A Canadian senior was shot with an AK-47 in Mexico last week.
He wasn’t in Ciudad Juarez, or one of the northern border towns known for their brutal violence, where it isn’t uncommon to see mutilated bodies hanging off billboards warning locals they’ll be next if they report drug cartel activity to the Federales.
He was in Mazatlan, a popular vacation destination.
He was in a “safe” area, in broad daylight.
The same day, Canadian couple Rebecca Rutland and Richard Coleman accused Mexican police of arrestingthem, beating Coleman and gang raping Rutland. They were visiting another popular vacation destination, Playa del Carmen.
Mexican police claim the couple attacked each other.
In the last five years, more than 100 Canadians have died in Mexico.
This is apparently because Canadians are loud, aggressive and prone to falling off balconies, leaping in front of moving vehicles and locking themselves in the trunk of their own burning vehicle.
Of those approximately 115 deaths, 15 are considered to be murders or “suspicious.” This, for the most part, doesn’t include the 29 Canadians who have died as a result of “falling” off balconies (to be fair some really did fall).
Perhaps Mexico needs a national balcony registry because it seems guns, crime and cartels aren’t a problem for Canadians in Mexico, rather it’s the crazy, dangerous balconies.
Maybe Mexican police are slightly lacking in their investigative capability. I still have a hard time believing two Canadian soccer moms were once considered plausible suspects when fellow Canadians Domenic and Nancy Ianiero had their throats slit in 2006.
Police departments in Mexico are notoriously corrupt and many are infiltrated by the cartels. Mexican citizens will not call 911 because they know who is coming to respond — drug thugs.
The former police chief of Cancun drove around in a dark SUV pumping out Narcocorrido music — songs celebrating the exploits of drug lords. He was arrested this summer for the torture and murder of a retired Mexican general who had been appointed to a new drug-fighting task force.
The country is quite literally in the middle of a drug war.
Deluding yourself into believing the risk of violence is the same in Mexico as it is here at home is just plain dumb. There aren’t 15,000 murders a year in Canada, people’s heads aren’t dipped in acid, and police chiefs don’t murder generals in Banff.
Mexico is taking the right steps, but it is struggling to hold its ground and the Mexican government will admit to this. At least the government in Mexico City will, in the hopes of drawing more international aid to fight the cartels. The tone is notably different from Mexican officials in Canada, who appear concerned about tourist dollars.
Mexico has experienced a 70% increase in violence over the last year alone, which means things will get worse before they get better.
Do the math — if violence is increasing, so is risk, and unfortunately that includes traditionally safe areas. Especially when cartels like Los Zetas have political control of the area. The Zetas are former Special Forces soldiers who tied up and shot 72 unarmed, innocent migrants in the fall to have more extortion leverage in the future.
Cartels shoot up teenagers’ birthday parties, rehab facilities and supermarkets. They don’t care. Cartels are unlikely to target you, but this past week was an example of an AK-47 bullet, a Canadian and wrong place, wrong time.
The focus should be on why Canada isn’t doing more to help out Mexico in a real sense, not just pouring money into cartel-owned areas. What are we doing to help them reform their justice system or rebuild an honest national police force?
Meanwhile, I’m terribly sorry if pointing out the facts is bad for business, but lives should matter more than dollars — both Mexican and Canadian lives.
— Stephenson will appear regularly on Sun News Network
mercedes.stephenson@sunmedia.ca
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