Is Cancun safe for travelers? Short
answer: yes. Long answer: definitely yes! It is one of the safest
places on the North American continent, with an overall murder rate
of about 4.5%, and a tourist murder rate almost too small to measure.
We get around three million visitors a year in Cancun itself, but
less than 500 crimes are reported annually in the Hotel Zone police
station. Not all of them involve tourists. Americans, Canadians and
other foreign residents universally agree that Cancun is a safe place
to live.
Typical
Cancun resident Rivergirl writes on The Truth About Mexico blog:
In 2008 more than 4.5 million international tourists
arrived at the Cancun Airport. The vast majority of these tourists
went home with nothing worse than sunburn and a hangover. Tourists do
die here, just like they do in every tourist destination, but if you
look at the statistics you see that they die from drowning (usually
because they swim while drunk) or from heart attacks or sometimes
they die in car accidents.
If you read the US State Dept
warning carefully you will see that it warns people away from the
border areas, primarily Tijuana and Juarez. Those areas are 1200+
miles from Cancun. Would you avoid going to Miami, Florida because of
violence in Detroit, Michigan? I wouldn't.
It would be a shame
for you to cancel your trip because of worry over violence toward
tourists here. Tourists need to use common sense here; there is the
normal petty crime you find in any tourist destination. But there
simply isn't violence against tourists here in Cancun.
So why is this a controversy? Cancun is
always mentioned in any item on tourism in Mexico. Even if Cancun is
included only as an example of a safe area, it is likely to be
highlighted in the lead, headline and search results. Cancun, the
most popular Mexican resort, and one of the world's outstanding
tourism success stories, is a media celebrity. They want it to be
Miami Vice, but it's really the Love Boat. Besides, something happens
down south in Tulum, and it is invariably reported as taking place in
Cancun, or in the Cancun area.
Violence against tourists is
very rare here. Petty crime is not uncommon in Cancun. When traveling
anywhere, you have to be on your guard, as there are thieves who prey
on careless travellers, and Cancun is no exception. Hotels are now
installing room safes large enough to hold laptops, which are a prime
target for thieves. Street crime and assaults on tourists are quite
unusual, even in downtown Cancun. Most sexual crimes are among fellow
tourists. Out-and-out clear-cut rape is very rare. Some cases involve
young women who get blind drunk at discos or bars and then have sex
with virtual strangers while nearly unconscious. On awakening, they
get angry and want to press charges. In one case, an American high
school student had gone off with a guy and had sex and then she
couldn't even remember who he was or where it had taken place.
According to the newspaper report, she was baffled when the police
declined to investigate.
There have been cases that are
clearly rape, such as by a security guard who let himself into a
woman's room and forcibly raped her. He later tearfully confessed
that he had seen her naked and was overwhelmed by lust. These are
definitely prosecuted.
Police extortion of tourists detained
for minor driving offenses is often a problem and there have been
some grotesque incidents. The authorities cracked down hard, however,
and dismissed many officers, including some top officials. They
claim the problem is under control. Under control does not mean
eliminated.
The police are friendly, however, and do have a
sort of sense of honor (or they are just prudent) and we rarely hear
of innocent parties being shaken down for a bribe. Even if you are
clearly innocent and have the courage to attempt facing down a police
officer, the expedient approach to police extortion is to pay them
off. You can usually bargain them down quite a bit. Assume that they
are talking in pesos, not dollars. I don't know what the current
rates are, but I would suspect that it can't hurt to offer 100 pesos
for something such as making a turn without signaling. Try not to get
outraged about it. Just be practical and maintain a sense of humor.
Jules Siegel is an American journalist whose work has
appeared in Playboy, Rolling Stone, Best American Short Stories and
many other publications. He has lived in Cancun with his family since
1983. He is the author of the Cancun
User's Guide.
