A member of the Mexican security forces stands next to a white minivan with North Carolina plates and several bullet holes, at the crime scene where gunmen kidnapped four U.S. citizens who crossed into Mexico from Texas, March 3, 2023. (AP Photo)
The U.S. Department of State issued a travel warning some six months ago concerning Mexico, urging Americans to avoid travel to parts of the country and to “reconsider travel” amid fears of violence by criminal cartels.
Should Black American stay away from Mexico?
Six states in Mexico, including Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, and Guerrero, are on the state department’s “do not travel” list due to the threat of crime and kidnapping.
The warnings came before a group of young Black Americans traveling in Mexico was kidnapped. Two of the four were killed. They had traveled to Mexico seeking cheaper medical procedures. From South Carolina, kidnapped in Mexico after traveling to the country on March 3. Two have since been rescued and returned to the U.S.
A 33-year-old mother of six, Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee drove to Mexico with three friends so she could undergo a tummy tuck surgery across the border. She never made it to her doctor’s appointment, her mother, Barbara Burgess, told CNN.
The four friends were kidnapped on March 3 in Matamoros, a city in the state of Tamaulipas, just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. They were the likely target of a Mexican cartel and might have mistakenly been thought to be Haitian drug smugglers, a U.S. official familiar with the ongoing investigation told CNN.
The North Carolina Beat identified the four kidnapped U.S. citizens as Washington, 28-year-old Zindell Brown, 33-year-old Shaeed Woodard, and Eric “Wise” Williams.
Every border state in Mexico has at least a “reconsider travel” status, including the Baja California Sur area, which is home to Cabo, and the Quintana Roo area, which is home to Cancun, which are both popular vacation destinations for Americans, News Nation Now reported.
Cartel activity in Mexico has ramped up, especially after the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán, a leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel and son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.
“There’s a lot of corruption in Mexico among officials, not just police, although police corruption is a major issue. There have been entire local, and even state-level police departments completely disbanded because of their corruption ties to local criminal organizations,” Mike Ballard of the Global Guardian, a global security solutions company, told News Nation Now.
Cancun has also long had a presence of various organized crime groups (OCGs), from Colombian cartels to Italian mafia to Mexican cartels, according to Dr. Vanda Felbab-Brown, director of the Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors for the Brookings Institution. “Cancún is a place where criminal groups frequently meet,” Felbab-Brown told the ASIS blog. ASIS is an organization of security professionals.
In addition to Cancun, cartel violence is also getting out of control in another of Mexico’s resort destinations, Tulum.
Playa del Carmen in the resort area of Tulum has seen a boost in cartel violence.
“Don’t put yourself at risk. Drug dealers at beaches and nightclubs will get you into trouble. They are not your friends. They’re criminals,” reads the warning that’s being handed out at every hotel in the state of Quintana Roo, where Tulum and Cancun are located. All visitors are required to sign before checking in, Vice reported.
Despite security concerns, there has been an increase of Black American not only traveling to Mexico for vacation but putting down roots in the country as they flee the racism of America.
Other immigrants to Mexico have been facing a difficult and dangerous time in Mexico. Haitian immigrants in Tijuana, many of them trying to make their way to the U.S., have found themselves the victims of cartel violence in Mexico, and there have been a number of deaths.
Haitians interviewed by the San Diego Union-Tribune viewed their struggles in Tijuana as a product of racist attitudes in Mexico.
A member of the Mexican security forces stands next to a white minivan with North Carolina plates and several bullet holes, at the crime scene where gunmen kidnapped four U.S. citizens who crossed into Mexico from Texas, March 3, 2023. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the four Americans were going to buy medicine and were caught in the crossfire between two armed groups after they had entered Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. (AP Photo)
