I highly encourage people to pay attention to this and if anyone has plans to go down there, think again.
There is crime everywhere. There is no indication this has anything to do with the drug trade. It probably isn’t a good idea to sleep outdoors in ANY PLACE you aren’t familiar with. We have been to Mexico many times. Never felt unsafe. Now would I go to one of the border-area war zones? Not on your life, but Cancun, Cabo, and other tourist regions are no more dangerous than Chicago.
Their government encourages their people to break our laws and use dollars from those illegal activities as a major source of revenue. Why any Americans would reward that behavior with tourist dollars is beyond me.
We love Mexico and the Mexican people are, for the most part, lovely and good people. We have decided that we will not be traveling there until they get a handle on the drug cartel problem. Sadly, we do not think this is something that is going to happen in the near future (within five years). We must all pray for Mexico; if she becomes a narco state, we are going to have big problems - particularly California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.