ALCOHOL BLAMED FOR RAPES

Alcohol blamed for rapes, violence in Cancun, Acapulco

U.S. authorities are warning Americans away from Mexican border areas such as Nuevo Laredo because of drug violence, but the average tourist may face more danger on a Cancun beach, on the Pacific Coast, or in culturally rich Mexico City.

In June alone, two 18-year-old American women were raped in separate incidents in Cancun, in what some activists call an epidemic that is being swept under the rug by U.S. and Mexican authorities.

On the other side of Mexico, two Americans, a 22-year-old man from Houston and a 16-year-old girl from Miami were killed during a highway robbery last fall in Guerrero. The state is home to the Acapulco and Ixtapa resorts.

In the Mexico City airport, criminal gangs target Americans who have exchanged currency or withdrawn money from ATMs, following them into the city in order to rob them, U.S. officials say.

While dozens of Americans have gone missing in areas along the Texas-Mexico border, authorities on both sides say the vast majority were likely involved in the drug trade.

"Cancun is one of the safest places in Mexico and one of the safest places in the world," said Mayor Francisco Alor Quezada. "But it is also not the exception to the fact that bad things happen everywhere."

Parents, he said, should tell their children: "You can't come here to do things that would be illegal in the United States. You should behave here like you do in your own country, especially for your own safety."

The No. 1 problem for Americans, especially young ones, in such places as Cancun, Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta is too much alcohol, U.S. and Mexican authorities say.

Many victims of robbery and rape in beach areas are blind drunk and trying to stumble to a hotel whose name they may not remember. Some locals are waiting for such victims.

Americans under the influence of alcohol often commit crimes themselves, including rape, seeming to forget that not only does Mexico have laws, but that some of them are more severe than in the United States.

With the exception of Mexico City, where crime has risen sharply over the last 10 years, Mexico probably is no more dangerous than in the past, many authorities say. Some say that is true even in border areas, where media interest often fuels a perception that things are worse.

Regarding border areas such as Matamoros, an American consular official said, "We're not putting out a red light, we're putting out a yellow light."

The official defended colleagues in Cancun and elsewhere as attentive to Americans. (Detailed information on Mexico dangers and key U.S. State Department contacts can be found at www.travel.state.gov.)

Apart from Mexico's northern border, the tourist spot that has received the biggest black eye this year has been the most popular: Cancun.

The top Mexican tourist spot saw its local government nearly melt down earlier this year, as the city ran out of funds, allegedly because of corruption, and police went on strike.

Boldo did acknowledge that three rapes over the course of three days in June (the two Americans and a local girl) are unusual and unfortunate. Still, she said, most crimes can be avoided by taking basic precautions: don't drink too much, don't do drugs, don't wander off alone, don't trust new friends.

Lidia Cacho runs a Cancun shelter for victims of sexual violence and also volunteers as a certified Spanish-to-English translator. As a result, many of the rape cases fall into her hands.

So far this year, she has handled 25 cases involving Americans. Many more cases four or five times that number go unreported, she said. Most rape victims are young American women.

Cacho described sexual attacks in Cancun as an epidemic, adding that Mexican and U.S. officials won't accept that the resort is practically designed to facilitate such attacks.

How?

Cacho's partial list: All-you-can-drink alcohol, an obsessive focus on sex, unscrupulous Mexican and U.S. travel agencies that sell drinking packages to youths without the knowledge of their parents, bars and clubs with little interest in the safety of their customers, an indifferent U.S. consulate, easy access to illegal drugs and minimal screening of hotel employees.

Some Americans in Cancun who recently were celebrating high school graduation said the high-profile case of missing Alabama high school student Natalee Holloway in Aruba during a school trip had underscored the dangers they face even in picture-perfect resorts.

"You never go anywhere alone; you should always be on the lookout, you don't go off with locals, you don't go off with anyone alone," said Kaitlin, 18, from St. Louis, Mo., who doesn't give her last name as part of her own safety precautions. "Most kids don't think like that. And that's the problem."