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Security alert Playa del carmen & security concerns in Mexico (merged)

Jayco29D

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I subscribe to https://mexiconewsdaily.com/. It seems helpful and fairly objective. I love Mexico and hope it will improve its safety and PR issues.
 

PamMo

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Hi Karen ,
If you combined every thread you closed that involved variations of this topic / it would be one long thread full of OPINIONS that other readers take issue with .
"Security Alerts" that (some feel) read like : " It is snowing in Tahoe so avoid travel to Los Angeles " - complicate it further .

Just my opinion .

Karen just combined two different threads on the exact same topic of State Dept security alerts on Playa del Carmen that were cross posted. It makes total sense to put them together so Tuggers can follow the timeline.
 
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Eric B

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Hi Karen ,
If you combined every thread you closed that involved variations of this topic / it would be one long thread full of OPINIONS that other readers take issue with .
"Security Alerts" that (some feel) read like : " It is snowing in Tahoe so avoid travel to Los Angeles " - complicate it further .

Just my opinion .

It’s actually more of a wintry mix and I would avoid travel to San Francisco rather than LA; not that we’re prone to disagreements here....
 

T-Dot-Traveller

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Karen just combined two different threads on the exact same topic of State Dept security alerts on Playa del Carmen that were cross posted. It makes total sense to put them together so Tuggers can follow the timeline.[/QUOTE]

**********
Thanks PamMo ,

Sorry : My post wasn’t clear .

My sole reason for it was to compliment Karen .
and thank her for moderating this forum .

As tourists to TS resorts - it is important to have this information ( security info ) and I appreciated reading members adding information .
At the same time - having to close similar threads over the years : has likely been a “ “moderator’s headache .

Thank you Karen .
 
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BC Bum

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Oh the ban was lifted? Somehow that doesn't fit in with the conspiracy theories of the US trying to destroy Mexican tourism. I guess someone didn't get the memo.
 

Eric B

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Must have been the deep state....
 

easyrider

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Jayco29D

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This is so sad. Based on these news reports, I don't know what to think. The links do not supply any information as to what could have happened.
 

klpca

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Folks on tripadvisor are speculating that it was carbon monoxide poisoning. Supposedly no signs of foul play, but still, so troubling. So sad for their family.
 

taterhed

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So sad.

As with any travel, there are always risks. It will be interesting to read the results of this tragic incident.
 

DaveNV

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Akumal is a nice area. So sad.

Dave
 

whitewater

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Iowa family of four that went missing in Mexico found dead
no foul play/ signs of trauma per news reports. sad but unrelated to safety unless proven otherwise....
 

Jayco29D

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I read an article in New York Times that said there might have been a gas leak in the condo. If this is the cause, this is extremely sad and totally preventable. No matter what the cause, this is awful. I hope we will learn more about the details of this tragedy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/23/world/americas/family-dead-mexico.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/world&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=14&pgtype=sectionfront
 
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taterhed

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check your sources....

" ...Iowa investigators have confirmed that the Sharp family from Creston was found dead in their condo in Mexico. The family of 4 were found dead in a condominium of the Bahía Príncipe tourist complex in Tulum. The family was vacationing in Mexico earlier this month."
 

Jayco29D

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check your sources....

" ...Iowa investigators have confirmed that the Sharp family from Creston was found dead in their condo in Mexico. The family of 4 were found dead in a condominium of the Bahía Príncipe tourist complex in Tulum. The family was vacationing in Mexico earlier this month."

Oh no, then this is even worse! If it is a gas leak in a major tourist complex, that would be really bad. That will really hurt tourism in Mexico. Maybe that is why the major media like New York Times and Washington Post are not reporting where the condo was yet, until the investigation is complete. I have read many articles on this story since it is heart wrenching and I have not seen any reference to it being at Bahia Principe or the cause, other than the mention in NYT about a possible gas leak. If you find more information, please post the links. I would love to learn more about what happened to this beautiful family.
 

Jayco29D

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I just googled Bahia Principe and I found a few links stating the Mexican authorities have released that as the location where they died and the causes could be food poisoning or a gas leak.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/03/family-s-mysterious-death-at-luxury-mexico-resort.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...um-Mexico-condo-friends-reported-missing.html

When word gets out the family died at a luxury resort in Mexico, this will hurt tourism. If you can’t trust a luxury resort in Mexico, then where can you trust staying. This story, on top of the tainted alcohol stories last year, will really hurt tourism, not to mention the drug cartels and the ferry bombings.

I am a Mexico lover and went to Mexico five times in the past year and have been to Mexico at least 12 times in my life. I want to continue traveling to Mexico but all of these stories that are coming out have me thinking to shift my travel for awhile.
 
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T_R_Oglodyte

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Not unlike having a fatal outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease due to a faulty hotel ventilation system.

I'm glad that kind of thing could never happen in the US.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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Does anyone remember when Germany issued a warning about travel to the US after three German tourists and six tourists in general were killed in less than four months while vacationing in Flordia? That street criminals in the area were specifically targeting tourists? How does that compare with the number of tourist deaths in Mexico?

MIAMI — Four days after a German tourist who inadvertently drove her rental car into an inner-city Miami neighborhood was assaulted, robbed and killed, the resulting outcry has turned the slaying into an international incident.

In Bonn, the German government issued a list of "precautionary measures" for nationals planning to visit Florida, the first time in memory such a travel advisory has been issued for a U.S. destination.

"We're very concerned about the situation there, but we don't want to overreact," said a Foreign Ministry spokesman. "It's not as if we want to say that Florida is especially bad or more brutal than anywhere else. It's clearly no worse than New York."

Nonetheless, Florida officials scrambled to control whatever damage the worldwide publicity about the attack might cause to the state's $30-billion tourist industry, especially after recent waves of violence against French Canadian visitors to the Miami area and a rash of rock-throwing incidents last November which had National Guard troops patrolling an interstate highway near Jacksonville.

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Barbara Jensen Meller, a 39-year-old physical therapist from Berlin, arrived in Miami Friday with her two young children and her mother. After picking up a red Ford Taurus from Alamo Rent-A-Car, she was heading from Miami International Airport to a Miami Beach hotel when apparently she became lost and pulled off Interstate 95 just north of downtown.

In a technique favored by smash-and-grab robbers, her car was rear-ended, and when Jensen got out to inspect the damage, at least two men attacked her and grabbed her purse. As they fled, they ran over Jensen with their car, crushing her head. Her horrified children and mother looked on.

She was the third German and sixth foreign visitor to be killed in Florida since December.

Gov. Lawton Chiles asked U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, the former chief prosecutor in Miami, if new federal laws against carjacking could also be used to convict criminals who prey on tourists. He also said he would take to a special session of the legislature a request that the telltale word "lease" as well as the Y and Z letters on rental car license plates be banned. To thieves, the special plates are known as "Rob me" tags, Miami police say.

******

I am sorry for anybody who feels that posting unsettling contradictory information is an immature overreaction. Personally, I prefer my facts the same way I enjoy my crow - uncoated, cold, and hard.
 
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Jayco29D

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In spite of these scary reports, I have always felt physically safe in Mexico. However, my spouse was sexually harassed on one trip in the 1990s. In the trips in the last year, we had problems with harassment on 3 of the 5 trips with the resort staff. On the last trip, I had an accident and broke my clavicle at Xel Ha. I do not blame Xel Ha for my accident but it did leave a bad memory and does not make me excited to go back. Putting all of my experiences in Mexico together and then listening to all of the stories of danger do turn me off. In the USA, I have not had these types of problems with travel. Yes, bad things happen in the USA but I have had more bad experiences in Mexico than anywhere else I have traveled, and I have not had many bad things happen in Mexico compared to the stories on this thread - thank God. So when we compare statistics and we throw out stories about crime in Chicago’s inner cities or Legionnaire’s Disease in a US hotel, it is all hypothetical to me. These are not the types of places I would visit in the USA. The problems in Mexico in upscale locations have affected me more directly as my spouse has been sexually harassed, we have been harassed 3 times minimum by hotel staff in Mexico, and I have had a serious accident in Mexico resulting in the only broken bone and black out of my life. None of this has happened in my life and travels in the USA, Europe, Australia, Pacifica, Caribbean and elsewhere.
 

Jayco29D

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Does anyone remember when Germany issued a warning about travel to the US after three German tourists and six tourists in general were killed in less than four months while vacationing in Flordia? That street criminals in the area were specifically targeting tourists? How does that compare with the number of tourist deaths in Mexico?



******

I am sorry for anybody who feels that posting unsettling contradictory information is an immature overreaction. Personally, I prefer my facts the same way I enjoy my crow - uncoated, cold, and hard.

I grew up in Miami. Miami was a disaster when I was growing up. The 1970s, 1980s and the early 1990s were pretty bad. The inner city in Miami was extremely dangerous. Places like Overtown and Liberty City were deadly. Those were the areas where we had riots for days on end in 1980. During the riots, no one left their house, no matter where you lived. If someone drove in the inner city by mistake at any time, it would not surprise me that they would be robbed and possibly killed. Locals knew to avoid the inner cities. In the 1980s, Miami was the most dangerous city in the US. Remember Miami Vice? There was a lot of truth in the series, believe it or not. Drugs were rampant in Miami when I was growing up. Florida is the capital of Medicare fraud and many other types of fraud scandals. People move there to avoid state taxes and regulation. I personally hate Miami, even now. South Beach used to be super dangerous too. That is where the Marielitos (the criminals Castro sent over in the 1980s) went to live because it was cheap. (I am half Cuban, BTW) The German consulate was right to issue a warning for Miami because there were some neigborhoods tourists should have been warned to avoid. I left Miami in 1988. I had no idea that it started to transform in the late 1990s. Now it is an overpriced tourist hub in the “hot” neighborhoods but there is extreme income inequality between the coastal areas and the inland areas. I do not recognize the city anymore. I remember in the mid 1980s, I used to go to some “underground” bars in South Beach. That was considered adventurous at the time because South Beach was dangerous. You had to know exactly where you were going and not go alone. P.S. In spite of growing up in Miami when it was dangerous, I did not experience any danger because I knew where to go and where to avoid.
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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In spite of these scary reports, I have always felt physically safe in Mexico. However, my spouse was sexually harassed on one trip in the 1990s. In the trips in the last year, we had problems with harassment on 3 of the 5 trips with the resort staff. On the last trip, I had an accident and broke my clavicle at Xel Ha. I do not blame Xel Ha for my accident but it did leave a bad memory and does not make me excited to go back. Putting all of my experiences in Mexico together and then listening to all of the stories of danger do turn me off. In the USA, I have not had these types of problems with travel. Yes, bad things happen in the USA but I have had more bad experiences in Mexico than anywhere else I have traveled, and I have not had many bad things happen in Mexico compared to the stories on this thread - thank God. So when we compare statistics and we throw out stories about crime in Chicago’s inner cities or Legionnaire’s Disease in a US hotel, it is all hypothetical to me. These are not the types of places I would visit in the USA. The problems in Mexico in upscale locations have affected me more directly as my spouse has been sexually harassed, we have been harassed 3 times minimum by hotel staff in Mexico, and I have had a serious accident in Mexico resulting in the only broken bone and black out of my life. None of this has happened in my life and travels in the USA, Europe, Australia, Pacifica, Caribbean and elsewhere.
I understand and I think that is a reasonable response.

*******

Your response brings up an issue that might be lurking "under the table" in these discussions.

Some people vacation and travel as a way to get away and relax. Other people travel because travel is a way of expanding one's horizon's and get exposed to different cultures and ways of thinking. And, or course, some people mix both concepts when traveling.

However, if one's goal is to expand one's horizons, then that necessarily involves getting out of one's comfort zone, with inevitable consequences. Using your example, many cultures and societies have very different notions regarding "harassment". A person can certainly say that they don't wish to risk that when they travel, and as a point of principle they will refuse to spend their dollars supporting the tourism industry in countries that tolerate that they of behavior. That is a perfectly fine and defensible stance to take.

The inevitable corollary, though, is that that is also a choice to cut oneself off from the benefits of being exposed to that culture via travel. So that decision also comes with a price. Each individual needs to make their own decision.

*******

For myself, one of the most memorable trips I ever took in my life was to rural Guatemala. Based on many of the comments in this thread, I believe I surmise that many of the people who have been on this thread would never have made this trip. While there was only one time when I immediately felt unsafe, at all times I had a distinct awareness of danger, and to always be alert to what was happening around me. In the areas where I traveled, highway banditry was a semi-regular occurrence, which traveling foreigners often targeted.

In the communities where I visited, families were actively struggling with influences from gangs and cartels, and trying to keep their children out of gangs.

But I was also exposed to wonderful, caring and generous people. Who were working hard to rebuild their lives after 25 years of civil war in which they had been targets of genocide. People who were proud of their heritage and maintained their dignity in the face of tremendous insult. I got just an inkling of what they go through, and of the reasons why so many of the men make the trek to try to get across the border.

But I wouldn't have gotten to see any of that if I hadn't been willing to accept living with an added element of danger. I had to think through that when I signed the piece of paper that set forth those risks and I had to acknowledge that I was accepting those risks.
 
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