US travelers urged to avoid Mexico

Neither the University of Cincinnati nor any other area university is publicly cautioning students to avoid travel or to use extra care when traveling to Mexico, despite a recent alert issued by the State Department.

The State Department is urging travelers to use extreme caution in traveling south of the border, especially in the northern territories of Mexico, along the border with the United States.

The alert is the result of rapidly escalating drug-related violence. In 2008, more than 6,200 deaths were attributed to fighting among drug cartels, Mexican military and police. More than 1,000 such deaths have been recorded in the first eight weeks of 2009.

“I didn’t really realize how dangerous Mexico can be,” said Capt. Karen Patterson of UCPD. Patterson recently received a copy of the State Department’s notice at her office. “I guess it’s kind of a tough area.”

Estimates suggest that more than 100,000 high school and college students will journey to Mexico this month for Spring Break, and while most of the violence is centered in areas like Tijuana and Baja California, it is not unheard of for drug violence to reach to tourist destinations like Cancun and Acapulco.

The University of Arizona is urging students not to Spring Break in Mexico this year, and Notre Dame, Penn State, the University at Buffalo and the University of Colorado have all called attention to the alert, issued Feb. 20.

“Mexican and foreign bystanders have been injured or killed in violent attacks in cities across the country ... In recent years, dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped across Mexico,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs.

Armando Romero, a UC Spanish professor who teaches a course titled Latin America Today, said there has always been a certain amount of danger in traveling to Mexico.

“It’s risky; it’s risky even for the people who live there,” he said. “And it’s not going to improve in the short term.”

Romero also expressed concern for students in study abroad programs, saying he would never take students to border cities, Tijuana or Mexico City.

Kurt Olausen, director of international programs, said that his department is not overly concerned about the alert. He said there has been no discussion about canceling or changing any program plans for travel to Mexico.  In general, the international programs department does pass along alerts to students who would be affected. They offer general travel advice, which tends to emphasize “common sense precautions.”

Olausen also said he feels that UC students are already accustomed to getting by in an urban area and will be less likely than other students to let their guard down.

Serve Beyond Cincinnati, a service organization affiliated with UC, has not changed plans to send a group of aproximately nine students to Reynosa, Mexico, a city in the northeastern part of the country, over Spring Break.

Patti Davenport, a third-year biology student and student organizer for SBC, said the organization did consider canceling the trip. Groups from Cincinnati have made similar trips to Reynosa twice a year for the last five years. Group members engage in construction-oriented projects by day and humanitarian outreach by night – the group going later this month will work on the construction of a school for deaf children.

The decision to keep the trip on schedule came after several conversations with their liason in Mexico who said most of the violence is concentrated in the west.

“It’s become more necessary than ever to pay attention, to know where you’re going and with whom you’ll be associating,” Romero said. “If you have even the minimum of doubt, don’t go.”

Representatives from Xavier University and Miami University said no special mention of the travel alert hs been made; a representative from The Ohio State University said a brief, which would mention the advisory and be a springboard to advise students of appropriate travel behavior and safety tips, was scheduled to be distributed this last weekend.