Is it safe to live in Mexico?

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OldGringo

Yes, it is safe.
I have been living in Mexico for many years and have had more problems with sunburn than with getting things stolen.

Cabochick23

Hola. I live here in Cabo and I find its pretty good. I go to the mainland often and have been through Mexico city etc, many times and like usual the media play up all the violence and now this outbreak of swine flu. I think if you practice safety and awareness, you will live a good life in Mexico.

Karan

I've lived in Mexico for over thirty years and have seen it change from a peaceful, safer country, into a less safer, more violent one. Nothing has happened to me or my family other than having our side mirrors or stereo and speakers stolen from our cars, or the time when all the gas was sucked out of the tank, or someone actually smashed a window to steal a small tape recorder. Other than that we have been lucky. Some of my neighbor's houses have been broken into and we have heard of business owners being subjected to extortion by organized crime, that now seems to resort to this, in addition to the amazingly cruel kidnappings we hear so much about which are a spinoff from the drug business.
I remember the slow spread of horror stories from Mexico City, where you could be assaulted in broad daylight, regardless of who was with you, kids, your wife, anyone, these criminal animals did not care. We heard of express kidnappings and we even met some people who had experience it a couple of times. Of course they behaved stupidly, flashing money and fine cars around which just targeted them as victims.
Now where I live, closer to the USA, there are plenty of scams and express kidnappings. There are even kidnappings for ridiculously small amounts. Not only criminals are involved in this. Ordinary citizens who want to make a quick buck will resort to this. Some are inexperienced and end up blotching everything up. The really dangerous ones are the bands that come from Mexico City. It seems that this country tends to copy everything that goes on there. The good and the bad, but mostly the bad.
Crime is around, but if you tend to stay away from the dangerous sectors of town, take your precautions and don't do anything stupid that will target you as an easy victim, then you are pretty safe.

Mexico is a surreal country. Corruption is hard to understand until you realize it is ingrained into the culture. Even wealthy, well educated people are not above bribing a police officer to get out of getting a well deserved ticket. This comes as naturally as breathing and honest, hardworking citizens indulge in this kind of practice, but do not consider it as improper behavior, just a way to make things easier and to save a lot of time and red tape. Unfortunately this is also true. Kids learn it from their parents and so they continue the tradition.
Yeah, in general, Mexico is relatively safe. The American Media is full of crap sometimes. Hillary Clinton visited Monterrey a few weeks ago, and some woman on FOX news was saying that everyone here lived in terror and fear. Where on earth did she get this info? As if NY or Chicago or LA were free from it. The American media tends to overreact, like right now, claiming the swine flu originated in Mexico, when there have been documented cases in the USA in 1988 and 1976, not to mention 12 cases between Dec 2005-Feb 2009. I am not making this up. I got this from the CDC website.
There is corruption everywhere, only that in more advanced countries it is not as blatant as it is here.
Hope this helps.

True Pimp

I live in Guadalajara...no problems so far. Well, the mirrors on my car were stolen, but asides from that, no gun battles or explosions and roving street gangs.

William W

Do I think it's safe to live in Mexico? Moderately safe, but one needs to take more precautions there than, say, in truly safe places like the Netherlands, Japan, Jordan, Sweden. Statistics show that in terms of violent crimes, Mexico is a moderately dangerous place. Of course, by being careful and planning ahead, people are able to reduce many of these dangers, but one sign of a moderately dangerous place is that people take the trouble to find ways to avoid crime. In Amsterdam, people spend almost no time thinking about violent crime or avoiding it: it's a very safe city in a very safe country. In Mexico City, people spend a lot of time thinking about this: it's a pretty dangerous city in a moderately dangerous country.

People who say "it's a lot safer in X" or "it's a lot more dangerous" usually base their opinions on very weak evidence: the experience and rumors accumulated by that one person. We need to look at statistics and something more than mere anecdote.

The murder rate in Mexico is about 3-5 times higher than in the USA, but in both countries, the vast majority of murders are done by friends or relatives. Does this mean Mexico is dangerous? Safe? Is the USA safe? Dangerous? That's hard to say, but even given this higher murder rate, the vast majority of people in Mexico (and the US), whether local or tourist, don't have problems.

Comparing San Miguel with San Antonio isn't a very interesting comparison. San Miguel has a much smaller population and the ratio of per capita income of the city to that of the country is higher in San Miguel than in San Antonio.

In terms of murder rate, Mexico is far more dangerous than London, regardless of the individual experience of the poster. Still, that doesn't mean it's dangerous. London, by world standards, has a pretty low murder rate.

People who say "Mexico" (or any other place) "is really safe unless you do A, B, or C" miss the point In safe places, one can do A, B, C and not get into trouble. Tokyo is a safe city: you can wear expensive jewelry, drive an expensive car, get drunk and walk around the streets and not get into trouble. That's part of the definition of a safe city. You need to be careful about doing these things in many American cities and should be very careful about doing them in Mexico City. But still, in many other Mexican cities, it's considerable safer.

DRocK

I live and have my family in Guadalajara. For it's size I think it is an incredibly safe city. As someone else posted who said they live in Mississippi and that it is more dangerous there, I completely agree with that. I've been to New Orleans and I felt way less safe and that it was much more dangerous then here in Guadalajara anyway.

Mexico is a large country and while I live here in the Southwest, there are parts of Mexico that are horrific and I avoid altogether such as: Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana, Nogales, (DF) Mexico City, etc... I don't mean to bash, but with the exception of Tijuana I have been to all of the above and the difference (to me) between GDL and those cities is night and day. I would say that no, those cities are not safe to live in. But that's just me.

Obviously millions of people live in those cities their whole lives and do just fine.

sophielyn

i live in jackson, mississippi (well the subs) and its more dangerous than all of mexico combined! so yea, i would live in mexico in a heartbeat and feel its safe. its like anywhere else, you have the good, the bad and the ugly. be smart, and stay away from trouble.

rhino72032

There are thousands of retirees in the Lake Chapala area, south of Guadalajara and occasionally there may be a house burglary in the area, but none of the gringos are packing there bags to leave because of it. Listen to Sid Grosvenor in the first link below. Then read the articles in the Truth About Mexico web page.

invisible 4ever

Mexico can be a very safe place to live, as long as you don't do idiotic stuff such as: wear really expensive jewelry while walking down a dark alley at night, buy a super expensive car and drive around the worst parts of town, get really drunk at an "antro" (dance club) and leave with someone you just met, or get drunk while on the highway (after you crash, theives will take your stuff).

blinker09

I am a Brit living in Mexico trust me remember the press do like to overrate things and i find it safer than london where i live and that is saying something :)

Alexander

It is safe, no doubt. I feel safer living here (in San Miguel de Allende) than living in San Antonio Texas.

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