We canceled our vacation after reading news like this one

We planned to take 1 week vacation tour in Mexico next month, but news of kidnapping and gangs worried us so finally we canceled our trip. Here is one of the articles that worried us about tourist's security in Mexico:



MEXICO CITY – Indiscriminate kidnappings. Nearly daily beheadings. Gangs that mock and kill government agents.This isn't Iraq or Pakistan. It's Mexico, which the U.S. government and a growing number of experts say is becoming one of the world's biggest security risks.

The prospect that America's southern neighbor could melt into lawlessness provides an unexpected challenge to Barack Obama's new government. In its latest report anticipating possible global security risks, the U.S. Joint Forces Command lumps Mexico and Pakistan together as being at risk of a "rapid and sudden collapse." "The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and pressure by criminal gangs and drug cartels," the command said in the report published Nov. 25. "How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state."

Retiring CIA chief Michael Hayden told reporters on Friday that that Mexico could rank alongside Iran as a challenge for Obama — perhaps a greater problem than Iraq. The U.S. Justice Department said last month that Mexican gangs are the "biggest organized crime threat to the United States." National security adviser Stephen Hadley said last week that the worsening violence threatens Mexico's very democracy. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently told The New York Times he ordered additional border security plans to be drawn up this summer as kidnappings and killings spilled into the U.S. The alarm is spreading to the private sector as well. Mexico, Latin America's second biggest economy and the United States' third biggest oil supplier, is one of the top 10 global risks for 2009 identified by the Eurasia Group, a New York-based consulting firm.

Mexico is brushing aside the U.S. concerns, with Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez-Mont saying Wednesday: "It seems inappropriate to me that you would call Mexico a security risk. There are problems in Mexico that are being dealt with, that we can continue to deal with, and that's what we are doing."Still, Obama faces a dramatic turnaround compared with the last time a new U.S. president moved into the White House. When George W. Bush was elected in 2000, the nation of 110 million had just chosen Vicente Fox as president in its fairest election ever, had ended 71 years of one-party rule and was looking forward to a stable, democratic future.

Fox signaled readiness to take on the drug cartels, but plunged them into a power vacuum by arresting their leaders, and gangs have been battling each other for territory ever since. Felipe Calderon, who succeeded Fox in 2006, immediately sent troops across the country to try to regain control. But soldiers and police are outgunned and outnumbered, and cartels have responded with unprecedented violence. Mob murders doubled from 2007, taking more than 5,300 lives last year. The border cities of Juarez and Tijuana wake up each morning to find streets littered with mutilated, often headless bodies. Some victims are dumped outside schools. Most are just wrapped in a cheap blanket and tossed into an empty lot.

Many bodies go unclaimed because relatives are too afraid to come forward. Most killings go unsolved. Warring cartels still control vast sections of Mexico, despite Calderon's two-year crackdown, and have spawned an all-pervasive culture of violence. No one is immune. Businesses have closed because they can't afford to pay monthly extortion fees to local thugs. The rich have fled to the U.S. to avoid one of the world's highest kidnapping rates. Many won't leave their homes at night. The government has launched an intensive housecleaning effort after high-level security officials were accused of being on the take from the Sinaloa cartel. And several soldiers fighting the gangs were kidnapped, beheaded and dumped in southern Mexico last month with the warning: "For every one of mine that you kill, I will kill 10."

But the U.S. government is extremely supportive of the Mexican president, recently handing over $400 million in anti-drug aid. Obama met briefly with Calderon in Washington last week and promised to fight the illegal flow south of U.S. weapons that arm the Mexican cartels. While fewer Americans are willing to drive across the border for margaritas and handicrafts, visitors are still flocking to other parts of Mexico. And the economy seems harder hit by the global crisis than by the growing violence. The grim assessments from north of the border got wide play in the Mexican media but came as no surprise to people here. Many said the solution lies in getting the U.S. to give more help and let in more migrant workers who might otherwise turn to the drug trade to make a living. Otherwise the drug wars will spill ever more heavily into America, said Manuel Infante, an architect. "There is a wave of barbarity that is heading toward the U.S.," he said. "We are an uncomfortable neighbor."

Why do you keep on posting depressing things, kat?

Hozama wrote:

Why do you keep on posting depressing things, kat?

What do you mean? Do you read news at all? You consider those depressing news? Tijuana is about 1 hour drive from my house and we goes there as often as every 2 weeks, though we normally get back in same day. I read news often and that how is our conversation during dinner time with my family. We dont consider this is depressing news. Its not good news for the world over all and Mexico pacificly but its not depressing news.

Now read this article:

KUWAIT CITY – The Saudi king says his country will donate $1 billion to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after Israel's devastating three-week offensive in the Palestinian territory. King Abdullah criticizes Israel for using excessive force in Gaza and says "one drop of Palestinian blood" is more valuable than all the money in the world. The king spoke Monday in Kuwait City at a summit focused on boosting economic growth and development in the Arab world.

Happy news? Nah, deep down it's it sad news. It reminds us of how it all started when Israel started killing Palestinians and the world included many "great countries" like US and Canada either turned their back away or actively supported the war there.

However since those news make you depressed, I will try to find some other articles and posting them. Hopefully they will make you feel better.

You're right kat. Palestinians don't need donations; they don't need to be killed in the first place. That arabic king should've spoke 22 days ago to stop the israeli attack instead. But the plan to eliminate resistance movements and dominate over land and resources in the region is ongoing. Sad.

It still isnt happy news, Jeff is right too. Post things like this!

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/01/20/obama-inaugurationday.html

I cant wait to go home tonight and watch the inauguration ceremony. I was outside listening to radio and forgot to Tivo it. Just hope some local chanels will replay the ceremony.

Hopefully we will have great improving years with new president, not only just United States but also for the whole world. Please bring Peace and Prosperous !!!

Good and bad that I saw it live. Good that well...duh. Bad that i missed my spanish class, she locked me (and 9 others) out, and we lost 5% on our oral (0.5% on report card). But i dont even care, it was so worth it to see obama get sworn in. The slip was rather funny too =D (in a laugh with not laugh at way). They said that there was 2.5 MILLION people there to see him. If you lined all the buses that went up, they would span 75 miles!! (approx 125-130 km). Anyway, im really glad that Obama is president, and I back him all the way <3

Hey, I also live one hour away from Tijuana. Anyway, Mexico isn't that dangerous. I go there every year for vacation for like 2 months. The news is exaggerated. As long as you go to tourist areas, you are not gonna get raped or attacked or mugged. Also, I have lots of family in Mexico so maybe that's why my family isn't in danger. If you always strictly followed the news, you would never do anything. Oh, cookies have too much sugar, long term usage of TV or computers will eat at your vision and brain, taking pills can kill you, breathing too much is bad for the environment, global warming....meh.

Plus, this happened to one person. ONE. Not every person that goes through there and it's given like a lay of flowers like in Hawaii.

Dont rely too much on the news, i agree with tany they exaggerate WAAAY too much

Hey.. I used to live in mexico for like 9 years and I never got kidnapped o__o

Its pretty much who you hang out with and trust me America has number one murders in the world but why do they just blame Mexicans of horrifying things while Americans are doing the same or worse.

To die or to be kidnapped.
I choose B!

offtopic: omg john! ur alive! we are omoking everyday at 8 pm pst in zipangu ch9! also check omok.bellocan.com u'll love it.