The U.S. State Department’s latest travel warning suggests that Cancun is safer than the Pacific Coast.
The department issued an advisory Wednesday warning U.S. citizens to steer clear of several Mexican states.
An abundance of media reports connected recent cartel violence in Cancun with the warning. But the warning focused mainly on far-away locales including Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas.
The “do not travel” advisory does not include Cancun, although travelers to the Yucatán Peninsula resort city are urged to “exercise increased caution.”
The announcement warns U.S. citizens about a recent crime wave in Mexico that resulted in increased homicides, kidnappings, carjackings and robberies.
U.S. government employees working in Mexico are prohibited to travel to these areas and have a limited ability to help citizens who need it.
If Americans do travel to the risky areas, the government recommends they use toll roads, avoid driving at night, use caution at local bars and nightclubs, avoid wearing expensive jewelry and be vigilant around banks or ATMs.
It’s confusing for tourists who read scary headlines coming from Cancun, clear across the country from the border towns and the Pacific. Earlier this week, a man was found dead in a hammock in Cancun, and the bodies of a man and woman were found in the trunk of an abandoned taxi cab.
The revised notice was posted after two bodies were found in an abandoned taxi Tuesday. The dismembered bodies of two men were found elsewhere stuffed in plastic bags.
Another two men, including one who was tied up, were shot to death and yet another man was killed while lying in a hammock.
None of the killings happened in the beachside hotel zone of the vacation hot spot.
In April, Cancun was rocked by 14 murders over a span of just 36 hours.
With information from The Associated Press
