French citizen says police surveillance in Mérida is similar to that in Paris

When Faouzi Reggoune undertook the trip from France to Mexico to recover the bodies of his daughter Sarah and her friend Salma, both of whom died in a tragic accident on the Tizimín-Kikil road, the first thing that came to his mind, was the news that spread about the “cartel related violence that prevails in a country like Mexico”.

However, on the cab drive from the Mérida airport to the State Attorney General’s office, the large number of police officers and patrol cars he saw all over the streets, caught his attention.

“C’est similaire à Paris (just as in Paris),” said Faouzi, who is originally from Morocco and works at the Charles de Gaulle airport in the French capital.

The “City of Light” is considered the safest in Europe, with a very efficient police force, which has even included films and series that show how effective the corporation has been since post-war times.

Mr. Reggaoune was pleasantly surprised with the surveillance in Mérida and kept pointing out every patrol car he saw.

“The police in Yucatan must be good, similar to the police in Paris,” he said. “From what we see in the news, I imagined that Mexico was a much more violent place, with narcos, shootings, and dead bodies everywhere.”

People with whom he spoke told him that Yucatan is like “an island” in the midst of the insecurity that exists in practically all of Mexico.

“In Paris”, Faouzi said, “if someone commits a crime, the police move quickly and catch the criminal really soon”.

“C’est la même chose (it’s the same thing) in Mérida and Yucatán”. “Voila! Très bien (very good), ”he replied.

As previously reported on The Yucatan Times, Faouzi Reggoune is in Yucatan to recover the bodies of the two young French tourists who died on February 13th (one of them was his daughter), on the Tizimín-Kikil road, where they were involved in an accident in which they both died instantly.

The young women arrived in Cancun and traveled to Yucatán in a rental car. The fatal accident occurred on the road between Tizimin and Río Lagartos, when the tourists were returning from Las Coloradas.