloon has been burst. Mexico has had this sort of criminal activity for a lot longer than people can remember (maybe not in this exact area) and I can recall hearing stories of murders and mayhem in Mexico 30 years ago. One of the biggest changes is the forms of communication that now exist to make everyone very aware of what is going on immediately after it occurs. I imagine 10 years ago if something happened in this area barely 20% of the expats would ever hear about it.......

You got that right fearless. In 1979 while traipsing through central America I found myself in Managua, Nicaragua the day the city fell to the Sandinistas. Had I been able to find an English newspaper in El Salvador I would have flown to Costa Rica, but no, I wandered into the middle of a war.

I've lived here in Mexico for 14 years and I am not going anywhere, although I could go back to the US if I wanted to. When I leave to visit relatives in the US I can't wait to get back here. I have a friend who owns a house here and had to go back to Washington outside Seattle to work for a year right now. She can't wait to get out of there and come back to Mexico.

Our plans stay the same. Winter in San Carlos... summer in Colorado. Right now the situation in Colorado is by far the more nerve-wracking.
SC remains one of the more peaceful environments, with a community that looks out after one another.
We have our problems, but all in all, it's one of the most laid back villages I have ever been in. L

RoofBob wrote:
You got that right fearless. In 1979 while traipsing through central America I found myself in Managua, Nicaragua the day the city fell to the Sandinistas. Had I been able to find an English newspaper in El Salvador I would have flown to Costa Rica, but no, I wandered into the middle of a war.

What a small world!I took a Tica BUS from El Salvador to Costa Rica passing through Nicaragua in 1979 shortly before Somoza fell,I was glad to get to San Jose for sure.

That is a coincidence. There weren't many gringos down there and I know for a fact the Sandanistas were not impressed when they found me. You'll have to stop by next time you're in Chapala and we can chat about the 'good old days'?

[quote="Mainecoons"]I find it interesting that Nieto has tapped a Columbian general as his senior advisor on the (losing) "war" on drugs. Today, the FARC is still in business and still producing cocaine. However, it appears that involving the civilians in the conflict has pretty much ended. With this appointment and with his statements that he wants to concentrate on the crimes that are heavily impacting the civilians in this country, extortion and kidnapping, perhaps he is indicating that the new government is going to focus on making the streets safe and let the Americans and Canadians deal with their own drug problems instead of taking them on here....

I think you have nailed it MC whether Nieto or Obrador wins. According to Colombians we met during our recent trip to France, nothing has changed there except the way the drug syndicates and government deal with each other. Massive production of drugs with serious ecological implications in the Amazon Basin continue and the solution has been to ignore the problem and make mutually accomodating arrangements. This obscene spasm of violence in Mexico will likely calm down once the new government is in place in Mexico and, hopefully, accomodations will be made all around. Mexico, as the United States, has always been a violent and corrupt place but a return to civility with the violence once again descending to the underground serves everybody´s needs.

I still believe that moving to Mexico back in 2001 was a good decision on my part and I have no intention of leaving here and certainly not back to the U.S. I have been amazed during the past decade that expats choose to move to such places as Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaraugua, Panama, El Salvador, much of the Caribbean and the like. In my judgment, Mexico is a much wiser decision as a retirement place than those "banana republics" but then I remember the past of only a few years ago. Mexico is still the best choice in this part of Latin America in my view. Hope I´m right.

I have no intention of leaving here but if I did, upon reflection, I think Colombia or Portugal might be my choice. Too late.

While the "Narco Crap" has changed the manner in which we make our trips, we haven't let them chase us off from visiting Mexico. For us, the instability and number of incidents along our typical two day route simply wasn't worth the stress. We do miss having our own vehicle but really don't miss the drive. We still visit Michoacán even though it has been on one Travel Advisory or another since 2009. We do pay attention to the types of vehicles parked in certain lots. While we have never driven open roads after dark, we have cut back our driving after dark around certain towns or cities. We choose what we hope to be secure hotels in good locations and we still do a good deal of walking to dinner at our preferred dining hour of 8pm.

So you are flying in and renting cars, CG? How do you get the stuff you're buying to sell back up there?