Visit Mexico! (Image via Wikimedia Commons)
You would think from media reports that traveling to Mexico is a good way to get decapitated. But technically, that’s only true if you’re a law enforcement official in a border state. The AP points out that in fact, the murder rate in Mexico has been falling since 1997, when it reached a high of 17 murders per 100,000 people.
The murder rate in Mexico today is 14 per 100,000 people, and in Mexico City, it’s only 9 per 100,000 people. That’s comparable to L.A., and significantly better than Washington, D.C., where the murder rate is 30 per 100,000.
I can testify to the relative safeness of Mexico City from personal experience. Last year I spent 10 days there and did not come back dead. Instead, I enjoyed many hours wandering around the Centro Historico, looking at the architecture, and eating everything I could find. I visited nearby pyramids, went to a play, and hung out with friends in several other historic neighborhoods. It was one of the best vacations of my life.
Of course, they occasionally kill someone and sew his face to a soccer ball, but for you as a tourist, this only means your plane ticket will be cheaper because all the other Americans are scared out of their minds.
If Mexico still sounds too risky for you, that’s OK, but you sure as hell better forget about the 2016 Olympics. Last anyone released official statistics, the murder rate in Brazil was 24 per 100,000 people.
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