Drug Wars

Oaxaca City is as safe as one can reasonably expect a city of 400,000 people to be. We visited in April 2008 and had a wonderful time. Since then, we have been following the steady stream of headlines about drug cartel-related violence. Here is the U.S. State Department Travel Advisory for Mexico, which was issued on February 20, 2009: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_3028.html

Mexico is indeed struggling with terrible violence and corruption, mostly related to President Calderon's intense crackdown on organized crime in Mexico City and U.S. border areas since his election in 2006. If you are really interested, you should definitely take a look at this interactive map showing that Oaxaca, while under the influence of the Sinaloa cartel from the eastern side of the Sierra Madre mountain chain, is far south of the violent territory disputes occuring near the U.S. border. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/22/us/BORDER.html

But I can't leave this topic without pointing out the enormous influence of the U.S. drug market on Mexican cartels, law enforcement, and ordinary citizens. Please read this amazing position paper by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, which argues that the "war on drugs" has failed, and proposes bold solutions to advance democracy and peace across Latin America and the U.S. http://drugsanddemocracy.org/files/2009/02/declaracao_ingles_site.pdf