On Saturday, Excélsior ran an interview with the chief of a federal tourism agency in which the subject accused other countries of engaging in a "dirty war" in order to make Mexico look dangerous and thereby lower its appeal as a tourist destination.
The following day, in an apparent act of hyperbolic dirty war friendly fire, the same paper published a long and sensational cover story about the tendency of foreign nationals visiting Mexico to be murdered during their stay in the country. From June 2005 to July 2008, 110 Americans were murdered in Mexico. According to the article, in 70 of these cases the victim had no apparent link to organized crime, but was murdered as he or she went about his or her daily routine.
Perspective: with a conservative estimate of one million American residents of Mexico, that boils down to an annual murder rate of around 3.7 per 100,000 residents, which is not only below the Mexican average, but well below the American one as well. Or is my arithmetic off?
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2 comments:
Interestingly, Reforma had an article yesterday that said tourism to Mexico grew six percent between 2007 and 2008. So apparently (if the statistics can be believed) not everyone has noticed this "dirty war."
Enjoying your blog.
Hi Lesley,
I did see that, although not in Reforma. Kind of a silly comment from the minister.
Thanks for reading, I look forward to checking out your blog too.
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