I Want To Be In Baja

San Felipe, Baja - One of the Baja resorts to have suffered a 75% drop in tourism revenue this year.

If anyone still has concerns over traveling to Mexico in general, or Baja in particular, I would direct you to read a new report published this week called  Baja California, Mexico: Impact of U.S. Media, an Analysis by Scott Hanning and Jeffrey Werner, Emerson Strategic Communication Group. Baja, which relies heavily on tourism dollars from U.S. visitors, has suffered a decline of 75% in their revenue this year - a subject we have visited many times. The analysis makes clear that fear of drug cartel violence, and later of  the H1N1 flu virus, has kept huge numbers of visitors away.  What is also made clear is that these fears were wholly unjustified and unnecessarily overblown by the U.S. media.

“One critical fact remains clear, however: there is no evidence or history of tourists being harmed by cartel-related violence. Further, the threat of so-called “spillover” violence into the border states that spawned a great deal of coverage in the pre-April period has failed to materialize.  Nor has Mexico become the failed state so vigorously predicted earlier in the year.  None of these facts are actively reported to the American public.”

If the reports of drug cartel violence are still a concern for you, please read this report. I would also venture to suggest that you might like to think about what other stories in the press might be exaggerated - and why.  The fear of North Korean missiles reaching Hawaii is the latest one that springs to mind. There are factions within this country that have a vested interest in keeping people  fearful - don’t buy into their lies. It is you who ends up being the loser if you do.

The annual Hobie Cat Regatta at San Felipe, Baja seems to have been enjoyed by all who attended last weekend’s event, despite the ongoing scare-mongering by the U.S. mainstream press over the ongoing drug violence along the Mexican - U.S. border. Although I have heard reports of some Regatta-goers being put off from traveling to San Felipe for this year’s event, every comment I have seen says that a great time was had by all and that no-one had any problem, either at the event or in their journeys to or from San Felipe.

By all accounts the citizens of San Felipe were eager to make the Regatta-goers feel welcome and did everything they could to help with the event. Many local business owners are upset that the bad publicity has made a considerable impact on visitor numbers, especially in respect of students visiting for Spring Break. Don’t let the press put you off going to the Blues Festival there this weekend!

After all the nonsense that has been written lately about the dangers of visiting Mexico - “a potentially failed state”, and all the other nonsense that has appeared in the mainstream press lately, it is nice to see a more measured story for a change!  Thank you ABC News’ Maria Finn for her story entitled  Safe Travels in Sensational Mexico - Remember: ‘It’s Not a Theme Park, It’s a Sovereign Country With Laws.’  And thank you to the El Dorado Ranch Yahoo Group member who bought this story to my attention.

 
In response to the mounting negative U.S. news coverage of danger for tourists coming to Baja, Mexico’s Secretary of Tourism, Oscar Escobedo Carignan, released this letter which clearly spells out the tranquility and safety of the port of San Felipe. Evidently, the 15,000 or so visitors to the Baja 250 race last weekend (more about which forthcoming from Nancy), arrived and left safely and had a good time while they were there.  

Unfortunately, the bad publicity has meant that San Felipe is going to be much quieter than usual for this year’s Spring Break.  Let’s hope that that the drug cartel problem can be sorted out this year and that it is not going to just drag on and on.  Hopefully, President Obama’s visit in April will elicit some cross-border cooperation in this regard - afterall, who is it that is buying the drugs?  Who is it that is supplying the cartels with guns?  This is not purely a Mexican problem.

Thanks to Ed from the El Dorado Ranch Yahoo Group for the above picture.

No-one can help but be aware of the recent news over the escalating violence between the powerful Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican government - violence that is now spilling over into various towns in the United States.  However, I couldn’t believe my ears the other day when the TV news reported that the Pentagon feared that Mexico could quickly become a “failed state”.  What a load of absolute rubbish! Calderon’s reaction was rightly indignant when it appeared in a story in theweek.com - 

“Look who’s talking, said Mexico City’s Excelsior in an editorial. It takes two to make a cross-border crisis. Almost all of the drug gang violence is concentrated in cities along the U.S. border. In the words of President Felipe Calderón: “A good housecleaning is also needed on the other side of the border. To bring in the drugs, the cartels require corrupt U.S., not Mexican, authorities.” Plus, let’s not forget that the weapons the cartels use to kill Mexicans are smuggled in from America — even U.S. officials admit that”.

No-one is arguing that that the problem is not a bad one, but I see it as a strong Mexican government tackling a situation that badly needs tackling.  It will inevitably lead to more violence in the short term, but if the power of the drug cartels is not curtailed then no-one will be safe, which ever side of the border you live on.

It is certainly true that this year’s Spring Breakers are being steared away from their usual Mexican haunts because of the drug violence, but it is mainly a border problem, not one that is affecting all of Mexico. In a story in the Los Angeles Times it reported that “Summer Winter Action Tours (SWAT) has been sending students to Mexico for the last 12 years and, in a website post, insists that “San Felipe is one of the safest destinations in all of Baja California and Mexico.”

The Pentagon and the press would serve the situation better with a bit of perspective and a call to action from the US side of the border to help Calderon, instead of this irresponsible and groundless fear-mongering.