Opinion and news stories cautioning about Mexican travel were justified

“Should Canadians write off Mexico as a travel destination?”

This provocative headline, which certainly grabbed my attention, ran atop an opinion piece, that along with some news accounts about recent unrest in the Mexico seriously distressed some Star readers.

The Jan. 15 opinion piece was penned for the Star by freelancer Andrea Mandel-Campbell, the founder of karibu adventures, a sustainable adventure travel start-up.

She said that while Mexico is a big and diverse country that shouldn’t be written off as a travel destination, she “studiously avoids” certain parts, including Sinaloa, that has been a “redoubt of the Sinaloa cartel for decades.”

She was referring to the spate of violence earlier this month in several cities in the state of Sinaloa, after the arrest of an accused high profile drug trafficker, the son of a former cartel leader.

In addition, the Star carried wire accounts about the unrest, including descriptions from Canadian tourists in one of the cities, Mazatlán, where some visitors told a relative in Edmonton, Alta. that they were “barricaded” in their hotel for their safety and buses burned outside their hotel.

Bullets flew, there was street fighting, airports in the region were closed and the mayhem prompted Ottawa to warn Canadian tourists to shelter in place and avoid large gatherings.

Mandel-Campbell, who has written for the Financial Times in Mexico City for several years and who took her family on a recent holiday trip to Chiapas, a remote part of the country, wrote in her opinion piece that it’s “incumbent upon all of us” to do due diligence before heading to Mexico — or anywhere for that matter. The advance prep includes checking travel advisories and speaking with people you know and trust who have already been to the destination, she added.

Sounds sensible to me.

But some Star readers saw otherwise, according to several strongly worded letters sent to my office this week.

“We are tired of listening to the false news being published in Canadian news! We are Canadians spending the winter in beautiful Mazatlán!” one reader thundered in response to the opinion piece.

“You published blatant lies from a family that was “barricaded in (a) hotel, sleeping in the lobby with three buses burning outside the hotel! That was all lies!”

“We were never in any danger! Everyone was asked to stay home as a precaution, but nothing happened in the city and by publishing that … (writer’s) fake news you have promoted fear for visiting Mzt (Mazatlán)! Blatant lies and you all encouraged it without bothering to check the facts! We don’t believe most of the news and this is a perfect example of why,” the reader went on to say.

Another reader called the opinion column “a harmful opinion about the Sinaloa area in Mexico. We just came back from Mazatlán. Mazatlán is extremely safe … People are living their normal lives.”

“As an expat and now temporary resident of Mazatlán, it irks me to read such inflated misinformation,” railed another, who went on to add that no shots or cartel activity happened in Mazatlán.

“Sadly, the Canadian newspapers, like yours, are only giving a one-sided insight into Mazatlán,” the reader went on to say.

For its foreign coverage the Star relies on news from wire services, including AP and CP, the latter providing the story about the Canadians barricaded in the hotel and the burning buses out front.

Andrea Baillie, editor-in-chief for Canadian Press, told me CP received reports from highly reputable international news agencies, including partner the Associated Press (AP), that airports were being closed, planes were being shot at and vehicles were being set ablaze.

“These stories coincided with a tip from an Alberta woman trying to get her family home. Her information prompted us to reach out to other Canadians in the area. Mazatlán is a sprawling city and it was clear the experience was highly variable, as some said they weren’t affected. We included those reports as we continued to tell the story,” Baillie said.

I reached out to an expert to get some insights into the op-ed and our news stories and I asked whether we presented recent events in Mexico fairly and accurately.

Alejandro Zamora, an associate professor at York University, who teaches Latin American culture, literature and cinema, knows Mexico very well. Born in Mexico City, the capital, he travels to the country about three times a year for field research as well as visits to family and friends.

He has no doubts about the accuracy of our coverage — nor do I, for that matter.

He visits or has visited numerous spots across the country for years including, Yucatan and Oaxaca, Nuevo Leon, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Tijuana (where he plans to take his young daughter soon) and Morelia, the capital of Michoacán. His mother lives in Morelia, an area he calls “safe and normal.”

He loves Mexico but says overall, it is a country with dangerous places, as well as places that are great to visit. When visiting rougher areas, common sense and precautions should be taken, the same as in other unfamiliar parts of the world a person may visit.

(I’ve been to Mexico, Cozumel, and had a wonderful time).

The drug cartels and violence they have sown in some parts of the country is a “disaster” and a tragedy for Mexico’s social, political and economic fabric and it’s important to have that perspective, Zamora said.

North America carries some of that responsibility as well, he adds, arguing many of the markets for the illegal drugs and trafficking, stream north of the Mexican border.

So, while the violence in Sinaloa isn’t an everyday reality, it’s important to show and report on it, Zamora said, adding the media must “craft responsible and informed articles.”

Reviewing our stories on the recent unrest in Mexico, I would say we accomplished that.

SHARE: