Why “no” to Mexico?

A question often asked by folks is that if we ever thought about moving to Mexico, and not Panama. The answer is a straight ‘no’. I do not actually have anything against the Mexicans. My wife worked for many years mostly with Mexican kids in Ventura County Public Health in Oxnard. Both I and my wife had Hispanic friends and coworkers. I like people over there, the culture, the history, the food and maybe almost everything, but the fact is that Mexico has always been ridden with crime and criminal gang elements and it is all of the same even now.

I am not saying that Panama is crime free or drug free. Definitely it isn’t but just at the map of the Caribbean and see how close are Colon and Columbia and you will learn a part of the problem. Along with its population and wealth, violent crime is also increasing in Panama City but defiantly not like Mexico.

I do accept the fact that not every community and village in Mexico is full of crime, but overall the atmosphere isn’t of the kind where I would like to invest and retire. Take the following incident on AP.

Kidnappers in police uniforms established a fake checkpoint and snatched a 14-year old Fernando Marti from a Mexico City street. After his businessman father paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to get his son back, his son and his driver came back dead with their bodies found in car trunks. A few days later, it was detected that a police detective was the main participant in the kidnapping plot.

A twenty six year old university student says that he no longer feels safe anywhere. He said that these people should their eyes out so that they cannot commit more crimes. He feels that prison is no longer an effective solution for them as they make their gangs inside prison and come out even more strong.

The administration of President Felipe Calderon is considering imposing tougher new anti-crime measures such as separate and more secure prisons for kidnappers. Based on the reports of an anti-violence group IKV Pax Christi, Mexico has one of the highest kidnapping rates in the world. This year, kidnapping are up by 9.1 percent with a staggering average of 65 per month, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

And consider the fact that most of the kidnappings go unreported due to the fear of the police. The Citizens Institute for Crime Studies estimates that the actual kidnapping rate is well over 500 per month.