More than 200 U.S. citizens have been slain in Mexico’s escalating wave of violence since 2004 — an average of nearly one killing a week, according to a Houston Chronicle investigation into the deaths. … in at least 70 cases, U.S. citizens appear to have been killed while in Mexico for innocent reasons: visiting family, taking a vacation, or simply living or working there. … In addition to those killed, as many as 75 Americans, mainly from Texas and California, remain missing in Mexico, based on FBI data.
There have been almost 25,000 murders in Mexico since 2004. Let’s assume that the entire 200 Americans murdered or missing were “innocents” (it’s probably half that number, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt). That’s 0.8% of the total murders over the period. Nothing to celebrate, but confirms my suspicion that the total number of “innocent bystanders” killed in Mexico is a very low percentage of the total. There will always be anecdotes to the contrary.[/quote]
I would be more interested in comparing those 275 murders & disappearances with the number of tourists who go to Mexico and stay there overnight.[/quote]
According to the State Department, there are over 500,000 American citizens living in Mexico, a large chunk of which are retirees. I’d bet that Americans visiting Mexico overnight amount to at least 1 million annually. The numbers in Baja are in the hundreds of thousands even in today’s climate. But let’s cut those numbers way down. Let’s say the number of Americans visiting Mexico overnight is 500,000 per year. So, that’s 3 million American overnight visitors over the last six years. Add in the half million that live there. And there are 275 murders and disappearances of Americans over the period. Do the math. This does not look like a major problem to me in the whole scheme of things. Yes, you want to be very careful. But the stats just don’t belie the notion of death around every corner.
