Pubdate: Wed, 24 Nov 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: A3
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Daniel Hernandez, Reporting from Mexico City
Note: Hernandez is a news assistant in The Times' Mexico City Bureau. 
Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this report.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Mexico

Mexico Under Siege

MEXICAN EXPATS WARNED ON TRAVEL HOME

Officials There Advise Them to Move in Convoys Because of the Drug Violence.

It is an annual ritual, a pilgrimage that Mexicans living in the 
United States make to visit hometowns and families for the holidays.

But this year, the terrifying drug war violence sweeping parts of 
Mexico is taking its toll.

The Mexican government is warning travelers driving into Mexico for 
the holiday season -- many from Southern California -- to move in 
convoys and only during daylight hours.

These convoys can be "escorted or monitored" if travelers check in 
with federal agents upon crossing the border, the government said. 
The Mexican army is also offering protection.

The recommendation signals an acknowledgement that hold-ups and 
violence on Mexico's roads attributed to drug-trafficking gangs could 
affect the holiday travel crush.

"When our own government says it's not safe to travel in our own 
country, it really makes you feel sad," Luis Garcia, head of one of 
the numerous clubs that Mexicans belong to in the Los Angeles area, 
said in a telephone interview from Lynwood.

Garcia said many of the nearly 2,300 members of his Federacion 
Veracruzana, an association of people originally from the coastal 
state of Veracruz, have decided to cancel their trips this year. The 
topic has been a top concern among Mexican expat clubs, and "people 
are really worried," he said.

Too often, Garcia said, motorists come upon roadblocks where people 
disguised as police demand money or the travelers' possessions. And 
waiting to form convoys can be time-consuming.

Mexicans living in the U.S., legally or illegally, often return to 
their hometowns for extended breaks from late November through early January.

The Interior Ministry made its travel recommendations this week in an 
announcement timed to coincide with the launch of its Compatriot 
Program. The multi-agency effort is designed to ease returning 
Mexicans back into their home regions by reminding them of rules and services.

"Compatriots can call free of charge the number 060, from any phone 
inside Mexican territory, to ask for information, report crimes or 
seek help," the ministry said in its statement.

Cash remittances from the estimated 12 million Mexican-born adults 
living in the United States are Mexico's second-largest source of 
foreign income, after oil exports.

Mexican state governments have predicted that travel home this 
holiday season may be down as much as 50%.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake