Oct 29, 2010
Mexico/Nogales updates, a mixed bag!
Folks….I add these comments to my blog for your information. I am not trying to influence you one way or the other but rather hope to give you some facts I have gathered from different areas. Colin and I are headed to Mazatlan no matter what but at the same time we can’t be responsible for others safety or decisions. Here is the lastest….
First the bad then the good stuff…..
U.S. Consulate General Hermosillo
Warden Message 10/25/2010
This Warden Message updates U.S. citizens traveling to and residing in Mexico of the continuing threat of highway robbery on the Mexican Toll Road Highway 15, in Sonora and on the Maxipista Benito Juarez toll road in Sinaloa. The number of robberies involving U.S. citizens reported to Consulate General Hermosillo on these two highways has tripled over the last year. The increased frequency of robberies reflects an overall increase in the level of crime throughout the district; Americans do not appear to be targeted solely based on their nationality. While such incidents are more prevalent in Sinaloa, a recent highway robbery involving U.S. citizens occurred outside of the Sonoran city of Huatabampo.
Most highway robberies in the Hermosillo consular district occur after daylight hours. The Consulate recommends all American citizens residing in, visiting, or transiting through the consular district DRIVE ONLY DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS. Travelers are encouraged to plan their trips so they can overnight in large towns and limit stops at road-side rest areas and toll booths. The individuals who commit these crimes use a variety of tactics. Some groups construct false police style checkpoints to net dozens of cars at once, while others force individual vehicles off the road. In both scenarios, victims are usually robbed at gunpoint, at night, and the criminals often take the victim’s vehicle.
The Consulate’s Security Office requires that Consulate personnel use armored vehicles on well traveled roads during daylight hours when traveling in Sinaloa. For U.S. Government employees, travel in Sinaloa in personally owned vehicles is not permitted. Although travel is still allowed within Sonora, U.S. government employees are instructed to follow the security practices detailed in “A Safe Trip Abroad,” which can be found at http://
….and from a fellow Rver speaking from his heart…he usually tells it like it is…
“My wife was reading some of the diary pages. Each page has a recuerdo: post cards, pictures, business cards and menus. The diary is almost a Reader’s Digest version of our life since 1998. Earlier in the day I had read the Borderland Beat ( as I do every day). After reading some of the diary stories I began to cry. This was not a happy cry. Rather I was lamenting that we might never get to enjoy those spots ever again. At least not in an RV. I cried for the country which has turned frome peaceful to one of the most violent places on earth. RV’ing through Mexico has been the happiest times in our lives. I think of staying on a Pemex lot in Tepic ( yesterday 12 workers were shot, innocent bystanders were injured). Acapaulco is all glitz and glitter but we always had fun playing tourist in that city. Today restaurants are shuttered, 500 hotel workers have been laid off and 10,000 others work only weekends and Fiestas. The police I remember overnighting at a Pemex in Culiacan and visiting the shrine of Jesus Malverde( would you do that today?) Huatabampito was not a favorite spot but I certainly would not drive on that road today. Sonora is ” our home state”, Nuestra Tierra, but driving through the state on Hwy. 15 could become an impossibility very soon. Last spring we planned a trip to Celestino in January but have decided to cancel. I wiped the tears and wondered if things will ever change. They say you can never go home and this is true!”
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Thanks for update and info.