American Tourists Put Lives in Danger During Mexican Vacations

With its close proximity, low prices and perfect weather, Mexico remains a popular tourist destination for many Americans — despite a surge in the country’s murder rate.

Chicago native Tatiana Mirutenko, 27, was shot dead leaving a Mexico City bar with her husband during a trip to celebrate their delayed honeymoon. She’s just one of the 16,399 homicides recorded in the country in the first seven months of this year, according law enforcement statistics.

Her family had vacationed in the country — in Puerto Vallarta and Oaxaca — since her childhood.

“Already, 2018 promises to be one of the most violent years on record in the country,” writes The New York Post‘s Isabel Vincent. “Homicides shot up 16 percent during the first half of this year — a number that has been rising at an alarming rate over the last two years as splintered groups of drug traffickers and gangs battle for dominance.”

Nowhere is that more evident than Acapulco, a popular tourist destination that is also in the state labeled the murder capital of Mexico, statistically speaking.

“Violent crime is so out of control in Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located, that last year the US State Department warned Americans to stay away,” writes Vincent. “Guerrero and a handful of other Mexican states have the same Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ advisory as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.”