January 2018 State Department Mexico Travel Warning

Recommends that travelers reconsider travel plans to Sonora

The US State Department has issued an advisory that advises Americans with travel plans to visit Sonora, Mexico to reconsider those travel plans due to increased crime in the state of Sonora. While we still think that Sonora is a very safe place to visit (when using proper precautions), the warning has some merit.

The U.S. State Department issued its latest Mexico Travel Advisory on January 10, 2018, in conjunction with a State Department Fact Sheet that announced a new advisory system for international travel.

Both announced updates to how the State Department provides traveler information and advisories. Read more here.

Among the changes is a new four-category system of rating a nation or region within that country with respect to potential safety concerns, ranking areas from “1” (Exercise Normal Precautions) to “4” (Do Not Travel).

The state of Sonora, Mexico, along with other Mexican states along the U.S.-Mexico border, received a designation of “3” (Reconsider Travel), meaning that anyone with plans to visit Sonora should reconsider their travel plans. The rationale for the given designation was with a letter “C,” for crime – “widespread violent or organized crime is present in areas of the country.”

As always, the State Department has provided very general information with no specific sources or examples for the “C” rating assigned to Sonora. It also fell short in connecting the risk of increased crime to its potential connection with or impact on tourists and other visitors.

In fact, the only event in Sonora where they issued an alert in 2017 was for a January protest weekend on the border in Nogales, Sonora.

Here is the text regarding travel in Sonora, from the State Department’s International Travel Country Information Page for Mexico:

Sonora state – Level 3: Reconsider Travel

Reconsider travel due to crime. Sonora is a key location utilized by the international drug trade and human trafficking networks. However, northern Sonora experiences much lower levels of crime than cities closer to Sinaloa and other parts of Mexico. U.S. government employees visiting Puerto Peñasco must use the Lukeville/Sonoyta crossing, and they are required to travel during daylight hours on main roads.

U.S. government employees are prohibited from travel to:

• The triangular region west of Nogales, east of Sonoyta, and north of Altar.
• The eastern edge of the state of Sonora, which borders the state of Chihuahua (all points along that border east of Federal Highway 17, the road between Moctezuma and Sahuaripa, and state Highway 20 between Sahuaripa and the intersection with Federal Highway 16).
• South of Hermosillo, with the exception of the cities of Alamos, San Carlos, Guaymas, and Empalme.

Is Sonora, Mexico Safe?

It is a shame that federal government employees cannot visit some of the marvelous locales in Southern Sonora like Navojoa and the beaches of Huatabampito. However, the State Department is right in erring on the side of caution, not only because Sonora can be a very dangerous place, but because levels of crime, especially in Sonoran cities, have increased over the past few years.

Due to its geographic location and proximity to the United States, Sonora has major smuggling corridors for the transport of drugs and humans across the border.

And in recent years Sonora has seen an increase in street crime, murders and assaults.

Just last year, summertime machete assaults shocked residents of Hermosillo and spread to other cities in Sonora. Retailers in Caborca demanded that the city’s municipal president do something to stop the high levels of robberies and theft, a movement that generated a response from local and state authorities. And residents of other cities also protested increased crime and insecurity.

And no discussion of how safe it is to visit Sonora should neglect mentioning the impact of the “Fast and Furious” debacle orchestrated by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix and others, which resulted in the flow of thousands of automatic and semi-automatic weapons from Arizona into Sonora.

Although the program was ended, it resulted in well-armed criminal elements south of the border, and the flow of illegal weapons continues today.

However, as we and others point out, almost none of the crime and threats of crime affect tourists who stay in tourism areas and follow basic travel safety rules.

Conclusion

From a personal perspective, I have traveled in various parts of Sonora, Mexico for nearly 25 years and have never been assaulted, robbed or the victim of violent crime. On the contrary, I have always found the people of Sonora to be very friendly and helpful to visitors.

In fact, a week after the State Department issued its warnings and advisories I rented a car and took a week-long trip from Southern Sonora to Northern Sonora and the border, which included stops along the coast of the Gulf of California, border cities and the towns in the Rio Sonora region. I met a lot of great people, saw interesting and beautiful places and had an enjoyable time. Read more about my trip.

Ultimately the decision to visit and explore Sonora is yours, and will depend on your judgment and individual travel experience, plans and risk mitigation. If you would feel more comfortable traveling in a guided tour group, you can learn more about that here.

Safe travels.

Changes in State Department’s Traveler Safety Information

On January 10, 2018, the United States Department of State announced changes to its traveler safety and security information, in a fact sheet titled “New Travel Advisories for U.S. Travelers.”

The fact sheet announces that State will discontinue its previous practice of issuing travel warnings and advisories, and will instead rank countries and regions within those countries using a four-tier advisory system.

Advisory Levels

They have assigned an advisory level number to a country or region, ranking the potential risk to travelers from 1 to 4, with level 1 as the lowest risk designation of “Exercise Normal Precautions,” and Level 4 being the highest risk advisory of “Do Not Travel.”

A nation’s traveler advisory level may differ with regions within the country.

For example, Mexico received an overall threat level of 2 (Exercise Increased Caution), and the Mexican states that share a border with the United States (including Sonora) all received a designation of Level 3 (Reconsider Travel). Five Mexican states received the highest Level 4 rating – Do Not Travel.

Additional Rationale – Letter Grades

The travel advisory levels are accompanied by a general letter grade to provide a rationale for the advisory level and “other specific advice to U.S. citizens who choose to travel there.”

The letter grade that the State Department used to justify its Level 3 designation of Sonora is “C,” for crime: Widespread violent or organized crime is present in areas of the country. Local law enforcement may have limited ability to respond to serious crimes.”

Other letter designations used by the State Department in its new advisory system include: T for terrorism; U for civil unrest; H for health; N for natural disaster; E for a time-limited event; and O for other.

The State Department claims that it will review and update travel advisories based on security and safety information.

Decentralized Travel Alerts

In a move toward decentralizing travel-related information, rather than issuing a nationwide travel warning, embassies and consulates will now issue “alerts” to replace the previously used “Emergency Messages” and “Security Messages.”

This makes sense, especially considering last year’s discovery of tainted alcohol that was mainly at “all-inclusive” resorts in the Yucatan Peninsula and perhaps did not warrant the nationwide Mexico warning from State.

Alerts will cover areas such as “demonstrations, crime trends and weather events” (I think by using the term “weather events” they also mean to include natural disasters, like earthquakes and floods).

Summary

State has implemented an advisory-level rating system for foreign countries and regions within those countries, so that travelers can be aware of the potential risk level when planning a visit.

Advisories have not been eliminated, as claimed, they have just been de-centralized from top-level announcements to dissemination by the level of local embassy or consulate advisories.

Read more about specific travel warnings for Sonora, Mexico.

See the State Department Mexico embassy and consulate messages and advisories here.

And read more Mexico travel information here.

To see all of the advisory levels State has assigned, click to visit the U.S. State Department’s Travel Advisories page.