Tragedy in Playa del Carmen

[caribbeansun]

I'm certainly not condoning the Mexican coverup nor their apparently inept handling of the situation and it was not intended as a shot at Judy personally. I certainly didn't see her comments as offending another country and of course a cruise ship isn't another country.

The "I won't travel outside the US" reminded me of the reaction to the problem in Aruba.

Both cases are terrible, I'm just not clear on why one (hopefully isolated) case should alter one's travel plans. I'm reminded of a few years back when there were a number of murders of Canadian tourists in Florida with most of those cases never being resolved.

The sad truth is that this "stuff" happens everywhere all the time and there's plenty happening in the US every day and to a lesser degree in Canada every day so why should it be a surprise when it happens in other countries? They are no better than we are at preventing it from happening in the first place.

It seems to me that these days the media is more intent than ever in creating an environment of fear. Don't go cruising or your spouse may disappear, don't go here or you'll get avian flu, don't go there you could get SARS, killer bees are coming, you'll get cancer if you eat, drink or inhale this stuff and so it goes. It just seems that if you rely on everything you see and hear in the media none of us would leave our own homes - which of course we've outfitted with surveillance cameras, alarm systems and various other devices to protect us from the bad people...sorry for the rant

 

[MusicMan]

I think the big thing is that whenever "bad stuff" happens here in the U.S. (and to borrow your phrase 'to a lesser degree in Canada") we fully expect a competent investigation, in most cases resulting in punishment for the "bad guys". There is not always that expectation elsewhere, especially where tourism is involved. MANY other countries lack the investigative expertise, manpower....and sometimes the WILL to properly investigate a crime. While it won't restrict my travel, I respect the right of others to "vote with their feet" so to speak, and either avoid the uneasiness they may feel elsewhere OR to not contribute financially to a given area.

It seems any time someone says they're "boycotting" someplace, others jump on them for doing so. While it may or may not have an effect, choosing where to spend ones travel dollars is a very individual decision, and can be based on WHATEVER criteria the spender chooses.

It's kind of like the kids that dress strange, pierce every known (and some practically unknown) parts of their body. They certainly have that right . . . and I HAVE THE RIGHT TO LAUGH AT THEM!! To each his own . . .

 

[DianeH]

Dna

It was reported this morning that they have recovered hair from Mrs Ianiero's hand. I find it odd that the Mexican authorities didn't notice it. However, the report did not say how much they found so it could have been a very small amount and not really visible to an inexperienced person.

Diane

 

[geoffb]

Well, the reports in the media are saying that the hair was found before the bodies were sent back to Canada for burial. It has also been reported that hair samples were collected from the wedding guests before they left the country which suggests that someone was onto this fairly early in the investigation. So the Mexican authorities did not miss anything, it just was not reported at the time.

It is hard to tell from the coverage if the quality of the investigation is good or not. Clearly the handling of the media has been poor but that does not mean the whole investigation is flawed.

 

[JudyS]

My point about vacationing in the US was exactly the one Music Man was making. In the US, there are quite high standards of investigation when a crime is committed. This does not appear to be the case everywhere else. We now seem to have two cases of murders (or alleged murders) of tourists, in which blood evidence was removed by housekeeping staff before a thorough investigation. Hey, if that happened in the US, the hotel (or cruise line) would get the pants sued off of them!

There are actually a number of places outside the US where I feel quite comfortable traveling. I've traveled alone to London, Amsterdam, Belgium, Italy, Eastern Europe, Bermuda, and the People's Republic of China. The only place I had problems was Southern Italy, where I got harrassed by men quite a bit. The thing about the places listed above is that they all have rates of violent that are lower than in the US. Mexico, unfortunately, has a crime rate even higher than the already high rate in the US, and now it looks like the level of investigation is poor, too.

Tomorrow, I'm going for a solo trip to Manhattan, and I'll probably worry more about crime than I did in China or most of Europe!

 

[DianeH]

Thanks for clarifying that Geoff.

Diane