US slaps highest-level 'do not travel' warning on five Mexican states

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/01/10/us-slaps-highest-level-do-not-
travel-warning-on-five-mexican-states.html

The State Department unveiled a revamped travel warning system Wednesday,
giving five Mexican states the sternest "do not travel" advisory alongside
war-torn nations like Syria, Yemen and Somalia.

All five states -- Tamaulipas on the U.S. border and Sinaloa, Colima,
Michoacan and Guerrero on the Pacific coast -- are hotspots of drug cartel
activity, either hosting trafficking routes or extensive drug-crop
cultivation.

The new warning system designates the states as a "level 4" risk, the
highest level of potential danger. Mexico as a whole has a level 2 rating,
meaning Americans should "exercise increased caution" because of concerns
about crime. But an additional 11 Mexican states got a level 3 warning
Wednesday, which urges people to "reconsider travel" there. Mexico has 31
states in all.

Those states where Americans are urged to reconsider travel include the
State of Mexico - Mexico's most populous state, which includes most
suburbs of Mexico City - and Jalisco, home to the city of Guadalajara, the
Puerto Vallarta resorts and the lakeside expat community of Chapala and
Ajijic. But the travel advisory said there are "no restrictions on U.S.
government employees for stays in ... Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta,
Chapala, and Ajijic."

Most of northern Mexico, including the border states of Chihuahua,
Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Sonora as well as Durango, Zacatecas and San Luis
Potosi, are under level 3 warnings.

Mexico's federal tourism department was not immediately available to
comment on the new warnings.

But the government's Mexico Tourism Board said in a statement that
"Mexico's major international tourism destinations have been explicitly
listed as having no travel restrictions," apparently a reference to major
resorts like Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Huatulco.

Brian Kilmeade gets a closer look at the Rio Grande Valley Sector in
Texas.Video
Inside the most active sector of the US-Mexico border
However, at least two Mexican resorts -- Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo and Acapulco -
- are in a do-not-travel state, Guerrero, and last year, the State
Department extended a total ban on personal travel by U.S. government
personnel there.

U.S. personnel had previously been allowed to fly to Ixtapa, the last
place in Guerrero where they had been allowed to go. Personal travel by
land and to the resort city of Acapulco had already been prohibited.

The no-travel states had mostly already lost much foreign tourism.

Tamaulipas has long been riven by turf wars between rival drug cartels,
and Sinaloa is home to the cartel of the same name. Michoacan was so
dominated by a drug cartel that vigilantes took up arms in 2013 to drive
them out.

Colima has seen homicides skyrocket in recent years due to the growth of
the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel, and the state now has Mexico's
highest homicide rate, with 83.3 killings per 100,000 residents, according
to figures for the first 11 months of 2017.

The U.S. government did note its employees are allowed to go to the
seaside city of Manzanillo, Colima.

The state with second-highest homicide rate -- 61.6 per 100,000 -- was
Baja California Sur, home to the twin resorts of Los Cabos. The state
conserved its level 2 advisory, "exercise increased caution," despite a
series of shootouts and killings in recent months.

Rising levels of violence have not so far affected Los Cabos, which saw a
16 percent increase in tourism arrivals and an 18 percent rise in hotel
occupancy in 2017, said Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the Los
Cabos Tourism Board.

Esponda said local officials and tourism operators are investing in
increased security, including camera systems and the construction of a new
marine base.

"We are going to keep working very hard in 2018 to make sure that Los
Cabos continues as a safe destination," Esponda said.

Speaking to local media earlier this week, Tourism Secretary Enrique De la
Madrid said, "In my opinion, the most important challenge we have in the
tourism sector are crime events occurring where they didn't before, for
example in Cancun, la Paz and Los Cabos."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for cleaning up the disaster
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Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
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