Cancun QR: The Balance Between Tourism and Insecurity

Translated by Yaqui for Borderland Beat from: UnionCancún

                                    Cancun, one of the most insecure cities in the country
                         Nine out of 10 people over 18 feel insecure in the tourist destination

Cancun, the reference city of national and international tourism, as well as the most important city of Quintana Roo , is one of the most insecure cities in the country of Mexico.

In the first 10 months of 2018 there have been 512 known murders and 9 armed bank robberies. Authories expect that number to excede 600 by the end of this year. 

Although at least 39 leaders of 6 different criminal organizations have been arrested in the last 2 years, the extorsion, kidknappings, homicides and drug dealing continue. These have been members associated with CJNG, Los Zetas, Los Pelones, Golfo and Sinaloa Cartels.

3,000 more Military elements have been sent to the region to safeguard 11 municipalities of Quintana Roo. Whats more: The state of Quintana Roo reports a rating of 0.36 on the State of Law Index in Mexico 2018: Perspectives and experiences in the 32 states, which places it in 27th place nationally, and below the national average of 0.39.

According to the results of the twenty-first survey of the National Survey of Urban Public Safety (ENSU) , conducted by INEGI during the first half of September 2018, 92.8 percent of people aged 18 and over consider living in Cancun insecure .

And what is worse, the percentage went from 81.2 in September 2017 to 92.8 in September 2018, and not only that, only 9.0 percent of citizens perceive that the government is effective in resolving this problem in the state.

With these results, the tourist destination was placed in the group of cities with the highest percentage of people who feel insecure, the other cities are: Ecatepec de Morelos, Villahermosa, Reynosa, Fresnillo and Tapachula, with 96.3, 94.5, 94.3, 90.8 and 90.4%, respectively.

The numbers in general indicate that nine out of 10 people in those entities feel insecure. The national average of perception of insecurity is 74.9%.

This percentage represents a significant change compared to June 2018 and compared to September 2017. The perception of insecurity continued to be higher in the case of women with 79.7%, while for men it was 69.2%.

The cities with the lowest perception of insecurity were: San Pedro Garza García, San Nicolás de los Garza, Mérida, Saltillo, Durango and Puerto Vallarta, with 21.6, 34.2, 38.1, 39.1, 40 and 41.4%, respectively.

Currently, the Survey generates information on various aspects of public safety:

Feeling of insecurity due to fear of crime; social expectation about the crime trend; witnessing of criminal behavior; changes in routines or habits for fear of being a victim of crime; perception of the performance of the Municipal, State, Federal Preventive Police, the National Gendarmerie, the Army and the Navy; feeling of insecurity in specific physical places; social conflicts in the environment; perception of government performance to solve problems; as well as on the main sources that the population uses to learn about the phenomenon of public security in their locality.