An American family’s Cancun horror
An American family’s Cancun horror
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
It’s every parent’s worst spring break nightmare come true: Fun in the sun somehow turned into a south-of-the-border bloodbath for 21-year-old Zeke Rucker. The vacationing Rutgers University grad was discovered alone outside his resort hotel in the wee hours of the morning of March 16, bleeding and unconscious by a swimming pool. His heartbroken and horrified family has questions. American and Mexican officials don’t have any answers – or any immediate interest in finding out what happened to Zeke.
Did he fall? Was he beaten? Did hotel staff witness anything? A resort security guard found Rucker at around 3 a.m. near some lounge chairs with his head “bashed in.” According to family members, the hotel has interior surveillance video showing Rucker “staggering” from his room. But there is no exterior video to shed light on what happened once he exited the hotel or when and how exactly he sustained his grave head injuries. His wallet and ID were left intact inside his hotel room.
Zucker’s New Jersey-based parents strongly suspect foul play and random violence. But the American consulate told the family there will be no investigation and Zeke’s parents say the Mexican police didn’t even bother to meet with them.
Mexican consulates on American soil are famous for vigorously intervening on behalf of their illegal alien citizens — lobbying to get them driver’s licenses, bank accounts, and healthcare, for example, and rushing to defend illegal alien border-crossers arrested in reckless and drunk-driving cases and sweeps.
Where are our U.S. lawmakers to put pressure on our U.S. State Department to get to the bottom of the Ruckers’ Cancun horror?
For now, the family is focused on nursing Zeke back to health. He remains in a coma under heavy sedation after undergoing emergency surgery in Mexico to remove a hematoma in his brain. During that surgery, he suffered an infection that has left him with a raging fever and complications. Zeke was flown to Miami’s Ryder Trauma Center/Jackson Memorial for top-notch care. But not without difficulty.
Zeke’s aunt, Jodi, related the Ruckers’ hellish experience transporting her nephew out of the violence-wracked country: “The air ambulance team is made up of ex-military men who have done evacuations out of many countries. They say that Cancun is one of the most difficult places to get out of. The air ambulance team when landed in Mexico was surrounded by military with guns drawn that then searched the plane.” The Ruckers hired a “handler” who “basically gives the Mexicans American cash for their plane to land and take off safely. It’s called ‘greasing the monkey.’ [Zeke’s father] was getting anxious because of the amount of guns/men surrounding the plane and the pilot told him not to worry because ‘they greased this monkey (plane) good.’ They were allowed to take off about an hour later. Corruption is abundant there.”
Adding to the emotional strain and bureaucratic headaches: The Mexican hospital that treated Zeke demanded up front payment for all of the costs related to his care, surgery, and stay before allowing him to leave. Can you imagine the international uproar if a U.S. hospital demanded the same of Mexican citizens in their care? The Ruckers’ insurer here in the States was able to change the terminology of Zeke’s airlift from “transport” to “evacuation” in order to cover those costs.
Thanks to the kindness of strangers and help from Jackson Memorial Hospital, the Ruckers have received assistance for their hotel lodging while Zeke gets treatment. Their friends and neighbors are holding a benefit fund-raiser on April 14 at Randazzo’s Pizza in Sewell, NJ to assist with costs. And well-wishers can leave comments and tributes on their CaringBridge page here.
Amid myriad cases of unsolved border violence cases over the past month – the cold-blooded murder of Arizona rancher Robert Krentz, the assassination of an American consulate worker and her federal security officer husband in Juarez, and on and on – the case of Zeke Rucker has a special, chilling resonance with every parent of a teen or twenty-something.
This could have been your child.
What would you do if no one would answer your questions? Apathy is not an option.
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I have no idea why any American would ever go to mexico again! This is just horrible for the family. Prayers for Zeke and his family. Even if I were to go on a curise, I would not get off the ship to visit mexico.
L
My heart goes out to this young man and his family. It’s time to keep our kids inside our own borders..oh, wait, we don’t have borders. Never mind.
Sorry for the double post — neither one showed until I totally exited and then re-entered MM’s site.
Like I tell my sons all the time, your family loves you, everybody else, not so much. Not everybody is your friend, and some can be downright evil. I pray that Zeke pulls through and be none the worse for wear. May his antagonist be found and righteously punished.
Wow…Mexico sure is trying hard for all the tourism business, aren’t they? Apparently, they don’t care if we all just stay away. I wouldn’t go to Mexico even if it was all-expenses paid!! EVER! Our neighbors go every year. One of these days, they may not come back!
Michelle, you wrote: “imagine the uproar if a US hospital demanded “. There is no way this could happen for one very basic reason. In the US, one does not need to run out of a hospital to receive good quality care. Here we have the opposite problem because people who are well enough to be discharged do not want to leave. Why should they return to a country where their illness will quickly take their life?
My neighbors cancelled their family trip to Puerto Vallarta, to the deep disappointment of their two children. Someday they’ll understand.
The worse the economy in Mexico gets from the loss of tourism, the worse the flood of illegals to our country.
So…when will our government understand??
My prayers are with Zeke and his family.
It seems that Hillary and Obama have made things worse since they “won” the power. Clumsy and incoherent best describe the Obama foreign policy. If they do not get a handle on this situation soon many more innocent people will be injured and/or killed. It will be the story line for many months to come.
The Mexican hospital essentially used him as a hostage since they could not provide the level of care Zeke needed. Don’t expect any Christian charity from them. It could have been worse, I guess. This could have occured in Cuba where even basic care is far worse. Or he could have gone to China where even if he were to recover, Zeke would have been used as an organ donor.
It is time to treat the Mexican citizens who come here EXACTLY the same way our citizens are treated in Mexico! This is just nuts! There is no way we should be giving sanctuary to Mexican citizens when, in return, they kick us in the teeth. Mexico is a criminal state and should be treated as such. Seal the borders, shoot to kill, and never, never send your kids down there!! I mean, what are these parents thinking? Even Cancun is riddled with violence and drugs. Most of us know that. Before you send your kids anywhere, check it out carefully for safety!
It could not have been my child, because he would not have been bankrolled or even permitted to go to Cancun for spring break. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care about that kid.
The lack of reciprocity in treatment of citizens over the borders of our Countries is a big F deal.
They took the kid hostage; how does Obama feel about that?
In Mexico today? It would be par for the course I am sorry to say. Mexico is in a societal meltdown and it is far bigger than just the drug war-a more cohesive Mexico would deal with it but it isn’t. My niece disappeared from Rocky Point-just vanished. Once a wonderful place to visit I will not go there.
Busy selling ObamaCare (still), preparing for Crap&Scream, and convincing the masses that they are ‘just what we’ve been waiting for’.
Worthless pieces of (bleep).
RedState’s Moe Lane’s charting of these Rasmussen numbers sure makes a strong case that America is ready for a 3rd party.
If he were to expand the time frame as far back as possible, I would wager that both parties are at all-time lows in popularity. There is no pendulum swinging here. Our one-party corruptocrats have taken the country to a very dangerous place.
Keep that in mind as we watch that government wage a deliberate campaign to discredit and war on the Tea Party movement (more than half of Americans, particularly those of us who work for a living).
Not black, not a union member, not a campaign donor.
Go ahead and ask your question again -
With all due respect, Phil…you are a one-trick pony. And off-topic on this thread. Give it a rest already!!
Beware of Karl Rove. He is on a campaign to steer the Tea Party into the GOP or failing that, off of the cliff.
From the article:
Something that will never happen under Obamacare.
He’s a Bush Republican, trying to recapture his glory days.
Unfortunately I’ve been there. My brother was killed on a holiday trip to Mexico resulting in my parents and my sister-in-law spending their Christmas Eve frantically running around this small Mexican town trying to do everything they had to to claim the body and get it shipped home before everything closed down for the holiday.
Supposedly he was killed when he lost control of his motorcycle when going around a curve on the highway but my sister-in-law, an RN, felt that the injuries she saw weren’t consistent with that and the only damage to the motorcycle, which the Mexican police didn’t want to return to us, was that one of the side mirrors had popped loose and could be easily fixed. A Mexican reporter provided us with pictures of the scene of the accident that showed that when he’d died he’d still had a number of items that the police claimed he didn’t have, i.e. proved that the police looted his body.
Unfortunately we weren’t thinking too clearly at the time and didn’t have our own autopsy done before burying him. We obviously did have questions as well as proof that the body had been looted that we took to our representatives who in turn talked to the State Department who simply responded that my brother wasn’t important enough to jeopardize US-Mexico relations by demanding the Mexican government investigate what happened. Our tax dollars at work.
I don’t understand why folks keep going to Mexico. Our last trip was late in the 90′s. Mexico is a crap country and has been for quite a long time.
I don’t understand why people continue to “vacation” in that vile country – no disresepct to Zeke’s family, but the naivety of people (particularly those who do not live in or near a border state) is appalling.
This comes on the heals of news that a Mexican military helicopter had just recently violated our air space.
The Mexican nation, from top to bottom, has no respect for our own – any self-respecting person will refrain from any further interactions or transactions with that criminal nation.
Very little has changed in Mexico over the past 4 decades, Mexicans don’t like Gringos! The local cops are often the criminals and its been true for decades. Don’t go to Mexico! Don’t let people that you care about go to Mexico!
I am sorry for your loss. I can’t think of anything I’d rather spend my tax dollars on.
Ive been to cancun 5 times,but not in the past few years because of the violence in Mexico that has spread there. I also forbade either of my children from going there for their Spring breaks. But let’s be honest: first we don’t know if this person was injured because he fell on concrete while drunk, or someone attacked him. But if he was attacked, that type of violence repeats itself in American cites thousands of times a day. Further, if you go to Mexico, you know you are not going to get the same medical treatment as here in the USA, and you will likely face unfair treatment from the authorities. Mexico is a mess. And everyone knows it. Thus if one travels there, the perils are assumed. So with (much) due respect Michelle, I dont get the point of your story.
The handwriting is there if we choose to see it. Stay the he$$ out of Mexico!
Mexico is NOT our friend. Friendly nations don’t 1). interfere with the internal affairs of the other, nor 2). invade the other. Mexico is not your friend. Don’t go there.
Far as I’m concerned, the only Americans who should enter Mexico under any circumstances are the U.S. military.
And that may happen yet, as Mexico continues its slide into civil war leading into a full-bore failed state…
FIFY.
Nothing more need be said.
Clever man Rove-all too clever and rude to boot.
Pray for the boy, and Boycott Mexico.
The point of the story is that our Government has become ineffectual and the U.S. has lost it’s lustre in foreign countries. The was a time when a U.S. citizen was treated with respect and admiration when on foreign soil. Any abuse or attack like this would’ve garnered a firm rebuke from the State Dept. and shameful apology from that country’s officials. This Country no longer commands the respect it should because officials in this Country appease and give an equality to other countries not rightfully earned. At least that’s the point I got.
Ditto that for ours.
They would never have even considered going there…period.
Ditto again.
May God speed his recovery.
Couldn’t resist.
Any check on blood alcohol level done? It’s usually high on “vacationing” young people. Sad as this injury is, it is not uncommon in our major cities. In some areas, you’re safer in Afghanistan. Prayers are with the family and him. I won’t go to Mexico for one major reason. They have enough dollars coming in from the illegals. Besides, I’m tired of being barraged daily with the Hispanic culture/language and demands.
Nothing will change south of the border as long as the US is available as a pressure valve. Close the border! Then the Mexicans will have to stay and fix their own problems rather than escape from them here.
***
It’s as bad or worse for the average Mexican Citizen as it is for the U.S. Tourists. Most of my ex Mexican (now U.S. Citizen) Wife’s family has lost loved ones to the drug and corruption violence. We no longer visit family members 15 miles away from our El Paso, Tx. home.
***
The damage done to Mexico’s people is economic also. It’s like a war zone there–the AK-47 is king. Most small businesses are targets of the gangs and have closed so their employees can stay alive. The people were disarmed by the Mexican Government after the 1912 revolution–the politicos feared the people.
***
May God bring this injured young man back to health soon.
***
John Bibb
***
Gun control writ large. Who do the politicos fear now?
Once upon a time, a Mexican vacation was considered easy and safe. I even know people who moved to Mexico for retirement. Now that seems the most idiotic thing you could possibly do. The place is in anarchy.
This is a tragedy, but I think that Spring Break itself is far more dangerous than parents think. I just went to Cabo with my famliy and it happened to be spring break. Many of the college kids I encounterted were dangerously drunk. I saw binge drinking that digusted me. My 16 year old daughter was with me and I was embarrassed and ashamed to be around the spring breakers. Parents need to be aware that the idea of going to a foreign country to get as wasted as humanely possible is not a good idea, even for good kids.
You don’t have to go to Mexico to be beaten within an inch of your life by Mexicans. Our thoughtful government has made sure they can come here and do that without much trouble…………
Perhaps instead of going to Mexico Americans will visit LA, or San Antonio or Phoenix…or Springdale, Arkansas, etc., etc., etc……They should get all the flavor of Mexico they want, and then some.
They are scheming how to tweak The “Slaughter solution” and reconciliation to get an amnesty bill on Obama’s desk.
By the way; teenagers need not leave the country on spring break to immerse themselves in Mexican culture. Just visit Southern California. Of course they will still have to learn the language.
Sorry, you beat me to it.
I walked across the border from San Diego to Tijuana once back in the 1980s, spent an hour or two there, and felt like kissing the ground when I came back.
I can only imagine what it’s like there now. But what can you say? This is the only country on the planet to strike oil and lose money.
We are inexorably approaching the same circumstances in Mexico that ultimately led to the Pershing expedition. Only these days, the only military forces crossing the border are Mexican.
I agree that I can see no reason to ever visit Mexico. It just isn’t worth the risk even in these supposedly “safe” tourist areas any longer.
I feel for the family of this young man but MY kids won’t be visiting Mexico! Of course, with so many thugs from south of the border here we aren’t as safe as we used to be…
Or Colorado, for that matter.
As I tell friends: “Why should I go to Mexico? Mexico’s already here…”
Thre was a time when it would have garnered a visit from a contingent of Marines. Once upon a time Americans could go anywhere in the world, anytime. Not anymore.
I don’t even go near South San anymore. The population there is literally more Mexican than American.
I pray this young man will recover from his injuries and for his family as he heals.
I’m curious why anyone would travel to these backass countries in the 1st place. Realizing they are putting their lives in hands of criminals.
We don’t travel to Mexico, nor do I buy products “Hecho in Mexico”. Last time I was in Canada helping my Mom shop, most of the produce was identified as being from Mexico. People weren’t buying it, in fact, if it wasn’t clearly labeled, people were specifically asking the Produce Manager where it came from. Maybe if the produce continues to sit unsold and rots, they will get the hint and stop buying it.
We forbid one of our children to go on a Spring Break trip to Mexico a few years ago and got excoriated for being “mean”.
So be it.
I’d much rather be a “mean parent” than bury a child. Thankfully my kids understand this concept too…
I am blessed with perfect kids!
My prayers for this family and his healing.
United States citizens should stop going to Mexico as tourists and spending money there. Period.
Our lame government should demand answers…right.
Look, I am a brown-skinned Latino who would blend in perfectly. I speak the language, though with a different accent, and I would NEVER go to Mexico.
What part of GUERILLAS do people not understand? What part of CORRUPT GOVERNMENT do people not understand?
What part of DANGEROUS COUNTRY do people refuse to believe?
Sheesh.
I hope Zeke makes a full recovery.
And let’s hope future parents learn from his parents mistakes. Don’t send your kids on a week long drunk fest in a country with state department travel warnings.
How stupid do you have to be to visit Mexico. I would NEVER go across the border. Of course I live in Phoenix so I don’t have to cross the border to find Mexican violence. In fact as a CCW holder I discouraged four Mexicans who tried to jump me in my own garage.
Michelle,
You have not even scratched the surface of how corrupt/incompetent the Mexican medical system is. I have a friend who specialized sending injured mexicans back to mexico. The stories he can tell.
Most of us would be glad to help your friend send uninjured Mexicans back to Mexico. Let us know how we can help…
this is awful, but frankly these parents were fools to let their kid go down into that hellhole. what did they expect, I mean really? where will they send him for spring break next, afghanistan?
mexico is a vicous wasteland of anarchy, murder and corruption, populated by people who hate americans and just want to steal from us or worse. it’s an enemy nation at our doorstep vomiting their violence and squalor all over our freedom.
where’s the damn double fence? and electrify it for God’s sake.
My condolences to the Rucker family. I hope their son heals well.
My neighbors stepson was killed by an illegal alien 2 years ago. He was stabbed to death after leaving a bowling alley in Texas.
The only thing the illegal got was his cell phone. He was later caught and imprisoned.
As for the State Dept… it is useless and their policies work against Americans and our way of life.
There are good folks working there but they too have to follow the policies of the Deptartment as a whole or they won’t be working there very long.
Before anyone jumps on me about it… first know that my own father spent many years working with the State Dept. and other agencies. Some of the stories he has relayed to me over the years are truly depressing.
The State Dept. does not work in the interest of the American people. The evidence of this is all over for anyone willing to look and actually REPORT about it.
Relations trump everything in their eyes. Including the safety of Americans overseas.
Mexico today is a very dangerous country where American Tourists risk being kidnapped and held hostage for ransom.
The minute you get off the cruise ship or airplane there are Guerrillas sizing you up deciding whether or not to kidnap you and hold you for ransom.
I used to travel to Mexico frequently back in the 1970′s and would not cross the border today for any reason. You literally risking your life. Everyone in the Government is Corrupt from the politicians to the local street cop.
A friend recently went to Acapulco against my advice and found the Mexican Military had surrounded the city with road blocks and thousands of troops to keep the criminal gangs away from tourists in the city.They were told not to go out after dark but to stay in the hotel.
Is that the kind of place you want to go to take your next vacation? The US State Department has warnings about travel to Mexico currently but the US Media have kept the whole situation quiet.
Mexico is a chaotic mess. Anyone who goes there should not be surprised when things go sideways, so stay away. I think it is more than probable this young man hurt himself in a drunken stupor but it could have been foul play just as easily.
STOP subsidizing Mexico! Things will only change when conditions get bad enough and we CAN NOT do it from the outside.
In a somewhat related query, have any of the ranchers along the border considered hiring private security? There a lot of experienced young men returning to the work force straight from the MNiddle East. Just sayin’.
The romanticism of Mexico is long gone. Why anyone bothers to visit this despotic, corrupt state is incomprehensible. Your safety is less predictable in Cancun than Tehran.
I’m sorry for this young man.
Please, Americans, do NOT vacation in Mexico. From the danger to the indirect financial support, there is NO reason to be there.
Don’t go to Mexico. The “culture” is not worth the risk. Keep you dollars in the US.
One positive side-effect of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is that we now have a military extensively trained and experienced in house-to-house urban combat.
Likewise, just sayin’…
My last visit to the “amigo country” was in 2007, to Cancun. Visits to Mexico are always dicey because of corruption, bandidos, and guerrilleros but if you generally stayed in the resort areas, never go alone, and never went out alone late at night, you’d come back in one piece. But when I read that there were now drug murders happening in Cancun, there was no way I was ever going back. I won’t set foot in Cabo and Tijuana is a scary hell hole. I hear all of the time from Mexicans horror stories about people being kidnapped and murdered. Given that I work in law enforcement, I especially have no business being there.
I must disagree. By and large Americans are still treated with respect in numerous tourist spots around the globe, as are other foreigners to those countries. Every time I went to Cancun my family was treated like royalty.
But this is different. There are hundreds if not thousands of documented cases over a long period of time, of Americans disappearing or being attacked under unclear circumstances, and the foreign authorities not doing much about it. I dont see this as a lack of respect for America being the cause, more than I see it as corruption in these Countries. Obviously Mexico is terrified of US travelers not coming to visit, because it is a big part of their economy. But they appear to be losing the ability to fight the police and govt corruption caused by drug cartels in their country. This is a tragic story for this family, but I dont see any broad political lessons that are being taught here. As many posters have already stated: going to Mexico right now is crazy, period.
Things are not good in Mexico. Many groups including the US Government have recently evaluated Mexico and consider the Mexican nation a potential high risk for collapse because of crime and corruption throughout all levels of Mexican government.
I suggest everyone read these articles before their next trip south of the border…
http://article.nationalreview.com/388927/mexico-isnt-a-failed-state-yet/mark-krikorian
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/mexico/090212/analysis-mexico-failing-state
http://www.articlesbase.com/causes-and-organizations-articles/mexico-as-a-failed-state-will-require-us-military-intervention-722385.html
McCain now sez it’s OK to have the National Guard down at the Mexican border (thank you JD).
RE: Zeke Rucker
I’m considering an email to the state department.
Dumb idea?
About every six years he does get just a tad more conservative.
Hussein Obama
Hussein Obama
Hussein Obama
Hussein Obama
Hussein Obama
Exactly. I remember him saying in reference to that a few years ago that it was not the job of the military to guard the borders. What are they for then John? Close the border and send the ones here illegaly back along with their anchor babies.
Zeke’s story is another reason why I’d never set foot in Mexico. I have a sister-in-law (probably because she’s liberal and cheap) who takes multiple vacations to Cancun. I don’t really get it. I do know that without gringo tourists that Mexico’s economy would be completely dead.
I used to have a Mexican friend in college, who is now an accountant in Mexico City, who told me that she’s never felt safe in that city. That it’s very much like Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. She would be in tears about how she didn’t want to go back to Mexico but that she had made a promise to her father that after paying for her education here in the US that she would return to work for the family accounting firm. I felt for her.
As I’ve said before on this thread, I know too much about Mexico and South America to ever go there. I’d love to go to Peru and see Machu Pichu and the ancient ruins of Mexico but I value my personal safety more than the historical experience it would give me… and I say this, regrettably, as someone who has a Spanish minor, and who appreciates the culture and values of Latin America.
To be blunt, Mexico is a narco state, much like Afghanistan. Mexico is ruled by drug gangs and they have a long reach into the Mexican military, police and political circles. Anyone who stands up to the cartels doesn’t do so lightly, knowing that their life and the lives of their families are in danger. It is regrettable that we can’t seem to stop our own drug consumption (mostly Marijuana and Meth) that fuels the drug cartels and the drug trade.
Mexico is a good example of why I don’t believe that marijuana is a harmless drug, even legalized. We’re looking at examples right now of what it fuels and who it hurts. And it’s not pretty.
One little gimic that they use is to wait for a good looking girl to buy a drink. Then the Federalist (or however you spell it), jump up and claim that she paid with counterfiet money. She is thrown in jail and the family has to pay about %5000 for her release.
This happened to a friend.
Fixed that for ‘ya.
DO NOT GO TO MEXICO!!!! Got that? We have everything they have there right here at home. Buy American/Travel America First. Stop wasting what little money Obama will let you keep in Mexico. It is a deranged country and needs to be cut off until they straighten up their act. Tough love, baby!
As a resident of South Florida, I see firsthand the lawlessness we’ve come to expect here from our flood of illegal Mexican immigrants. Are they deported? Nope. But do they run amok through our public schools, parks, and neighborhoods? Do they make horrible neighbors with up to 15 people living in one 980-square-foot house? Do they have a seemingly endless supply of Food Stamps and free health care, compliments of me and the other legitimate taxpayers? Yep. America was a great idea while it lasted. I have zero interest in ever visiting Mexico. I’ve felt like I’ve lived there for the past 20 years. (Believe me, if I could get out of Florida, I would.)
Mexico also strongly enforces laws on illegal immigrants coming up from Central America.
College kids drink too much, either hurt themselves, or get into fights, on Spring Break both inside and outside this country.
Being young, drunk and brave is a bad recipe.
But nothing to what compares to University of Texas pre-med Spring Breaker Mark Kilroy in Matamoros, across the border from South Padre Island. he went drinking with his frat buddies, got separated, captured by marijuana smugglers led by a Cuban-American follower of Santeria.
His hands and feet were cut off. The the wounds were sealed with a red hot piece of metal to keep him from bleeding to death so he wouldn’t die.
The every member of the gang raped Kilroy.
Then, still alive, he was disemboweled, and his internal organs were cooked in a stew along with his brains.
The Mexican police had no interest looking for him either, IIRC. Family hired a PI, local cop picked up a member of the gang who confessed. Besides Kilroy’s remains, about 30 other bodies found.
But gang believed a Santeria sacrifice of a gringo would lead Satan to protect their drug smuggling from police.
Yessiree, drunk and stupid is bad enough in the US, a disaster potentially in a Third World hole like Mexico.
re above post: Yeesh!
There are some bad places in the world. Certain resorts in the Philippines are not safe. Communist or Muslim terrorists raid the island resorts and take tourists as captives.
I have heard Northern Peru is now safe for those who want to visit Machu Picchu but that wasn’t the case when I was in Ecuador many years ago. My host organization refused to help me get there because of the fact that Sendero Luminoso controlled the region of Peru at the time.
Even where I lived in Manila wasn’t all that safe 10 years ago. Nuts were throwing grenades in the local street markets and bombing malls.
And Russia was a mess with people blowing up apartment buildings and Metro stations.
Of course, I have been exposed to stuff like this my whole life but it does seem to have gotten worse since the end of the Cold War. Who would think we would look back on the Cold War as the “good old days…”
Welcome to Obama’s World.
Violence in Mexico’s tourist areas is well documented. Travel there at your own peril.
I’ve posted this before: BOYCOTT the bastards. DO NOT BUY A THING HECHO EN
MEXICO, and do NOT travel there. F**K
Mexico and F**k Mexicans.
We won’t visit Mexican border towns anymore, but for my teenage son’s spring break two weeks ago, my husband and I took him to Merida and Playa del Carmen (which is near Cancun). Our spring break is earlier than for schools up north, so there weren’t many spring breakers there at all.
We has a great time. We stayed at a nice resort, rented a car and drove to various Mayan ruins, and never had a problem or got into any creepy situations.
I’ve heard that the Yucatan is safer than much of the rest of Mexico (which isn’t saying much, I know), and Mexicans are moving there to flee the violence elsewhere.
I wonder how long that will last though. How can they hold out against such anarchy?
My city of San Antonio has tens of thousands of legal Mexicans who’ve come here because of the violence. One of them cuts my hair. She is great, and appreciates the US. She is worth 50 ACORN-type US citizens, and I would be happy to make that trade.
Do high schools and colleges keep up with this violence? School newspapers, blogs etc.?
It sounds strange that so many kids still go down to Mexico. What’s up with the parents?
I was shocked when I found out a friend allowed her daughter to go to Aruba (several years after the Natalie Holloway murder). Said they got a good deal – needed tourists. What!
And that Mark Kilroy story … evil!
One reason they go to Mexico is that the drinking age is 18, as it used to be here when I was 18. We didn’t feel like we needed to go over the border to have a good time. Back then spring break wasn’t such a huge deal either though. I usually just went home to visit my family for my college spring break.
I saw in the story where Zeke is 21, don’t believe his parents had any choice as to whether he went to Mexico or not…unless of course they were paying for the trip.
Paying for medical costs up front in Mexcio is normal. Someone I talked to recently, said he got into a scooter accident outside of a resort. He would have lost his arm, if his father had not come up with all of the cash up front.
He had insurance, but it didnt cover Mexican travel UNLESS you upgraded your policy before you left. The rental scooters insurance company would have paid, but only if he left the hospital and used their preferred provider. The hospital essentially begged him not to leave, for his own good.
Another friend of a friend, recently fell off a barstool backwards and ended up with a traumatic brain injury. Although the US doctors agreed that she was getting the absolute best care there in Mexico, by the time they got her stable enough to transport back to the US, her bill was already in excess of $1 million. (fortunately her family could afford it) That was a few weeks ago, but I dont have an update if shes out of a coma yet.
I quit going to Mexico 15 years ago, because it was sketchy even back then.
I say, every single American, starting today, should boycott Mexico. Boycott anything made or grown in Mexico. Don’t vacation there. Don’t visit. Now’s the time to circle the wagons. Since the Obama “regime” (as Rush calls it) won’t protect American citizens, then we need to protect ourselves by BOYCOTTING MEXICO.
From the U.S. Constitution:
The U.S. Constitution, Article IV
Section 4
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.”
Quite obviously, the Constitution is again being ignored.
Hopefully, Zeke will make a full recovery. In the meantime, a word to the wise: stay out of Mexico.
How much longer is that statement going to be operative?
That’s why I hate it when my Dad heads down there for a month or so at a time. Stays with his buddy on South Padre. Especially after I heard earlier this week about the prison break in Matamors. He headed down this am. Hope they don’t head in to Matamoros for scripts and booze this time.
I live just 150 miles from the border and have been within 10 miles of the border many times. I have never and will never enter that POS country.
At least you don’t live in Ft. Hancock, Texas. Unless something is done, those residents could be in trouble. I used to live in No. Va.. There were places where you would think you’re in Drugexico, with the gangs battling each other; Manassas, for one.
Okay – for those of you who are abandoning hope, here’s more reason to dispair. I had posted this on the 3/17/10 thread about the murders of the US citizens in Juarez – but it bears repeating.
An interview on NPR on 3/24/10 (link provided) – the chilling point is this:
Janet “the toadstool” Napolitano, head of homeland security, refers to the US citizens murdered in Juarez, as, “three individuals associated with the United States consulate there.”
Here’s the link, in case you think I’m crazy:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125143645
About 1/4 the way down.
I still can’t believe it.
This was not someone mispeaking.
It is someone in high position in the administration deliberately glossing over the fact that these people were citizens of the U.S. at all….
You mean “MaNasty” ?
Yes, it’s still bad there but improving. The economy has sent a lot of them leaving, but not enough. There was a >5% decrease in ESOL students in the PS enrollment last year.
It’s been awhile since there’s been a shootout at apts on Coverstone behind the HD on Streamwalk Lane too.
Progress I guess.
I’m a live and let live kind of guy, but I draw the line at Satan worshipping gay serial killing drug smugglers…
Wiki on Adolfo Constanzo
Why go spend your dinero in Mexico, supporting Mexicans, when you can spend it here in the USA, supporting Mexicans?
While I empathize with the parents on this one, I have to ask a simple question: What made anyone think Cancun would be a safe place to spend Spring Break? Don’t these people read the papers or get ANY kind of world news?
I spent a week in Puerta Vallarta, Mexico in 1997. Had a wonderful time. There is no possible way I would go anywhere in Mexico today. It isn’t just the border towns having issues. Sure, this kind of thing could happen at any resort in the US. The fact is that most of the country of Mexico is an extremely violent place to be.
Going to a place like Mexico today isn’t tempting fate. It’s giving fate a big old hard pinch on the A$$!
The answer is simple. Start from Vera Cruz and work my way to Mexico City playing “Marching through Georgia and pretending that my name is William Tecumseh Sherman who also marched from Valparaiso to Santa Cruz to Mexico City in the 1840s. Leave no building un-razed no body un-charred. Simple solution to a complex problem but sometimes like when I’m the kind of angry that would cause, simple works best.
Threats to ordinary citizens in Mexico border towns to flee before Easter or die…
I do not know if I should laugh or