Mexico’s tourism secretary rejects U.S. report citing safety issues for U.S. travelers

Recently, the U.S. State Department released a report of U.S. tourist deaths in 2016. Of the 843 American fatalities that occurred across the globe last year, Mexico leads the list with 264—and 75 of them were caused by homicide. But Mexican Secretary of Tourism Enrique de la Madrid Cordero told Newsweek he is not aware of American or other foreign demises due to insecurity.

“In Mexico’s main tourist areas for foreigners—Cancun-Riviera Maya and Los Cabos—we haven’t heard of foreign tourists’ casualties that stemmed from insecurity in the last two years, so I would like to see those [death] cases and provide an answer based on that,” he said. Despite the department’s data on homicides, de la Madrid Cordero added “they may not be tourists because I don’t know those numbers. It may be anecdotic cases where one tourist kills his or her significant other or vice versa. These are not acts related to violence.”

Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism Enrique de la Madrid Cordero gives a speech during a meeting with members of the diplomatic corps in Mexico City, Mexico November 22, 2017. (Reuters)

However, some tourists visiting Cancun have fallen prey to violence. According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, the tourist haven has witnessed deaths at the hands of drug cartels. In January, the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación killed five people—two of them from Canada, one Colombian and another from Italy—at the Blue Parrot club in Playa del Carmen. U.S. and international tourists visiting Cancun have requested local authorities to halt crime and guarantee security, Mexican newspaperEl Universal reported.

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Source: Newsweek