You always hear and read about drug war in Mexico and how every day someone is kill or mass graves are discovered

You always hear and read about drug war in Mexico and how every day someone is kill or mass graves are discovered.

So my question to Mexicans here, how bad is it in reality? Were you shot or kidnapped yourself or do you know someone who got killed by drug cartell?

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts
borderlandbeat.com/2016/05/mexican-military-most-efficient-killers.html
nytimes.com/2016/05/27/world/americas/mexican-militarys-high-kill-rate-raises-human-rights-fears.html?_r=0
youtube.com/watch?v=GKPRP4tGmLc
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

inb4 "Mexico is white and first world"

el peruANO nazi

It amazes me that libcucks don't want this shithole walled off

Mexico is white and first world, I don't know what are you talking about

>believing american media
Fuck USA our fucking enemy

I had a friend killed some years ago who resisted a kidnaping attempt, other than that never been touched by the violence nor known of someone close affected by it.

It isn't that things are that bad you live in fear on your everyday life but things are certainly not good, and you hear about the violence sometimes spilling out of the zones in which it's suposed to be contained. Then again we are all so used to risk avoidance that we no longer think conciously about it.

To me it's really gotten to the point in which government incompetence has gotten bad enough I would actually support revolution, most Mexicans aren't quite there yet.

Other than the usual dangers of tourist traps and big cities you wouldn't see this in most touristy places or in central Mexico, don't get me wrong, it's very easy to pretend things are fine. But the violence is out there.

*pretend things are fine
just to clarify I mean it's something like a lottery and most of us have really good odds not to get hit individually, but it could always happen.

Which areas or cities are the worst and should be avoided?

It's only a BIG meme, unless you search for it, enter to that business or mess with the cartels.
You can live a perfect normal life.
I don't know of anybody in my friends/family circle who have been damaged by the cartels.

CHI here. It's very bad along the border and in certain inland towns where trafficking is your only way of making money. It's not warzone level per say, but there's certainly a low level of conflict going on between the Cartels and whoever is on their hit-list that day.

In the capital and along the Coast it's usually peaceful unless you're looking for trouble in a bad part of town. Yucatan in particular is extremely safe compared to the rest of the country. The important thing is to be smart and to know where you should/should not go. While violence can occasionally spill over it's usually for very brief periods of time and random people will usually tell you explicitly "don't go down that alley" or "you shouldn't be here right now" well in advance or if they find you snooping about where you shouldn't be at night.

Ultimately, If you're going to Mexico, DO NOT under any circumstances attempt to buy drugs or talk to random people who "know a guy" who can hook you up. So many dumb gringos get kidnapped yearly thinking that they can get away with that shit like they can in their comfy first world countries.

>Sonara
>Oasaca

*search for it = go to dangerous zones

Im from the port where the things are supposed to be worst (near the center) and things are kind of like that. If you go out you have a chance to get kidnapped or robbed but for my expirience nothing happened to me yet, still one friend got killed 2 years ago and left in a park and my friends cousin got kidnapped.
Si te preguntas si soy de mexico si lo soy y me encanta el mole

It will remain big meme untill some cartel wins the war, overthrows your goverment and drags you, your family and your friends to slave pens to be worked to death.

Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, basically anywhere along the U.S. border is rife with Narcos who won't hesitate to give you a hard time if you stumble into their territory. The police there is so corrupt and useless that people have been creating armed militias to enforce the law. Besides, unless you want to get drunk, buy a cheap hooker, and stay in a shitty motel, there's nothing there to see.

United Statian propaganda

This cant be real

This, same with any Latin American country. Avoid the slums and don't fuck with drugs and you'll be fine 9 out of 10 times.

ojala algun miembro del cartel le corte al cabeza a hans.

realmente lo deseo

What do you mean this cant be real this times u have more probability to get robbed if you are in a lower class but if you are rich it always have been the same if you have the money they will try to take it from you but that happens everywhere obviously with the recent decrease of currency and jobs robbing is common at the moment but still if you are aware you can survive

The fuck are u doing in Malta?

y que haces en malta

Getting a better degree than i could in mexico

Don't go looking for trouble and you likely won't find it.
Stay out of the mountains during the harvest
Don't follow trucks overloaded with bamboo looking stuff
Don't get drunk and hang out in local bars
Don't ask about drugs, don't buy drugs, don't do drugs

The narcos don't want to fuck with turistas. It's only the small time thugs that do that crap, and narcos won't tolerate it for too long. Just use some common sense and don't overstay your welcome.

Are you from Guerrero or Michoacan?

t. White boi that shot up a pre-school

Because people like you exist, mexico is hated. Not because the color of your skin, just the stupid attitude.

Stupid newfag

CHICANO AJAJAJAAJA

Alright, I used to live in a pretty bad neighbourhood in a city that once was known as one the most dangerous places in Mexico (Mexico City). The fear back then, was of being robbed by random thieves. This, of course, was before the Drug War started in 2006 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War).
Now, Mexico City is pretty safe compared to the real bad places (North: Border towns, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Centre: State of Mexico and South: Guerrero, Michoacán).

It's amazing how things can change so drastically in a few years.


Anyways, when I used to live in this really bad neighborhood in Mexico City (imagine something like the bad places in L.A., which has a comparable murder rate to Mexico City), one neighbour was killed in front of my apartment building. This was a fight between two petty thieves, with meme guns, not a cartel style murder.

I also personally know three people who have been kidnaped. All three are upper middle class.

And pretty much almost everyone I know has been mugged or has been witness of it at least one time in their lives. Not all, but most people I know.


As far as real cartel violence and literal war zones, those are pretty contained to very specific regions of the country and groups of people, and you hardly ever know someone who has been directly impacted by it. So yes, that part is exaggerated by the American media and republicans, who use us as a scapegoat of every single one of their problems.


But as you can see, you don't need the cartel violence in order to live in a dangerus place. Things are/were bad with and without the cartels. The Drug War only made it much worse, it almost tripled the murder rate we had before this shit show began.

The thing is, even with all these, we are far from being the worst place in the world, let alone The Americas/Latin America, yet, we get tons of more coverage and shit over it than, say, Colombia, Brazil, or even places like Costa Rica, Panama or Argentina.

Mostly although most border cities are alright if you're staying at a decent (4-5 star) hotel and sticking to upper middle class areas. This holds true for most of Mexico even in Sinaloa, espeecially Mazatlán (touristy city) or even Acapulco in Guerrero (the country's most violent city) can both be pretty safe if you stick to the basic just upper middle class areas. If you want to go exploring then stick to places like Yucatán or Baja California Sur which are overall safe and filled with American/European expats and tourists, central Mexico is another choice, San Miguel de Allende is practically an expat city. Mexico City is generally unsafe in the same sense most large cities are (eg New York) but not beyond that.

The areas to avoid specifically are the sierras and rural areas in Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Michoacán and Guerrero. Obviously unless you're familiar with the area, and traveling in Mexico in general, you shouldn't be going by yourself into the mountains anywhere in the country.

The sad thing, though, is that in 2016, things are going back to 2011 levels of shit, after 4 years of declining violence.

The Drug War was a huge mistake from Calderon and it needs to stop. And the war on drugs in the U.S. is fueling all of this shit and it also needs to stop.

>So my question to Mexicans here, how bad is it in reality?
not that bad actually, but I think overexposing the issue may draw international attention, which is what we need (without human rights being involved).
Media in here is gruesome, truthful and uncensored as long as it talks about violence. This is a violent country, but not a country filled with criminals. The minority that kidnaps/robs/smuggles is mental, they have no code of ethic whatsoever besides don't mess with me.
tbqh I'm more than happy that international media portray us as a drug ridden country where you can see a dead body every other corner, politicians love to say everything is alright, so when they see this kind of shit they really start making the job and solving the country's issues.

>they really start making the job and solving the country's issues.

If only.

Mexico City is a milleage will vary experience depending on where you stay and where you go, if you are south, say CU/San angel going north through inurgentes to Reforma/Polanco/Lomas Chapultepec and a few areas connected to that corridor, say Coyoacán and Mixcoac you'll pretty much be in a safe as fuck area with everything fun and worthwhile in Mexico City (except for trips to Xochimilco and centro) inside there. I'm talking Roma, Condesa, del Valle, Napoles, Insurgentes sur, Zona Rosa, Juárez, etc.

Now if you're staying in Oriente or Villa Coapa then yes, there's a few small gated upscale neighbourhoods but you're basically surrounded by slums and will find it difficult to move around. Malinalco or Santa Fé are IMHO too far from actual Mexico City to be any fun but those areas are also pretty safe.

I know how things are here, lad. I have lived in Iztapalapa, Benito Juarez, Alvaro Obregon, and Miguel Hidalgo "municipalities" (for lack of a better word in english).

From Tlahuac to La Condesa.

But I was talking before all of this, way back in the days of Negro Durazo (a corrupt Chief of Police in Mexico City), Mexico City was the dangerous place in the country. Not because of cartels and murders, but because of petty thieves.

Human rights being part of the problem is a meme that's pushed by incompetent authorities, I know some people in CNDH and they're profesional as fuck. Criminals don't walk because of the human rights comision but because prosecutors can't fucking work at a first year of law school level and corruption.

We need to drop out of the drug war fast, with Trump in charge there's not a single incentive to cooperate with the Americans. We should do the same as countries like Morocco and just look the other way on non violent narcos, let the US deal with it's own damn problem for a change.

Federal police should be occupied in tracking down kidnappers and extorsionists and violent thieves, not making big drug busts and capturing big cartel heads which only leads to more infighting in criminal groups.

Ciudad Juarez was the most dangerous city in the world 4 years ago, now it is not even in the top 50s.
They did it through death squads, curfew and several shady shit with the military, non the less they accomplished something. That's why human rights shouldn't put their nose in this god forgotten country.

Only northern states and some souther shit are like that. Don't fall for the Mexico is white guy.

If they did that, then they'd have to do the hard work, rather than relying on brown people to do it

I know who negro Durazo is, you should be nearing 50 at the youngest if you're not bullshitting. And even then all that is relative, police torturing and disapearing thieves actually made southern Mexico City a lot safer in those days. I'm by no means praising that motherfucker mind you, a lot of inocent got fucking bad deals back in Uruchurtu's days.

As long as you're not involved with anything illegal or live in a really dangerous zone. The chances of something happening to you is pretty low.

The things that will worry you the most is getting robbed.

The violence only shifted to other places, and it could very well return at any moment.
For Juarez to be considered a safe city, there's a long way to go. Just in 2014 there were 424 homicides. In 2007, there were 272. Yes, we're not as bad. But we're still very sick. And while 2015 was better, 2016 is looking very grim.

Death Squads mean jack shit, just ask Brazil.

I didn't say I live through those days, did I? I said that those were the days Mexico City was considered the, or one of the most dangerous places of the country. And the image stuck for a long time, until the Drug War started and Mexico City didn't look so bad after all.

They work here.

They work there.

I don't know, you have a murder rate that doubles ours, while we are actually in the middle of a war.

See pics.

>DO NOT under any circumstances attempt to buy drugs or talk to random people who "know a guy" who can hook you up

I don't think this can be overstated enough. I had the pleasure of going to Colombia with an international group of people and there was this one Australian retard who was hellbent on getting Colombian cocaine and it took 3 of us searching for him in a shitty part of Bogota just to find him with a black eye and all his money stolen. He's lucky he didn't get killed.

No, they didn't, they did fucking try that and only made it worse. The untold story in Juárez is everyone was in on it up to the fucking governor's office, that's why they resisted so hard federal intervention. There were, there still are, fucking wealthy degenerates, mostly Americans, paying for torture and fucking snuff out in the desert, read the fucking testimonies of the few survivors and eye witnesses.

What helped tone it down is fucking Calderón nearing the end of his term actually gave up and decided to follow on the measures proposed by the victim's families and NGOS (yes, non meme this is full credit to real feminists) and still no significant prosecutions, most of the people involved did literally got away with murder.

I wouldn't fucking frame it as things are alright in Juárez now, violence killed the economy and fucking maquiladoras moved away. This is one thjatb could come back any fucking day now if things aren't done right, and those putos Zetas still largely control the area.

The problem here it's a bit different than Mexico's.

Here it's the justice that's the problem, the cops arrest A LOT, but the justice just free them for some reason. And even on special days they let the "best behaved" ones to get out and then they actually expect them to come back, which of course, they never come.

Also underages here can commit any crime they want, nothing will happen. Literally any crime.

Because here it's just niggers killing each other.

At least 70% of all murders here are drug/gang related.

Very different issue and circumstances in Brazil, it's Middle East complicated to get into what's wrong there.

>ask question about Mexico
>American flag responds

t. mexican "intellectual"

If Mexico is in war, then so are we. Google up "Primeiro Comando da Capital".

And here it's just cartels killing cartels. That is not a fucking excuse. Especially if you don't hide behind stormnigger pseudscience.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts
borderlandbeat.com/2016/05/mexican-military-most-efficient-killers.html

The military is fighting a war.

Mexico received over 32 million tourists in 2015 alone, Nigel.

>comparing gangs with a fucking civil war

You're gonna tell me FARC is just a gang too?

There the cartels actually controll extense territories, states.

Here niggers just keep chimping out in their favelas. I guess thats why made them consider Mexico as a conflict and here don't.

to be honest, I think death squads and dirty tactics are the only way you win against cartels and in most countries with corruption at all levels. Next president of mexico should clean house from the top generals on down and have a cheif of staff with only proven people who went aginst the cartels run shit. And then, make guns legal finally.

>Here niggers just keep chimping out in their favelas.
This is NOT true, violence is everywhere here.

>cartels control states
[citation needed]
They control a multi billion dollar business and can corrupt a lot of people, but they actually live hiding in the mountains because of this. nytimes.com/2016/05/27/world/americas/mexican-militarys-high-kill-rate-raises-human-rights-fears.html?_r=0

It is considered a conflict because President Calderon declared war against them and literally send the army to kill them. And they are actually largely succeeding in killing them all. And that is doing nothing to stop them just like your death squads aren't stopping them either.

We can't kill our way out of this. We are already trying, and it is not working.

Yes, but i meant gangs/cartels. They literally control states there. And the only thing fighting them it's the military.

Here they stay in their favelas, because it's the only place where they actually have control. Which is barely, just send one army batallion and they start running away like cockroaches.

totally agree with you f am.
guns are legal in here btw, autodefensa group's weapons are registered.

What's interesting is to watch the whole scene in Mexico post-Escobar over the past 25 years viewed within the frame of US Prohibition alcohol cartel violence of the 20s and through the 30s after prohibition ended.

I wonder if we legalize drugs and secure the border if the cartels will branch out to other illicit profit centers (human trafficking, gambling, mig pharma, cyber). Or will they just use Mexico as a base of operations for the rest of their global operations.

We know the precursors come from China and enter through the port of Lazaro Cardenas. The opium used to come from Afghanistan but is now being sourced in the Americas as well.

I'm reminded that The Kennedy family made their money by running rum from Canada into the US during prohibition. Will the heads of the CJNG, Templarios, etc become the next noble wealthy families of Mexico in 30 years?

Isn't Sinaloa like extremely corrupt and cartel controlled?

Also i see some arrests that they make there and our it's nothing compared to it. It's always guns that look brand new.

meh, it depends, in Mexico City you don't really have to hook up to get all the shit you want (just go with the right people to the right parties) same as anywhere in the world, you stay discreet and low key and get to now people, eventually you'll figure out who are the stoners on any given group. People share drugs, a drag of weed is something you'll share with anyone and if you're the right type of guy you'll always be on the list to get discreetly invited to the backroom and do some blow.

The people who get in trouble are dumb fuck autists who are too stupid to score drugs back home, it's the same as getting laid, there's some unspoken rules to it for those in the know.

I've never been to South America but I've never had trouble getting drugs in Europe and I'm talking shit like acid and cocaine, I've never even had to directly pay for those, obviously you give back to bros other ways (drinks, hooking them up with a girl, etc.) but my experience is on just being chill and fun to be with, hanging out with compatible people (eg music taste) you'll find kindred degenerates everywhere willing to hook you up. And I do want to stress chill, I've met a couple of gringos so overeager to score something here you don't help them out cuz you know they'll do dumb shit and get you in trouble.

Dude, just stick to the big cities and you'll be fine.

There is a lot of people from abroad studying here ITESM and UDEM just to mention a few Uni's and they are OK.

When I travel to Scandinavia I met some guys from Sweden that were studying in Monterrey and they never saw violence and shit like that.

oh that sucks, but I heard in some state's some groups of people have formed militias like in chiapas.

Death squads were sent to exterminate cartels 10 years ago.
You know what happened? Cartels are still here and the murder rate almost tripled.

We do need guns, though, as the general population.

It is not cartel controlled despite the fact that the world's most profitable business is in their grips. They have a lot of influence because of billions of dollars, yes. But right now, their leader is in jail and their second in command (El Mayo Zambada) has been hiding in the mountains for decades. And if El Chapo ever gets out (fucking again) he will go back to hiding in the mountains.

What is the current state of the Autodefensas?

Last I hear Papa Smurf was in cahoots with the cartels and set Dr Mireles up. Is Mireles out of prison yet?

It seems to be a 4 dimensional chess game of allegiances anymore.

Nah, I'm from Sinaloa, the deal with the government is more like live and let die, narcos don't generally touch civilians in Sinaloa, very different people from zetas or fucking new cartels in Michoacán and Jalisco.

The narcos help the common guy out in a lot of indirect ways, they donate to schools, open hospitals. They'll even give you money if you go to them and ask for an emergency (which is risky as you'll owe them a favor) and they'll sometimes even administer justice, like they'll gun down rapists or violent petty criminals.

I'm not justifying them but there's a reason many of the people in my home state cheer for the narcos, they're seen by many as the good guys.

It always amazes me the arrests that they make. Here they aprehend some assault rifles too and one or two .50cal. But the quantity that they arrested there is insase, is it because of US border? The guns there are always new and clean.

The only thing comparable i saw here was when the military invaded the favelas and mostly were just shit rifles, rust and broke.

Also, where is El Chapo now?

no clue, sorry. I stop following news and videos of their war with the cartels months ago.

>a us biker was cut in half.
>two aussie surfers burnt alive.
sounds pretty bad to me.

>formed militias like in chiapas.
Are you talking about EZLN?
They're still there, doing whatever commies are supposed to do. They don't bother anyone and no one bothers them, Chiapas is a big state with a population of 5 million where half of them live in autonomous indigenous communities.
Cartel has no business with south Mexico, we just give them a free pass as long as they don't mess with us.

unbelievable. and then mexicans tell us "stop the drug war". how do you stop it if they like it that way.

Same on favelas here. So much that people actually prefer to live under drug lords than the govt, mostly because >DUDE FREE SHIT LMAO

They hated when the army stayed in the favelas, because there was no more free shit or drugs for them.

youtube.com/watch?v=GKPRP4tGmLc

Harry Devert was a genuinely nice guy. I can't imagine what sort of POS did that to him. But then again, there are a lot desperate people when there is $40 billion at stake every year.

well that makes sense seeing as drug routes are up north.
Lol , the city my family is from feels like it going to be like the favelas in 20 years.

is strictly prohibited weapons traffic, growing and consuming drugs and alcoholic beverages, illicit commerce of wood and the destruction of nature.
Zapata lives, fight continues, you're in Zapatist territory, currently rogue, here the people rules and the government obeys.

huh, so is this considered anarchist society if going by textbook?

Isn't Detroit, St. Louis, Comptons etc... already slums?

The thing is everybody here hates favelados. Even the poor who doesn't live in favelas hates them.

tl:dr
don't ask strangers for random drugs, get to know them first before you ask.

Detroit and St.Louis are half abandoned. Almost no one lives in the slummy shit besides drug addicts.

Compton is being gentrified and filled with Mexicans and nowhere near as dangerous as it used to be.

Still, pretty similar of what we have, but on a smaller scale.

Fucking wish the Air-Force just bomb them.

Yeah p. much. They have their own unique government system inside the Mexican territory.
Actually there are a ton of these cases, it's called usos y costumbres, which is a way to let indigenous people to keep their own way of life untouched.

Yeah, we sort of have that in Chicagoland as well. Melrose Park, Maywood, and Bellwood used to be working class factory neighborhoods, with lots of Italians. (Capone had a place here). Then the whites all left and the blacks moved in. But it's not as bad because the property values remained just high enough that all the shit stayed on the south side. Now the latinos are moving in and the place is on the way up. By that I mean downtown Melrose Park is fairly nice, all latino, and getting better.

Maywood is still pretty sketchy, but I enjoy getting tacos in Melrose Park at one of the taquieras.

its very saf-

*gets beheaded*

Perdedor

Me and my gf did this Roadtrip some months ago and we didn't saw shit related to violence.

This fucking roadtrip was awesome, didn't knew my country have so much to offer. Landscapes, Culture, Cuisine (a lot), Music and so on.

Basically like the FARC in Colombia?

Return back home.

Hello, Juan Carlos.

Yes, I have been to Detroit and is as violent ridden and shithole as it is said. I am from Memphis, which is just as bad since in some areas the police wont really even come and wasn't unusually for people to be jacked or killed on site.

St. Louis really? Are you talking about East St. Louis? Also, do you live in Detroit? It looked fine last time I visited. It has a few bad areas and that's the kind of photos you see on the web, all the same destroyed buildings. And there are lots of white suburbs that are no different than the rest of the country. So sounds like a meme to me but I am not sure honestly.

Hi Sherlock!

Yeah, avoided the plazas. Your route was always relayed to me as the safest for people touring Mexico or headed to C.A. Stick to the colonial cordillera.

Also noticed you avoided the Tampico Transitos.
jajaja.

Have you taken the Quota between Durango and Mazatlan? Is the bridge cool?

According to google St. Louis is the 15th most dangerous city in the world. Way more dangerous than all but one Mexican City.

Well, yeah, It took some time to plan that trip to fit my needs (and avoid problem areas).

We took almost all Quotas, shit was cash!