The safety of visiting Mexico is on everyone's minds it seems now a days and it always makes me wonder why. The media in general has really over dramatized what is going on here in Mexico, and the American media specifically is to blame for much misinformation and exaggeration. There is so much more crime in so many other places in the world but one never even hears a peep on the news about it. The first thing that springs to my mind is why do people not stop to think about what may be behind this media bashing that Mexico has been taking.

What people seem to forget is that there is crime and violence all over the world, especially so in the USA, where nightly news broadcasts tell of unspeakable crimes against man and beast alike; kidnappings, rapes, murders, police shoot outs, children shooting each other at school,  and yes, even drug and gang violence are prominent. I find that Americans especially tend to bury their heads in the sand while listening to the horror stories that unfold on the nightly news in their own cities, but when the reports of Mexico's drug violence come on, they snap to attention and remember every gory detail.  This type of person is also the first to help spread the misinformation about Mexico unfortunately; having had no other experience than the nightly news reports from a distant country, they become instant experts on what must go on in such a 'heathen' land and make it their duty to misinform, whomever else will listen to them, of the dangers of stepping foot anywhere in the entire country.

However, if one really looks at the statistics, rather than listening only to the news reports, one would see that there is more overall crime in the USA than anywhere else on the planet. One can see clearly on this statistics page that the USA is in the number 1 spot for overall crime with Mexico at only number 12. Notice also not only the position difference but the actual number of crime differences with the USA at almost 12 million incidents and Mexico with only 1.5 million incidents. This should be enough in itself to make a thinking person give pause, but there is more to tell.

Honduras and Jamaica have a homicide rate of 60% per 100,000 people with Trinidad and Belize in the 30 percentile range and Mexico coming in at 14%. 14 is not great but it certainly isn't horrific nor should it be enough to make tourists stop visiting the country anymore than Russia's 14.2% range should. The question is…Why has it? People still visit Honduras, Jamaica and Russia alike and one certainly doesn't see daily media blasts about how unsafe it is to visit any of these countries. One may stop to think that with a 60% homicide rate per 100,000 people, that there would be no visitors at all to Jamaica, but tourists still flock there in droves, completely unaware of the 'problems' in that country. Washington D.C. in the United States has 4 times the homicide rate that Mexico City does but do people stop going to Washington D.C.? Is it spread all over the world that one should not visit the USA because of the #1 position the USA holds for overall crime? The answer of course is a resounding 'no'. So what I'm wondering is… Why is Mexico the target of all this publicity with its relatively low overall crime rate? And why aren't more people noticing these inaccuracies?

I've tried briefly here today to give you my point of view in that Mexico is a safe and lovely country to visit and that over 1 million Americans live here either full or part time. I invite you today to open your minds and eyes to a wider perspective and hope that you'll be empowered to seek out the truth and to perhaps wonder why it is being hidden from us all in the first place.

Gloria Guevara, the Secretary of Tourism in Mexico, gives an interview to Hannah Sampson from the Miami Herald about the safety in Mexico.

Gloria touches on many interesting thoughts and things she hopes to change and balance out. We invite you today to have a look at the interview in its original text on the Miami Herald website.