My travel to Los Mochis

There are more pix of my travel to Los Mochis.

They asked me how I felt to travel in an area with so many security problems. Well, I'll tell you that after I show you some pics taken when going out from Culiacan.

This one it's a Jeep-Chrysler dealer, brand news, or course.

Culiacan has several new car-dealer brands that you'd hardly find anywhere else in Latin America. With the risk of forgetting some of them, these are: Ford, Chevy, Fiat, Volvo, VW, Seat, Mitsubishi, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Cadillac-Hummer. I'll show you some pix of those when I have time to take them.

Our USE (Unidad de Servicios Estatales), State Services Unit in spanish. Similar to DMV but with several diferent ID's (Passport, Birth certificates, etc.)

Oxxo, similar to American am-pm or 7-eleven

Pemex, gas station. We only have this brand because it's nationalized.

I'll start with my reply to that comment I received.

I think that the international view of Mexico is a little different than it's own population. I guess every country in the world has the same problem. But Mexico has been labeled as a country with too much violence compared to Pakistan by the US.

I'd be lying if I tell you that all things happening right now aren't true, but in our case there are some specific areas, to some specific individuals which violence is usually directed.

In Culiacan, we've living this way for at least 2 decades, to the point that we're almost used to, not intolerant, or insensible, but just with a sense of where the danger is and how to avoid it most of the time.

Since the beginning, Calderon, our current President, took an offensive against all drug cartels in Mexico. Most known to be in Sinaloa and Tijuana at that time, with some other areas less violent (Cd. Juarez and Michoacan).

Of course the drug dealers wouldn't be standing by as the feds and the army were chasing after them, they moved to other areas and started to plan strategies.

One thing you really have to have in mind when thinking about drug dealers and police and how regular people sees all this, is that we all know what they do, how they do it, when and where, if people knows this, of course police and government too.

So this is not a matter of "finding" them. It's a matter of taking the decision to go and to get them. Our President took the decision, he pressed from the highest rank of the Feds and down to the local police.

Of course, most of police and feds, if not everyone, were involved in some level with drug cartels. Before this, they were doing well serving the cartels, and appearing to serve the citizens. But now, they were pushed to do what they supposed to, to go after any drug dealer they know and put it in jail.

What do you think cartels think about this? Of course! They felt betrayed by their former servants. So they took it against the police, feds or anyone involved with them. How hard was for them to do that? Nothing, they have the guns, the money, and the info.

That's how all those killings started and keep going. Killings from police to drug dealers, and vice-versa, from drug dealers to some businessmen that gave some info to the feds to save their own interests, and vice-versa.

I won't lie telling you that there weren't some innocent people killed in the middle of these settle downs, it hurts that any person is killed anywhere, anytime, doesn't matter if it was a drug-dealer or a passing-by pedestrian, here or in Irak. Most of people killed were involved in some level with those cartels or some other delictive area, whether be a cop, a regular citizen, a congressman, a taco place owner, etc. And as cartels not knowing exactly who betrayed them, are shooting some of their former allies just in case.

What does it have to do with my personal feeling of safety? Everything, just like any person in Culiacan living with this environment all these decades. I'm not involved with any drug dealer, haven't heard of it, and I'm not asking questions to know about them. I'm not a drug buyer, and I'm not laundering money. So, the only way I could be killed by a drug dealer, fed, or the army, is by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that can happen to anyone, anywhere in the world. We can't be living in fear of dying, that won't be "living" in the first place.

So for anyone from anywhere in the world who hesitates on coming to spend some vacations in Mexico, you're safe! Unless you have something to do with drug dealers.

PD: The ones innocent killed directly by drug dealers are press journalists that wonder around and find something they wouldn't supposed to. That gives you a hint about how we use our right of free speech: til death. I honor them for their courage.