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- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy❤
No. of Recommendations: 2
Crime
Mexico councilwoman who backed Claudia Sheinbaum's party shot dead outside her home
A local councilwoman was gunned down Friday as she was leaving her home in the southern state of Guerrero, authorities and local media said, marking the second female politician to be killed in Mexico after Claudia Sheinbaum became the first woman to win the country's presidency last week.
Esmeralda Garzon, a councilwoman in the municipality of Tixtla, was shot dead as she was leaving her house, local media reported. The Guerrero state attorney general's office said in a statement that police were sent to the scene to gather evidence and find those responsible for the shooting.
Garzon, who led the equity and gender commission in Tixtla, had been elected under the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Reuters news agency reported. However, she eventually backed Sheinbaum's Morena party in the June 2 elections, according to posts on social media. Garzon herself was not running in the elections.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-councilwoman-k...This happened frequently enough in the Philippines. It's not easy to be a journalist either.
No. of Recommendations: 9
I've never been to Mexico, have seen enough films and documentaries to know that it is a beautiful country that I'd like to visit, but the risk-reward ratio is too high for me.
I watched a lady from Netherlands on Youtube ( Itchy Boots ) travel thru from South America to Alaska. In parts of Mexico, she had to have helpful locals clear it with the local drug cartel leaders for her to travel basically the only road that she could use on her journey North. The vast, vast majority of locals she interacted with were good people, but areas are controlled by the drug cartels, and they settle disagreements with a bullet.
Truly sad part, and I say this as an American, is that Americans are a major part of the root cause of these problems in Mexico. Americans are the biggest illegal drug market for the cartel.
If we were not sending an avalanche of cash to the cartel via recreational ( and addictive ) drug purchases, then the cartels would lose power, as cash is how the cartels buy the control of the Mexican politicians, Military, and law enforcement.
No. of Recommendations: 3
I've never been to Mexico, have seen enough films and documentaries to know that it is a beautiful country that I'd like to visit, but the risk-reward ratio is too high for me.
You have to know where to go. I've been many times, but, for instance, Acapulco is out. Too many drug gang shootouts.
I watched a lady from Netherlands on Youtube ( Itchy Boots ) travel thru from South America to Alaska. In parts of Mexico, she had to have helpful locals clear it with the local drug cartel leaders for her to travel basically the only road that she could use on her journey North. The vast, vast majority of locals she interacted with were good people, but areas are controlled by the drug cartels, and they settle disagreements with a bullet.
Latin America is that way now. I lived in Panama, Canal Zone for four years as a kid, and then the family traveled up to North America by station wagon. Hard to do that now. Nicaragua is Sandanista territory and, even back then, I was struck by two fully armed soldiers stationed on either side of the bank door on the central town square. I'd never seen that before and it is etched in my youthful memory. We (America) were the driving force to create Sandanistas.
Truly sad part, and I say this as an American, is that Americans are a major part of the root cause of these problems in Mexico. Americans are the biggest illegal drug market for the cartel.
We created all of the banana republics there and used gunboat diplomacy for a long time too. We overturned the legitimately elected government of Chile pursuing Monroe Doctrine policies - afraid of a socialist governments. Venezuela seems to have underscored what can happen that direction, hasn't been good for the people of Venezuela who show up on our doorstep. We're responsible for much of the Mayan diaspora - under Reagan we backed a Christian fellow who put them into Christian camps. Hasn't worked. I met the Mayans and thought they were very bright people who could understand you without language.
If we were not sending an avalanche of cash to the cartel via recreational ( and addictive ) drug purchases, then the cartels would lose power, as cash is how the cartels buy the control of the Mexican politicians, Military, and law enforcement.
Yes. Like opium to China. But the cartels branch out - it isn't just drugs, though drugs are very lucrative. They run the Ecuador to American Border route for immigrants, etc.
But you can catch a bullet almost anywhere in third world countries if you don't take care. In Latin America you have to have the right attorney who knows the landscape and can place your "gratuities" for you. There's a lot of bribery based on position. Locals will let you know who to talk to. I have a strict rule that I don't disobey any laws in a foreign country. It can take 10 years for you to come to trial in the Philippines (worst case I've seen) and then they convict you. If you do business - it's cheap to get someone killed in the Philippines and the murder solution rate is less than 20%. And even if they catch the trigger man, the person that ordered it rarely sees court. So you can kill with relative impunity.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Don't let the fear of cartels stop you. I've been to Mexico several times, though not out in the boonies. If you want to see Mayan ruins, experience Mexican culture, or snorkel in the clear waters of Cozumel, you really have nothing to worry about. Itchy Boots would be an extreme case, and very much not typical. That is a case of extreme travel, and that is a bit risky in a lot of countries.
I wander around third world countries with a Lowepro backpack filled with equipment that costs more than most of the locals could earn in 6 months. Never a problem. Most people are good, and if you treat them with respect and some curiosity, they'll reciprocate. Larceny is not on their minds.
You'll be totally safe in Cancun, Cozumel, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Costa Maya, and the surrounding areas. (That list is not exhaustive).
There really only are a few countries I would avoid. Haiti, for one. Russia since 2022. Somalia. A handful of others.
I do agree that we are the cause of many of their problems. Legalization and regulation (like we do with alcohol) would go a long way to cutting the legs out from under the cartels.
No. of Recommendations: 1
I've also been all over the Philippines. Never a problem. However, as 1poorlady is a Filipina, she instinctively knows what not to do. So, I have to concede, that bit is invisible to me. She uses me to avoid "gratuities" because the official will ask her (in Tagalog), and she'll point at me. They don't want to ask me (a very white guy) in English. So we just go on our way. And we ranged from Banaue to Batangas to Coron to Pinatubo.
No. of Recommendations: 0
I've also been all over the Philippines. Never a problem.
I've been a lot of places in the Philippines. Have you been to Basilan Island? Roamed the Sulu Archipelago? I wouldn't go to Zamboanga, etc. That whole part of the island is off limits to me, but I know people who live in N Mindanao.
And I frequented Mexico too, but it has changed, and I'd need guidance to go down there now. Knowledgeable local guidance.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Nope. Never been south of Bohol. Yeah, as a non-muslim white guy, probably not best to go there. Though I've been assured by Mindanao residents that the major cities would be perfectly OK for me. The boonies would be questionable. But that gets to the OP's point about risk/reward. Don't think I want to go to Mindanao. Bohol was gorgeous, though.
No. of Recommendations: 2
You'll be totally safe in Cancun, Cozumel, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Costa Maya - 1pg
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Been those places myself although most were 15-20 years ago. Been fishing in Cabo a couple of times with buddies and my last visit was for my daughters wedding in 2008. Not so sure you would be as safe these days. My son was in Cabo in approx 2015, and was robbed, right in the heart of the tourist district, took his camera and all of his cash. The cops were right there on the spot since they were the ones stealing his shit. They also impounded the jeep he was driving which was delicious since the jeep belonged to my ex.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Bohol was gorgeous, though.
Yep, Panglao, the Chocolate Hills, had a friend who wanted to move there to farm, and I knew an expat that farmed rice in the NorthEast part. Lost his crop in La Nina. The Philippines has a world class Rice Institute and I tt them about Golden Rice. They took the vitamin part from corn and stuck it into rice and it worked, but people wouldn't accept it, GMO. I made friends with a mushroom farmer and tried to get my wife interested. No go, wife is only interested in succulents and a few flowers. The problem on Negros, where I was, was that a lot of the land looked fertile but wasn't. Some areas too much clay, etc. It would take some doing to make it into Terra Preta, and then for what market?
While I was there they would issue import shares to rice farmers, manipulators would buy the shares for a pittance, buy rice, not import, drive the price up and sell into the higher price. The government would stock rice for shortage times and bag it as NFA in warehouses. Cheap rice. It would go missing - sold and rebagged as higher priced rice. The government had to overcontrol because there was so much corruption, about 20% of every dollar was in corruption, and inefficient corruption that slowed things down.
No. of Recommendations: 2
Lapsody, that is great 1st hand knowledge, thanks for sharing.
No. of Recommendations: 8
You'll be totally safe in Cancun, Cozumel, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Costa Maya, and the surrounding areas. (That list is not exhaustive)My grandparents moved from Laguna Beach to Puerto Vallarta in the early 60s. Beautiful house above the Rio Cuale. Sometimes we flew, sometimes we drive. We visited a lot.
I also drove up and down the Baja to the cape uncountable times surfing and had a boat we kept at La Playita for years(San Jose del Cabo)... camped anywhere and felt safe. Our boat got stolen. We were warned not to look for it.
Over the years, the bites, the mordida became more frequent and more expensive.
The final straw, driving my grandmothers car north of Mazatlan thru the SOnoran desert on Hwy 15, we got stopped by machine gun toting guys in the middle of the frikking desert at sunset. They stole the beer out our icechest in the trunk (we always carried food for dinner and some beer for our overnight motel stay in Ciudad Obregon). They could have just as easily stolen the car and dumped our bodies in the desert.
Thefts from surfers don't make headlines, but being carjacked on the highway, losing everything, doesn't make headlines. Getting killed resisting does. Recenlty 3 surfers got killed on Baja for the tires on their truck. A cartel works out of Tijuana running drugs and migrants north in pangas... nobody along that coast is safe anymore.
https://apnews.com/article/mexico-missing-foreigne...According to data from the U.S. State Department, between January 2022 and June 2022, there were 115 deaths of U.S. citizens, of which 25 were homicides.
https://www.newsweek.com/americans-killed-mexico-h... https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/15/americas/mexico-baj...https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/gulf-cartel-a....
No. of Recommendations: 3
Truly sad part, and I say this as an American, is that Americans are a major part of the root cause of these problems in Mexico. Americans are the biggest illegal drug market for the cartel.
YES. I've been saying this for over 40 years. The consumers of illegal drugs in this country fuel the horrible corruption and violence of the cartels in Mexico and elsewhere.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Bad hombres....and some want them to be in America.
