Not long ago I spent some time Nuevo Vallarta. I was in a nice gated and guarded area. I’m sure those guys at the gates were not just carrying, they were locked and loaded. Not a single problem but BORING AS Hell! How boring you ask? I don’t thing any of the people my age who appeared to be walking around were actually alive!
LOL That bad eh?
In the mid '80s my gf took me to Puerto Vallarta via airplane. We shared a cab ride to our hotel and dropped off another tourist at a gated resort. At the gate were Federale soldiers carrying M-16s. I thought that was a bit startling and didn't get it. Further on I saw "Yanqui go home!" painted on the corrugated tin roofs of houses. Quite a change from the Mexico I visited less than twenty years earlier.