Crime in Cancun

If you read the newspapers here you would say that crime in Cancun/Playa is out of control too. The stories just in this morning's paper are horrendous. Ick!

I like Miami, to visit. Personally I find Miami to have a remarkably different culture from Cancun. There are lots more Cubans and very few Mexicans there. So it's got a different feel and different politics and different (better) music and different problems. They are quite different. And when I've been in Miami the ocean was not even close to the color it is here (CSI Miami uses filters to get the ocean to look like that).

Of course the post office actually works in Miami, so there is that.

 

I guess, it's to each his own. I live in a very residential area and I have only been here since October. I don't speak Spanish, so I don't read the papers or watch the news...so to me violence/crime/coruption is non existent. Even the cops that did drive by the other day because my bf's friend was passed out on the hood of his car, just really nicely asked for him to brought inside...then went on his way. My neighbors love where they live and everyone maintains their house in a beautiful way. Whereas in Miami, my family has been affected by some harsh criminal acts on multiple levels, but great paying jobs in a very bad FL job market are keeping them there. And sorry if any of you are Cuban, but all Cubans I know personally are the rudest, snobbiest people I know. I would live here then there any day of the year.
But like I said...people feel a certain way based on life experiences. I may feel differently after I am affected by violence/crime/corruption...keeping my fingers crossed I am not though

 

I think a lot of expats who live here do not read the local papers. And there's nothing wrong with that. I go through phases where I don't keep up with the news, regardless of where I live, I just need a break. But just because you don't read the papers and don't see crime in your 'hood doesn't mean it's not there. And it doesn't mean it's not getting worse in this area. My street is quiet and peaceful, we all pay a guard to keep it that way, and it works. But that doesn't mean there isn't crime here, it just means I'm in a bubble, a bubble I pay to live in.

I think that if the papers here were in English that lots of expats here (and tourists too) would tune in a bit more to local news. And I think their impression of what's really going on here would change quite a bit, likely for the worse. Quintana Roo is more peaceful than many other places (both in Mexico and out of it). But Cancun and Playa are also strongholds for organized crime and have been for a long time. The heavy tourist activity here provides a perfect cover for much of the activity of organized crime here. And the fact that the tourist trade happens mainly in English, while the criminals here are operating in, and being reported about, in Spanish, makes it so there's a big disconnect between what's really going on here and people who don't read local papers.

 

Its worth pointing out that the "news media" here is every bit as sensationalized as in the US if not more, and on MANY occasions, I've found their "reporting" to be WILDLY inaccurate, even on basic facts, like names, ages, nationalities, and dates.

So the old saying.. "believe none of what you hear, some of what you read and half of what you see", applies.

 

Being from the U.S., I'm not impressed with crime stories in Cancun.

There's crime everywhere. I believe in being aware, and suitably cautious, but life goes on, and I want to be fully on board- not obsessing about the awful things that can, and do, happen in the world.

I'm out at night, in bad neighborhoods in Cancun (Corales and SM 92), in connection with my work. No one has approached me in a threatening way, at any time. For the most part I'm simply ignored, for which I'm grateful.

 

So are you all saying that you are content to ignore the news here and pretend that crime here isn't important? If it doesn't effect you, it doesn't bother you? If you suspect the papers of making sh*t up then it's best to ignore them completely?

My point was just that if we are going to compare crime rates here to crime rates somewhere else, then we had better know something about crime here?! Right?! So if we ignore crime here, don't read the papers here, or disbelieve them, but then say that crime elsewhere is worse...well, that makes no sense, does it?

It's our right to ignore the papers, to not care about organized crime here, to just enjoy the weather and the palm trees and the watery cheap beer here. But we need to know that we may not have the full picture.

Of course the press here is bad. How could it be otherwise? If they didn't make up at least some of what they report then the cartels would kill the reporters.

But from my understanding of the specific corruption problems at INM, about 80% of what is reported on that subject is factual. So if even 60% of what's reported in the papers on other subjects is factual then crime here is pretty bad, by any definition.

 

Finding a bag of heroin washed up on shore from a busted up shipment that was dropped in the water had nothing to do with hubby's job. But neighbors along that stretch of beach assured me that drug runners drop drugs in the water there regularly, so that local runners can pick them up.

Having 12 guys with machetes tell me I couldn't walk my dogs up the beach in Isla Blanca had nothing to do with my hubby's job either, but it did have to do with drug smugglers up there who are well known for not wanting anyone to see what they are up to. Ask anyone who lives up that way, and if they trust you they will tell you.

When the creepy-looking guy who rented the apt upstairs from our rental was arrested because he was suspected of being a hitman for the Zetas it had nothing to do with my hubby's job.

When the MataZetas killed 3 mafia guys and left their bodies in a car 4 blocks from my house it felt a bit close to home, but still had nothing, directly, to do with my hubby's job.

Yes, I've gotten a better look at organized crime here than many, because of hubby's job. But if hubby was working as an architect I would still have seen many of the things I've seen here. [For the record, he's a lousy plumber.]

If you read the papers here then patterns begin to appear. And once you start to get the big picture it's hard to ignore it. When you realize how many people here have to be involved in smuggling, and in money laundering, it changes your experience of everything. When I go out to eat I wonder if the restaurant is washing money for the mob, or paying protection money (it's pretty much one or the other).

You don't have to like my perspective. I realize that people who make money off tourists absolutely do not want to know about this stuff. If they don't know it then they don't have to admit it to their clients. The truth is ugly and doesn't help sell paradise to tourists.

And the people who make money off the smuggling do not want anyone to talk about it.

But the reality is that the economy here is driven by both tourism and organized crime.

Does that mean we are unsafe here? I don't feel unsafe here, mostly. You guys don't feel unsafe here. But when you have a significant amount of the economy being driven by an industry that operates outside the law you can't ever really be safe.

When someone faces years in prison for past crimes, they will commit new crimes to keep out of prison. That is the slippery slope of criminal activity. When you have lots and lots of those people living in your city how can you feel totally safe? I think that, if you are rational and sane, you can't feel totally safe here, not if you really know what's going on.

 

...nor anywhere else, for that matter.

That's why rational and sane people may choose not to dwell on it, here, either.

If the situation changed, as Steve suggested, and there became a threat which was more than hypothetical, more than "background noise", those same rational and sane people would be free to change their assessment.
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Every year, hundreds of thousands of tourists come and go from Cancun without incident.

When I'm in the hotel zone, I get as close to feeling "totally safe" as I can get, anywhere in the world, ever.