U.S. State Department has renewed its travel warning for Mexico.
The warning - a step up from travel alerts - urges U.S. citizens to defer unnecessary travel to the northern Mexican states of Michoacán and Tamaulipas and parts of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango and Coahuila.
The state of Sonora is not included.
But the city of Nogales, Sonora, is again mentioned as one of the cities in northern Mexico where large gun battles have taken place and as one of the cities that have experienced daytime public shootouts. This wording has been included in the previous travel warning from March and the travel alerts from 2009.
The number of killings in Mexico's drug wars has spiked to unprecedented levels in Nogales over the past three years as drug cartels battle for the prized corridor and as Mexican law enforcement attempts to weaken them.
There were 130 homicides in 2009, up from 116 in 2008 and 52 in 2007, according to official figures from the Sonoran government. Through this June, there have been 120 homicides.
Due to this situation, the State Department has given family members of officials at the U.S. Consulates in Nogales, Sonora; Tijuana; Ciudad Juarez; Nuevo Laredo; Monterrey; and Matamoros permission to temporarily move to the U.S. This new warning extends the authorization that was first issued in March.
Unlike a mandatory evacuation, families aren't required to leave but are offered monetary assistance to move. The State Department does not divulge how many families have taken the offer.
The new warning also includes a warning about Mexican highways along the U.S.-Mexico border that echoes a "warden message" issued by the U.S. Consulate in Nogales in May. The warning says consulate employees and their families from interior Mexican posts are not allowed to travel by car across the U.S.-Mexico border.
US renews warning on Mexican travel; Sonora not included
The warning - a step up from travel alerts - urges U.S. citizens to defer unnecessary travel to the northern Mexican states of Michoacán and Tamaulipas and parts of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango and Coahuila.
The state of Sonora is not included.
But the city of Nogales, Sonora, is again mentioned as one of the cities in northern Mexico where large gun battles have taken place and as one of the cities that have experienced daytime public shootouts. This wording has been included in the previous travel warning from March and the travel alerts from 2009.
The number of killings in Mexico's drug wars has spiked to unprecedented levels in Nogales over the past three years as drug cartels battle for the prized corridor and as Mexican law enforcement attempts to weaken them.
There were 130 homicides in 2009, up from 116 in 2008 and 52 in 2007, according to official figures from the Sonoran government. Through this June, there have been 120 homicides.
Due to this situation, the State Department has given family members of officials at the U.S. Consulates in Nogales, Sonora; Tijuana; Ciudad Juarez; Nuevo Laredo; Monterrey; and Matamoros permission to temporarily move to the U.S. This new warning extends the authorization that was first issued in March.
Unlike a mandatory evacuation, families aren't required to leave but are offered monetary assistance to move. The State Department does not divulge how many families have taken the offer.
The new warning also includes a warning about Mexican highways along the U.S.-Mexico border that echoes a "warden message" issued by the U.S. Consulate in Nogales in May. The warning says consulate employees and their families from interior Mexican posts are not allowed to travel by car across the U.S.-Mexico border.
US renews warning on Mexican travel; Sonora not included