Five Canadians Killed Others Injured in Mexico Explosion

[SteveB]

        ... everytime I see something in the NEWS with regards to Mexico there is someone or another getting blown away by those Cartels. They have gained so much control of that country that it has become an unsafe vacation spot. The Police
have become a target and they have to call in the army to try to control the bloodshed....

The only time I read about the CF in Afghanistan, someone has died a futile death and we should pull out.  :

By now, we should all be taking a v. large grain of salt with our MSM reports.

I'm not saying that bad things don't happen in Mexico but, once you leave Canada, you are in someone else's country.  I fly to every Southern destination from Panama North.  They all have their issues.  The holiday areas or Mexico are a lot safer than the Northern  Mexican states.  The security situation in Jamaica or the DR is no better than Mexico.  I would be far more nervous as Hugo's guest in Venezuela.

 

[mariomike]

I'm not saying that bad things don't happen in Mexico but, once you leave Canada, you are in someone else's country.  I fly to every Southern destination from Panama North.  They all have their issues.  The holiday areas or Mexico are a lot safer than the Northern  Mexican states.  The security situation in Jamaica or the DR is no better than Mexico.  I would be far more nervous as Hugo's guest in Venezuela.

Travel reports, if interested:
http://www.voyage.gc.ca/countries_pays/report_rapport-eng.asp?id=184000

 

[SteveB]

I was interested to read that post and I think it good advice to all Canadians travelling abroad to check for warnings in any country they will be entering.  That said, every warning posted on the GC web site specifically notes that tourist areas have been safe and that the threat lies in the areas bordering the US.  Having travelled to both Chihuahua, as well as the Pacific and Caribbean tourist areas of Mexico in the last year, I will certainly agree with that.  Chihuahua features troops and federales armed with G36 knock offs patrolling the airport and main city intersections in groups of 4+ supported by a light 4x4 armed with a Minimi mounted fashionably on the roll bar.  The tourist areas have a lone G3 armed soldier to wave the flag at the airport.

I note very little concern in the folks I drop off in Cuba yet, there have been instances of the Cuban government detaining Canadians for months, following their involvement in a traffic accident.  Bad things happen, maintain situational awareness, wear SPF 30 or better.

 

[Haletown]

Cuba ?

The country is a military dictatorship, there are no human rights, the island is a giant prison, the people are essentially slaves and the tourist business enriched the leaders of the dictatorship.

Nice place to take a vacation if you can park your morality at home while you have fun at the expense of millions of Cuban citizen slaves.

Morons like Trudeau thought Che & Fidel were cool dudes. Funny how the
"progressives" are attracted to mass murderers.

 

[gun runner]

What the hell does a gas leak/explosion have to do with a country being "druglord infested"?

Consider this:  In July, a fire breaks out in a hotel in Ottawa filled with tourists from country X.  Someone from country X says "Why would anyone want to go to a country where it snows half the year?"

One thing has nothing to do with the other.


HELLO...IS ANYONE HOME ? Mexico is a druglords haven. Don't you watch the news? The meatballs shot at a husband and wife IN AMERICAN WATERS while they were out enjoying their watercraft, simply because they MAY have strayed too close to their potential drug activities. I hope I am not jumping to conclusions for you! This could have been a bombing...who knows. Even the local Mayor stated there is a drug problem in the local populus. In Mexico one thing may have everything to do with the other. Don't underestimate the problems in that country may have an effect on Canadian and other foreign vacationers.

 

[MPwannabe]

"Nice place to take a vacation if you can park your morality at home"

^ Isn't that why people go on vacation in the first place?

 

[PMedMoe]

HELLO...IS ANYONE HOME ? Mexico is a druglords haven. Don't you watch the news? The meatballs shot at a husband and wife IN AMERICAN WATERS while they were out enjoying their watercraft, simply because they MAY have strayed too close to their potential drug activities. I hope I am not jumping to conclusions for you! This could have been a bombing...who knows. Even the local Mayor stated there is a drug problem in the local populus. In Mexico one thing may have everything to do with the other. Don't underestimate the problems in that country may have an effect on Canadian and other foreign vacationers.

Uh, yeah, I meant the poster's remark in conjunction with the news article posted.    :

You want to go on about Mexico's druglords?  Start a new thread.  This one is supposed to be about a gas leak at a resort.

BTW, it's not only Mexico.  I'll bet there's several South American tourist destinations that have the same problem.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Let's keep the discussion civil folks. It's not that important that it can't be locked if people don't behave themselves.

Milnet.ca Staff

 

[AJC]

I stayed at that resort a year ago for a wedding. Pretty secure on the entry side, lost of security staff. Beach was great, Mohitos were better, food was eatable. I would go back especially with Westjet.
Having said that its Mexico. Lots of shady characters around downtown Playa del Carmen - just like anywhere else. You take a risk no matter where you go. Stay in the resort, especially at night, don't travel by yourself. Most of the time it works. This is likely a accident, could have happened anywhere. People die in car accidents,  but we don't stop driving.

 

[mariomike]

People die in car accidents,  but we don't stop driving.

True. But, traffic fatalities in Canada have been declining steadily since 1979.
Tourism to Mexico also seems to be declining ( 2009 ):
http://www.latinbusinesschronicle.com/app/article.aspx?id=3695

 

[George Wallace]

True. But, traffic fatalities in Canada have been declining steadily since 1979.
Tourism to Mexico also seems to be declining:
http://www.latinbusinesschronicle.com/app/article.aspx?id=3695

....while deaths of Canadian tourists are rising. 

 

[missing1]

If you don't like Mexico you can always try Costa Rica. A lot of it is still unspoiled by North American way of life.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

True. But, traffic fatalities in Canada have been declining steadily since 1979.
Tourism to Mexico also seems to be declining ( 2009 ):
http://www.latinbusinesschronicle.com/app/article.aspx?id=3695

....while deaths of Canadian tourists are rising. 

Here is a link to a 2007 Toronto Star article covering a period from 2000 - 2007 that points out during this period more than 250 Canadians were murdered overseas with the number one country for deaths being the United States with 56 or more murders. The next largest number of deaths (47) occurred in the Mexican/Caribbean region with fifteen of those deaths occurring in Mexico between 2000 - 2006.

So, compared to the U.S., a relative small number of Canadians have been murdered in Mexico. However, it should be noted that more Canadians visit the U.S. than Mexico. But, a large number of Canadians visit Mexico every year and has been increasing in recent years. Here is a more recent Globe and Mail article (12 Nov 2010) that gives some perspective by pointing out that between 2005 to 2009 the number of Canadians visiting Mexico increased from 675,000+ (2005) to over 1.2 million (2009). So, again considering the large number of Canadians visiting Mexico, the chances that you could be a murdered is pretty small. In would be interesting to know how many are killed in more mundane ways such as accidents or health reasons.

My personal opinion as someone who has visited many countries (but not Mexico) is that no matter where you go overseas, whether its Mexico or the U.K., there is the potential that you could end up as a victim of crime or more likely being involved in an accident or getting sick. If you exercise some situational awareness and common sense you probably won't have any problems. Unfortunately, most people holidaying overseas exercise very SA and pay the consequences.

 

[George Wallace]

My personal opinion as someone who has visited many countries (but not Mexico) is that no matter where you go overseas, whether its Mexico or the U.K., there is the potential that you could end up as a victim of crime or more likely being involved in an accident or getting sick. If you exercise some situational awareness and common sense you probably won't have any problems. Unfortunately, most people holidaying overseas exercise very little SA and pay the consequences.

Agree 100+%

 

[midget-boyd91]

    When Canadians go to Mexico they are (usually) on vaction. When Canadians are on vacation they are (usually) indulging in the fun things that come with vacation; drinking, going out to crowded resort bars full of other people indulging in vacation juice. 
   
    It doesn't matter where you are; when the party mood is in place and people are into the booze around many other people drinking, judgement is seriously lacking. Making the likelihood of accidents causing injury or death, or mouthing off to the wrong person and winding up getting seriously hurt or killed much more likely.  When people go on vacation they drink and that ups the ante.

And something that I notice when reading/watching the news about Canadians (or Americans, Britons etc) being killed, whether it's accidental or murder, while on vacation.... in probably three quarters of the cases it's mentioned that the deceased was out at a party with friends or out at a night club. Drinking no doubt.

My two pesos anyways.

 

[57Chevy]

5 charged in Mexico hotel blast: Reports

MEXICO CITY-Mexican officials have issued five apprehension orders over the Nov. 14, 2010, explosion in a Playa del Carmen hotel that killed five Canadian tourists and two resort employees.

Quintana Roo state Assistant Attorney General Rodolfo Garcia Pliego said the apprehension orders were issued for manslaughter, negligence causing injury and professional misconduct, according to the newspaper Diario de Yucatan. No names were released, but the newspaper reported the apprehension orders were issued for both hotel employees and non-employees.

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