Daniel Woolfolk

By Daniel Woolfolk

Victor Lopez, a Pima Community College business major, does not plan on traveling to Mexico for spring break.

“A lot of it has to do with the news,” said the 21-year-old, taking a break from playing video games at the Desert Vista Campus student government office.

The U.S. State Department renewed a travel alert Feb. 20, warning Americans about an increase in violence along the Mexican border. It mentions Nogales as a city experiencing drug-cartel violence, including “public shootouts during daylight hours in shopping centers and other public venues.”

Unlike earlier versions, the latest advisory does not mention Highway 15, which begins in Nogales, Sonora, just south of Interstate 19. The highway leads to Hermosillo, passes Culiacan and ends in Mexico City.

Sonora has increased highway patrol vigilance and expanded its tourism police force, according to Epifanio Salido Pavlovich, director of the Sonora Tourism Office.

Lopez used to travel Highway 15 about 60 miles to Magdalena, Sonora, to visit relatives.

While returning from his last trip, Lopez was pulled over by armed military officers in an all-terrain vehicle. The officers warned him about dangers in the region. Lopez has not been to Mexico since but said the violence is not the only reason.

“There hasn’t been a necessity to go,” he said, adding that he would consider going to Rocky Point because he hasn’t heard anything bad about that popular coastal tourist destination.

Nobody else in the Desert Vista student government room had plans for traveling to Mexico for spring break.

“I’m white. I don’t go into Mexico,” said Brittnee Clapper, eliciting groans and gasps from the half-dozen other students in the room, some white, some Hispanic and one black.

The 18-year-old sports broadcasting major and student government member explained her answer. Her father, a civilian working for the Army Criminal Investigation Division in Fort Huachuca, doesn’t want her to go.

“He said I shouldn’t go, because it’s bad,” Clapper said.

The native of Washington D.C. moved to Tucson in the fall and has never been to Mexico but said she would like to visit Cancun.

“I would fly there,” she said. “I would not drive.”

Clapper is not the only area resident who has been warned against going into Mexico.

In an online message, University of Arizona Dean of Students Carol Thompson “strongly advises” UA students to avoid travel to Mexico during spring break. Fort Huachuca has restricted troop travel to Mexico, and warned military families and civilians employees.

Despite the warnings, Pete Ashcraft, 40, a captain with the Nogales, Ariz., fire department, travels to northern and coastal Sonora regularly in older-model vehicles. Many of his trips are to visit relatives.

Ashcraft, who has blond hair and blue eyes, was born to a Mexican mother of Irish origin. His father is an American from Salt Lake City. He said he doesn’t feel threatened in Mexico.

“I just know where to go and where not to go,” he said. For example, he avoids a neighborhood called Buenos Aires in the eastern hills of Nogales, Sonora, because it is notorious for gangs.

While driving across the border in rural hills just south of Sasabe, Ariz., Ashcraft did see an unusual scene. A man was slumped over a steering wheel, apparently dead. Another man standing by the car, dressed in civilian clothes, waved Ashcraft along. He neither stopped nor reported the incident.

This spring break, Ashcraft’s 20-year-old daughter plans to visit Rocky Point with many of her friends.

His advice to her: “Watch what you drink and who you accept drinks from.”

Ashcraft also had advice for anyone visiting Mexico.

“Just use common sense, like you would anywhere else,” he said. “There are parts of Tucson that I’m just as leery going into as parts of Mexico.”

If you decide to visit Mexico, follow this tips compiled from interviews and personal experience:

• Bring documents required for crossing the border back into the United States. If you don’t have a passport, you can use your driver’s license and a copy of your birth certificate but both documents must be together. There are other options listed on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Web site, cbp.gov.
• Do not take guns or ammunition into Mexico. They are illegal in Mexico. Both U.S. and Mexican authorities are cracking down heavily, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
• Watch what you drink and who you accept drinks from.
• Don’t get into a stranger’s car. Refuse politely and firmly.
• Stay with your group and stay in tourist areas, which usually have special tourist police.
• Take a reliable car but avoid flashy vehicles, especially SUVs and pickup trucks.
• If someone is overly nice and pushing you to do something you don’t feel comfortable doing, politely and firmly refuse any offers. They will usually move along.