Posted on 04/18/2008 1:18:08 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
In 2007, the number of Americans kidnapped while in Mexico doubled from the previous year. This has not only reduced tourism to Mexico, it is affecting the future of real estate projects, such as Donald Trump's towers in Tijuana. Jill Barshay reports
TEXT OF STORY
Lisa Napoli: This week, the U.S. State Department issued a travel alert for Americans heading to the northern border region of Mexico. The reason: a surge in violence and kidnappings linked to Mexican drug cartels. Marketplace's Jeff Tyler reports the violence it's starting to take its toll on the tourism industry.
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Jeff Tyler: Last year, 26 American citizens were kidnapped in or near Tijuana. That's more than double the number from the year before. And the kidnappers show no sign of backing off.
Darrell Foxworth: This operates like a business for them.
That's FBI Special Agent Darrell Foxworth. He says the kidnapping cells usually target people with a business or family on the Mexican side of the border.
Foxworth: Kidnappers appear to do some type of research prior to the kidnapping, so that they have an idea as far as the individual, the family or business's ability to pay a ransom. So, when it comes to your everyday tourist traveling down to Mexico being a victim of the kidnappings, that's not what we're seeing.
But everyday tourists are staying away. Thanks in part to the kidnappings and a rise in drug violence, the number of Americans visiting Tijuana is down 50 percent. Business is suffering in the nearby beach town of Rosarito, where Louie Navarro owns a cigar shop.
Louie Navarro: It's slow. Sales have been down anywhere from 70 to 80 percent.
Crime also threatens the real estate business at a time when the sluggish U.S. economy has people thinking twice about buying a vacation home. I asked Baja's Secretary of Tourism, Oscar Escobedo: What kind of money are we talking about?
Oscar Escobedo: Talking about billion dollar projects. We started in Tijuana with a development with the four towers that Donald Trump Group are doing.
Thousands of seaside condos are being built. Plus a Greg Norman-designed golf course. To counter bad PR, Baja is spending almost $2 million to promote tourism. A new tourist police force has been established specifically to help protect foreigners. But Escobedo says the threat is overblown.
Escobedo: As far as Tijuana is concerned, tourists are safer in Tijuana than in any major city in the U.S.
The local community seems to agree. A Baja newspaper recently ran this headline: "Travel Warning -- Avoid the United States."
In Los Angeles, I'm Jeff Tyler for Marketplace.
I think Mexico and it’s old territories they gave up (California, Arizona, Texas, etc.) should be re-unified - by sending the US Army and Marines south to throw out the corrupt Mexican government, police force, military and the drug cartels. Put the residents on a controlled path to citizenship, repatriate all the illegals in the 48 contiguous states and allow Mexican states to join the union after they’ve demonstrated lawfulness, justice and productivity.
As long as Mexico is a good place to be from, Mexicans will try to enter these United States by any means necessary.
Mexico must become a good place to be.
You've proposed one method of making that happen ... I'm not sure it's the best method, but it is not without merit.
Somebody should tell that to the illegals here.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
With hindsight being 20/20, perhaps it would have been better to complete the less-than-honorable intentions of President James Polk and similar believers in “Manifest Destiny” in the 1830s/40s, namely: go ahead and keep Mexico as part of the U.S. after defeating the Mex govt in the 1846-47 War. In the long-run, it would have possibly avoided all of this stuff we have to face today.
I agree, something along this line is needed to solve some of the problem. I have suggested that we test want to be immigrants in basic math and english and admit those with good scores. I have also suggested that the minute we do this Mexico will close their border from their side. But eventually bringing Mexico into the states would leave a much shorter border to patrol to the south and perhaps do something about the dangerous situation south of the Rio Grande.
We were in Ensenada last weekend. We kayaked to La Bufadora, shopped downtown and hung out at Hussong’s. We had no problems except for the usual panhandlers. The mariachi band at the cantina even broke out into Pink Floyd’s The Wall while we were there. While we were walking around, two trucks with fixed machine guns and full of armed soldiers drove through downtown. That being said, we did make sure to board our ship on time and spent the night 35 miles off the coast of San Diego.
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