October 30, 2008
Campeche, Mexico
Not a subscriber to Mexico Insider? Subscribe to Mexico Insider and get more inside information on all things Mexico.
Hola Mexico Insiders,
During a recent trip back to my home town in the States, several people laughed ruefully when I said I live in Mexico. They told me, “Good luck on that. You take your life in your hands living down there.”
The inference was that they live in a nice, safe place. And they didn’t believe me when I said I feel safe in Campeche. They see media coverage of Mexico’s bitter drug war, after all, which so far this year has claimed nearly 3,500 lives. They hear stories of shootouts and, increasingly, of decapitated bodies found outside major cities. How can a country with that high a death toll and those sorts of deaths be safe? they reason.
Here’s how: Those 3,500 deaths are almost exclusively limited to two groups: police and military personnel, on the one hand, and drug cartel members on the other. Or, to put it more bluntly, between the professional crime-fighters and the criminals. Ordinary, law-abiding citizens and expats are almost never affected by the drug war.
Random, impersonal crime like robbery or burglary, to which ordinary folks can fall victim, is much less common (or violent) in Mexico than it is in the U.S.
That visit home spurred me to write about crime in Mexico, to set the record straight for my Insiders. The article will appear in next week’s November issue of Mexico Insider. In it I include facts and figures on safety in Mexico, and where crime is occurring. I also challenge readers to take a hard look at crime statistics in their own home town. Too often we overestimate our town’s safety just because it’s familiar.
In the week since I wrote that article, my words have taken on a sad, eerie resonance for me. For my home town, Little Rock, Arkansas, is reeling this week from the death of a 26-year-old local news anchor. She was attacked and beaten during what police are calling a “random robbery” at her home, and subsequently died of her wounds. She lived in a trendy, upper-middle-class neighborhood where several friends of mine live.
To those who wonder about crime in Mexico, I can say this: Here in Mexico, if you become involved in the drug trade, all bets are off—you run the risk of joining those 3,500 casualties. But law-abiding residents—citizens and expats alike—can safely walk the streets of their home cities at night. They can sleep soundly in their beds without worrying about break-ins or beatings from “random” crime. They can raise their children in safety.
Are you sure you can say the same?
Best regards,
Glynna Prentice
Editor, Mexico Insider
P.S. I’ll be talking about my new home city, Campeche, at next week’s Live and Invest in Mexico seminar in Mérida, Nov. 6–8, 2008. I’ll also be talking about several other Mexican cities whose quality of life—including safety—I rate highly. You can find out more here.
Not a subscriber to Mexico Insider? Subscribe to Mexico Insider and get more inside information on all things Mexico.
