More Americans Murdered In Mexico Than In Any Other Country

[308Mike]

Plan accordingly if you're going south of the border (and yet, THEY are going to claim that WE'RE racist because of the bad press)!!

More Americans Murdered In Mexico Than In Any Other Country In The World
Published May 20, 2013 | Fox News Latino



More Americans have been murdered in Mexico than in any other part of the world in the past decade.

According to an Agence France Press analysis of U.S. State Department figures, at least 648 American citizens were murdered in Mexico between October 2002 and December 2012. This represents more than 40 percent of the almost 1,600 American victims worldwide over the same period.

Three of the top four most murderous countries for Americans are in Latin America. Behind Mexico on the list is the Philippines with 84 homicides, followed by Honduras and the Dominican Republic with 77 each.

To put the number of American murders in Mexico in perspective, more U.S. citizens were murdered in Mexico than were killed in “terrorist action” around the world, according to the AFP. The analysis by the major newswire calculated those deaths at 300 since October 2002.

Of the 648 American murders south of the border, 511 occurred between 2006 and 2012, with most homicides taking place in border regions where drug cartels reign.

The AFP analysis also shows murder rose steadily from 33 in 2007 to a peak of 113 in 2011, and dropped to 71 in 2012.

The most dangerous city for Americans? Tijuana.

In the past 10 years, 130 deaths have been reported in the city just south from San Diego, California. That number eclipses Ciudad Juárez, deemed the world’s murder capital, which saw 120 American deaths in the past decade followed by Nuevo Laredo.

The U.S. State Department notes that the database is not fully complete because there are U.S. deaths that are not necessarily reported to consulates. The database shows the date, location and type of death, but does not give information as to who the person was, or whether or not the victims are American gangsters working hand in hand with Mexican cartels.

[Rich]

I would think Mexico should be #2. After all, aren't we #1.

[Yogimus]

The question is who is doing the killings? Also, are they counting alcohol related deaths? namely accidental suicides?

[Aesop]

1) That number is soft. Getting statistics from the consulate is like getting numbers of illegals in the country from ICE. In both cases, it's not that they don't know, it's that they don't know what they don't know. And the American media has preferred to concentrate on American Idol, rather than cover the near-revolution that Mexico has been in big-time since at least 2008.
2) Duh. In TJ, just as in Ciudad Juarez, open-air machinegun fights are not uncommon, particularly between government forces and the cartels.
10 years ago, the cartels would grab a policeman or official, cut his head off, and leave the two resulting body parts in two different places "to send a message". Now, they hijack two semi trailers or busses, wait for a convoy of troops or policemen, take over a dozen businesses for an hour, and when the convoy pulls in, cut off access in both directions with the large vehicles, pop up from the rooftops, and kill every living soul in the kill zone, including not just truck- and carloads of police or soldiers but also any witnesses, and then pull out. That's also how they settle inter-cartel rivalries, with military-style large ambushes, in broad daylight.
3) The numbers don't include those kidnapped for ransom, which in Mexico is beyond an epidemic, and has reached a cartel pasttime. And if the victim happens to be from a family with no means, they simply kill them, and go grab another one. Obviously, anyone who looks like a gringo is a much better target than a poor campesino from the hinterlands. Frequently, the authorities on either side only find out about the failed ones.
4) While there's some vague temporary truce around high-value tourist locations like Acapulco, which if the cartel pisses on makes them very unpopular with impacted locals, that exists only at their forbearance, as the government forces are still thoroughly penetrated by the cartels, and even before that, were corrupt and ineffecient on their own even without the drug gang problems.
5) Therefore, any American who'd willingly enter Mexico anywhere for any length of time without benefit of something at least in the M-16 family of personal protection (which is officially illegal in the entire country), and ideally with a lot of similarly armed friends, ought to have their heads examined. That includes any ex-pats still living down there, because they are, quite frankly and objectively insane asinine jacktards, protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.
6) Expecting this to stay on their side of the imaginary dotted line which we similarly imaginarily enforce, sort of, in some places, during normal business hours, is insane. American levels of law enforcement, being used to a certain criminal propriety, are completely unprepared for and unaccustomed to responding to or with the level of violence witnessed routinely south of the dotted line, and as it's been years past when authorities have been finding safe houses here with military quantities of guns, ammunition, explosives, RPGs, etc., and don't talk about it to the media unless the story squirts out too quickly, are going to be hopelessly overmatched, whether it's because the cartels are losing in Mexico, and need a safe hideout, or because they're winning, and don't give a damn about the U.S. response. Nature abhors a vacuum, which is exactly what we've provided with Disneyland levels of inattention and lack of serious security from San Diego to Brownsville over the last 30 years plus. If you live within 100 miles of that line, and you haven't been either seeking a better location, or arming up for the day when machinegun fights on this side of that line become more common than not, it's probably a good time to clench your muscles, do a Valsalva Maneuver, and plop your head out of that dark warm space it's been in.
7) That all being said, Detroit, Chicago, and DC put the numbers from Mexico to shame, year in and year out, but mainly because most of the sane Americans have gotten the hell out of Mexico, and stay out.

[Netpackrat]

One point I would like to make in response to Aesop. Saying that we provide Disneyland levels of enforcement at the border is not really fair to the Disney organization's security apparatus. While that company is run by a bunch of communist hoplophobes, it is my understanding that they are quite professional and active when it comes to providing security for their parks.

[JustinR]

Yea, I avoid Mexico flying completely, as do many of my co-workers.

[MarkD]

I wonder how the murder RATES compare between Mexico and (for instance) Jamaica. As in number of murders per visitor-day, since I'd imagine Mexico gets a lot more American visitors than most other places. Even Canada probably doesn't get the number of visitors Mexico does, people will head to Mexico in the WINTER. Lots of folks will head to Mexico for a couple days because it's close.

I worked with a guy who honeymooned in Jamaica, he nearly got killed because he left the resort at night to get a pack of cigarettes.

[Aglifter]

A) I live ~ within 100 miles of the MX border. Yes, its bad right around the border regions - and some areas, not actually near the border, are having issues. (An old teammate has a ranch in Corpus where they've had some serious problems.)

B) If we had responsible government, I think it would recognize that the government of Mexico, D.F., is no longer in control of the nation of MX.

Easing our money-laundering prevention rules would help, greatly. (If you want to fight crime, fine, but blocking the profits of the crime from returning to the legitimate economy is just adding fuel to the fire.)

At a certain point, we have to face that MX needs a transformation. It has had a horrible, oppressive regime of one type, or another, for a long time. And, we need MX to have a transformation. How to best handle that, is something I don't know - but I suspect education, w. a strong focus on individual rights and capitalism, would be a major advantage - along w. missionary work*.

*MX is another nation where the actions of the local branch of the Catholic church has made the populace's opinion of it a bit... complex...

[Rich]

Mexico, collaterally damaged from the Spanish Inquisition.

[Precision]

My boss wants to take our students on a field trip to Mexico.

Each time she brings it up, I mention it will be a nice week off for me. HERE.
She cajoles.
I reply, you can go and die anywhere you want. I chose to stay here and take my chances with the natives WHILE ARMED.
She says, God will provide.
I say, God didn't make a fool here and God helps those who help themselves not get kidnapped or killed by a drug cartel.

She usually moves on at that point.