What’s This About The Travel Warning Against Unnecessary Trips To Northern Mexico?
The above has been common sense advice over the years for people living or visiting near the Mexico/USA border. Recently the Canadian government web site issued a warning for Canadian travellers.
OFFICIAL WARNING: Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against non-essential travel to Ciudad Juárez, due to escalating violence linked to drug trafficking. Although foreigners have not been typically targeted, on March 14, 2010, two American nationals were shot to death in Ciudad Juárez, including a consular official. Travellers are advised to reconsider their need to travel to Ciudad Juárez and should only do so if it is absolutely necessary.
This official statement means travellers already booked for the regions mentioned can put in a claim on their trip insurance for cancellation. If you have a vacation or business trip already booked then you now have legitimate reason to cancel and your insurance will pay for any losses incurred.
It is a regional warning from the government of Canada and should not be taken lightly.
However, the tourist areas for most Canadian vacationers are quite far from the dangerous areas on the border. Mexico is huge. The problem areas are thousands of miles away from the tourist areas. This warning does not mean cancellation costs will be covered by their trip insurance.
Problems in Mexico usually happen when someone is somewhere they shouldn’t be, doing something they shouldn’t be doing. You shouldn’t be in Ciudad Juarez and you should be soliciting drugs illegally.
This bad publicity taints all of Mexico. In Canadian terms, it is comparable to stating their is a drug turf war in Montreal, so I better cancel my vacation in Edmonton. The distances and situations reflect the same type of reasoning.
There are sections of any Canadian city where I would not feel safe. Mexico is the same and now even more so in the border areas. It’s always been like that, perhaps a little more so lately.
Book Mexico, but use common sense to guide your choices and actions no matter where you vacation.
This Canadian government site should be a go to source for any and all destinations regarding:
- things you can do
- things you must do
- things you shouldn’t do
- things you can’t do
while travelling abroad.
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- Mexico travel alert issued by Ottawa (cbc.ca)
- Travel warning issued for Mexican border towns (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Ottawa warns Canadians against travel to Mexico (nationalpost.com)
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