What gets me is the folks who make such comments feel a total disconnect from the violence even though the violence is the result of the USA's prohibition of substances used by 40 million or so of their consumers as well as the weapons sold by their arms dealers thanks to absurd US gun laws. It all comes back to the USA, but somehow it's Mexico's fault. In almost any part of US territory you are statistically more likely to be a victim of random violence than you are to be a victim of Mexico's narco violence. But yeah, I get it. Perception, not factual information, is everything in today's "modern" society. Thank you corporate mass media! WMD anyone? Is it the Russians again?

My husband and I attended a holiday party this Friday night here in the midwest in the US, and mentioned to some acquaintances that we will be spending a couple of months in Mexico, first in Chihuahua, my home state, and before I could finish my sentence, a lady gasps and says "oh! at least you're not going to Ixtapa, they just found 6 federal officers burnt in a truck!" At the same time I finished my sentence and said "and then we're going to Zihuatanejo for a while". Awkward. we got a bit of a lecture from these strangers for exposing our family and kids to violence and "going to the middle of narco territory".

Though I am saddened to hear about the rise of violence in Zihua, I am confident that if we use our common sense and are a bit more cautious and alert we will be jut fine. As I mentioned above, being from the state of Chihuahua we are no strangers to traveling to places where militares are on every corner to keep an eye on things. I will not let fear intimidate us into not traveling and living adventures together as a family just because something bad "could potentially" happen.