Is driving from Laredo, TX to Monterrey, Mexico safe right now?

I can't find much info on the situation in Nuevo Laredo. I found directions that take you around the main city, but it still seems a little sketchy. As white people, will be subject to carjackings and such as much as the media make it seem?

this'll be fun

pinche gringos

you may end up safe, but your car won't

Traveling in border towns is potentially dangerous for anyone right now b/c of the drug cartel-related violence.

I live in Monterrey.

Be sure not to be on the road at night, all highways leading in and out of the city are swamped with drug traffickers; on-the-road express kidnappings are depressingly common. Worse still if your license plates are from out of town. Same logic applies to military checkpoints, which you'll probably encounter as well: your car will be throroughly inspected. Fake checkpoints have been known to been set up as lures for kidnappings.

Sorry if this sounds farfetched, but it's true and very much happening right now. This city is nowhere near as safe as it used to be.

you gonna die

When I said "be sure not to be on the road at night", I meant the outskirts of town, btw.

Come to think of it, beware inner-city driving as well...we're terrible drivers and troopers are some of the most vilest and most corrupt pieces of shit you'll have the displeasure to deal with.

You definitely don't want to travel between the cities after dark. xp Manuel's your expert, and based on what I've heard from family that way he's 110% correct.

Reatards Unite

god, that sounds horrible.

Adopting this thread for general Mexico drug violence talk. Also because of this story...

A US anti-kidnapping expert who has negotiated the release of dozens of hostages in Latin America has been abducted by gunmen in Mexico.

Felix Batista, a Cuban-American from Miami, was kidnapped as he stepped outside a restaurant to answer a phone call in the northern city of Saltillo.

Drug gangs are blamed for hundreds of kidnappings in Mexico each year.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence between rival cartels this year.

Mr Batista is credited with negotiating the release of many kidnap victims.

He was in Saltillo, in Coahuila state, to offer advice on how to deal with kidnaps for ransom when he himself was seized last Wednesday, local authorities revealed on Monday.

Charlie LeBlanc, president of Houston-based security firm ASI Global LLC, where Mr Batista is a consultant, said: "We have notified the FBI and Mexican authorities, and they are working on the case.

"We are offering our support to the family and hoping for the best."

He declined to say whether the kidnappers had demanded a ransom.

The US embassy in Mexico City said it was investigating and would not comment further.

Hundreds of people are kidnapped in Mexico every year.

The number of victims has increased sharply following an army-backed crackdown on drug gangs, which has forced cartels to seek new ways of making money to fund their operations.

The "Mexico Under Siege" series in the LA Times is worth the time reading: http://projects.latimes.com/siege/

I still can't get my head around: "More than 5,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence between rival cartels this year."

Yeah a friend of mine works with this guy and they're all kinds of shaken up at seeing one of their own picked off like that.

Mexico sending 5,000 troops to besieged border city

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico is sending up to 5,000 new troops and federal police to the country's most violent city, where law and order is on the brink of collapse in a brutal war between drug gangs aided by corrupt police.

The army said on Thursday the new deployment could take the number of soldiers and federal police to over 7,000 in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. This month drug hitmen killed 250 people in Juarez, where a meeting of cabinet members on Wednesday was rattled by bomb scares.

"In yesterday's meeting (government officials) talked about sending 5,000 troops and police to Ciudad Juarez," said army spokesman Enrique Torres. "They are expected to arrive in the next few weeks."

And also today...

Hundreds arrested in U.S. probe of Mexican drug cartel

February 26, 2009

Reporting from Washington — The Justice Department announced Wednesday that authorities had arrested more than 730 people across the country in a 21-month investigation targeting Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel and its infiltration into U.S. cities.

The arrests, including 50 on Wednesday in California, Minnesota, Maryland and the nation's capital, come amid growing concern in Washington that Mexican crime organizations are out of control and threaten the stability of parts of Mexico and the safety of U.S. citizens.

The Homeland Security Department has developed a plan to send more agents and other resources, and possibly military support, to the U.S.-Mexico border if the drug violence continues to spill over and overwhelm the agents stationed there, a department official confirmed.

The Pentagon is looking into a larger role in bolstering counter-narcotics efforts. Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, told Congress on Wednesday that the corruptive influence and increasing violence of the cartels had undermined the Mexican government's ability to govern parts of its country.

A recent State Department travel advisory warned U.S. citizens about the perils of travel in Mexico, likening the shootouts between authorities and the cartels to "small-unit combat." The U.S. National Drug Intelligence Center believes that Mexican cartels maintain drug distribution networks or supply drugs to distributors in as many as 195 U.S. cities.

And on Wednesday, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the recent surge in drug-related violence on the Southwest border "has turned some American communities and neighborhoods into the Wild West."

Mexican Military Finds 72 Bodies At Ranch

Mexican marines uncovered 72 bodies in what they say could be the largest mass grave ever discovered in the country's deadly drug war.

The marines were manning a roadblock in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas on Tuesday when a man who'd been shot asked for medical help. They said the man told them about a nearby ranch that served as a base for one of the drug gangs. As the marines attempted to investigate, a firefight broke out. One soldier and three alleged cartel gunmen were killed.

After the gunfight, the marines found the bodies of 58 men and 14 women at the remote ranch about 90 miles south of the Texas border.

Navy Vice Adm. Jose Luis Vergara said the wounded survivor reported that gunmen who identified themselves as Zetas kidnapped him and other migrants and took them to the ranch in San Fernando. Vergara said Wednesday that investigators believe the migrants were from Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador and Honduras.

The bodies were taken to a morgue in San Fernando, where officials were taking fingerprints.

The Mexican military did not provide many details but said in a statement, "The federal government categorically condemns the barbarous acts committed by criminal organizations." The military also said it seized 21 assault rifles, almost 7,000 rounds of ammunition, several flak jackets and camouflage uniforms.

Officials say this is the largest mass grave discovered since President Calderon launched his offensive against the cartels nearly four years ago. More than 28,000 people have died in the savage and escalating drug war. In July, authorities found 51 corpses near a trash dump outside the northern city of Monterrey. In May, investigators uncovered 55 bodies in an abandoned mine near the colonial city of Taxco south of Mexico City.

i heard a story about that on the radio this morning. shit is all the way out of control.