Travel Safety In Mexico, U.S. Travel Alerts
Travel Alerts to Mexico, Fact or Fiction - Learn from those that live, work and travel in Mexico
The U.S. State Department Issued a travel warning for the State of Sonora, in Mexico where the resort destination of Rocky Point is located. As is usual for the Department of State and U.S. Media there is always some type of travel alert for travel to Mexico near the holiday season. It is my opinion and many of those that travel to Mexico on a regular basis that these alerts are non-senses and overly cautious, not based in fact. The media then picks up the alters and sensationalizes the dangers of traveling to Mexico. The Arizona Daily Star recently ran an article warning travelers not to travel to Mexico and specificly the State of Sonora. A fellow traveler was so incensed by these type of articles she wrote a Letter to the Editor which I have posted below
I travel to Mexico 3-4 times a month. It’s a 4 hour drive from Phoenix to Rocky Point. Our whole family travels to RP. If I thought it in anyway unsafe I would never put my daughter and wife in harms way.. My advice is to listen to those that actual travel, live, and work in Mexico.
Follow Puerto Penasco Joe to Mexico
Kyle Wood aka Puerto Penasco Joe
Letter to the Editor of the Arizona Daily Star
On Saturday, April 23, 2011, the State Department and the Arizona Daily Star had the audacity to warn citizens against traveling to Rocky Point, Mexico citing a total of 13 murders in 2009, and 7 homicides thru July 2010. Besides becoming incensed, we found your message to be so ironic considering the fact that Tucson experiences at least 13 murders a MONTH not to mention numerous home invasions. Most of these heinous crimes are due to the incessant illegal drug activity in this community. I have news for you; violence exists everywhere, not just in Mexico. Need we recall Tucson’s senseless murders in January of several innocent bystanders at a shopping center, the attempted murder of one of our own political officials or the murder this month of a 7 year-old boy that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time?? My husband and I fail to understand the Arizona Daily Star’s and State Department’s need to continually malign Mexico when our community suffers from the same malaise only to a much greater extent. Before ‘throwing stones’, let’s look in our own backyard. And your timing for printing these warnings is impeccable-always before a holiday or peak tourist season and in bold print headlines. We’ll be awaiting your next Mexico warning before Memorial Day.
Donna Whitman, Retired Court Department Director
Frank Valenzuela, Community Activist