State Dept. Issues New Travel Warning for Mexico

From brownsvilleherald.com -The U.S. State Department has issued a new travel warning for Mexico, superseding last April’s warning. The department warned U.S. citizens traveling to Mexico of cartel violence stemming from drug trafficking, specifically noting violent struggles among the criminal organizations for control of trafficking routes. According to figures from the Mexican government, 47,515 people were killed in narcotics-related violence in Mexico between December 1, 2006, and September 30, 2011, the warning states, noting that most of those killed were members of the criminal organizations. The State Department has reported 120 U.S. citizens were murdered in Mexico in 2011. This compares with 35 such murders in 2007, according to the warning. The warning, broken down by region, advises citizens to defer any nonessential travel to Tamaulipas. U.S. government employees are not allowed to travel for personal reasons on highways outside the cities of Matamoros, Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo due to the risk of armed robberies and carjackings.

State Dept. Issues New Travel Warning for Mexico