We spoke to officials, residents, and businesspeople to get the ultimate status update on our favorite travel destination Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, México
Article from Los Cabos Magazine, Issue #27, December 2011. By Ed Kociela
News reports have trumpeted stories about violence associated with the drug trade, noting high murder rates, incidents of innocent people being caught in the cross fire between rival drug gangs, and horror stories of kidnappings and mayhem against foreign visitors.
Los Cabos (and Baja California Sur) officials and residents acknowledge the violence that has occurred in México, but are quick to point out that the criminal activity is centered in the border states of Baja California (our neighbor to the north), Sonora, Chihuahua, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas and not in Baja California Sur or the Los Cabos area.
“We have been judged very unfairly,” Ricardo García, director of Planning and Tourism Development for the Secretary of Tourism, Baja California Sur, says. “Because México has cities like Monterrey or Juárez with a higher crime rate, our worry is they [the United States media] will catalog us as the rest of the country.
We are one of the safest states in the country. In 2010, we had 46 incidents of violent death. None of these were cross fires. If La Paz was a city in California, it would be ranked as one of the five safest cities in the state. It’s all because of a lack of knowledge.
I think some people from the media should come down and see us.”
Roberto Padilla, a deputy at the Los Cabos tourism office, agrees.
“We are blessed to be away from the mainland,” he says. “It was always more of a psychosis of, ‘Oh, there’s violence.’ In fact, we don’t have that criminality.”
Cheri and Jim Castellano have been coming to the area since 2005. They moved to Los Cabos from Portland, Oregon, permanently in February. “I have a best friend who canceled a trip here because she heard there were chopped heads on the beach,” says Cheri, a flight attendant for JetBlue Airways. “The only thing I’ve seen dead on the beach were fish during red tide.”
“I don’t think Los Cabos is being treated fairly in the U.S. media or international media,” her husband, Jim, a semiretired property appraiser, adds.
“They hear ‘problems in México,’ and equate Los Cabos to the mainland. Baja is like an island; we’re pretty well protected. We have the navy protect our shorelines and the Mexican army that patrols the Baja constantly and a police force here in Los Cabos that is trained well.”
Jennifer Caplan is a personal trainer at the One&Only Palmilla. She began visiting the area a dozen years ago before moving here with her family three years ago.
She says her clients often ask her about safety in Los Cabos. “I say the same thing to every one of them: I used to live in downtown Vancouver [British Columbia, Canada] and feel safer here than I did there. Cabo doesn’t seem to have the same problems as a metropolitan city, which is why we like it.”
Her husband, Mason, is a concierge at the Royal Solaris resort. He says there could be an economic tie to the perpetuation of the myths surrounding Los Cabos.
“A lot of the times when they do travel warnings and advisories, it’s around spring break,” he says. “I think it’s Big Brother trying to keep the money in the States.
I don’t think it’s founded on anything real. I actually think you experience more crime in major cities in Canada and the United States.”
García, of the Secretary of Tourism’s office, also pointed at economic factors as, perhaps, a reason for the stories of violence. “Remember, when you talk of baby boomers buying property in other parts of the world, there’s a large chunk of cash going out of the [United States], especially in these times of [economic] crisis.”
Ernesto Luna, manager of the ME Cabo resort, says, while it is important to understand how those who live and work here feel, it is ultimately up to the tourists.
That’s why he is encouraged by a new program to ask tourists how they feel about safety and other concerns. “I was at a hotel association meeting recently. They are going to start taking comments from guests about what they are experiencing,” he says. “It is a great idea.”
He says efforts the last few years to make military and local law enforcement patrols more visible have also helped to diminish many tourists’ fears. “Safety here is much better than in any other destination in México,” he says. “We have all the entrance points to Baja well covered by the government and army, making it more difficult for people to do things without being noticed.”
Periodically the U.S. State Department issues travel advisories for tourists embarking on international travel. Because of the ongoing effort to quell drug trafficking in other Mexican states—particularly those along its northern border—the State Department has urged U.S. citizens to defer “non-essential travel to the states of Tamaulipas and Michoacán, and to parts of the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi and Jalisco,” according to its most recent advisory.
State Department public affairs officer Joe Crook responded to questions about safety in Los Cabos in an e-mail, saying “Both the Travel Warning and Consular Information Sheet really speak for themselves. Baja Sur isn't mentioned as a place to which U.S. citizens should defer non-essential travel.”
