A friend of min is considering retiring to Mexico...

[brooklynite]

Apparently he HOA dues include a payment to the local cartel, so nothing to worry about.

[Mr.Bill]

1. I hear the price to have someone killed there

is up to twenty dollars.

[Foolacious]

2. Please keep the stereotypes coming....

Don't want it to get too crowded down here.

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. I'd stick to fundrasing...

your comedy act sucks.

[brooklynite]

34. Not comedy; that's what she told me.

It’s also much cheaper than living in the US.

[Canoe52]

4. Wondering if this is a bad joke or for reals?

[brooklynite]

35. For real.

[cilla4progress]

5. Thats a racist trope,

really. Not entirely accurate.

[Silent3]

11. Perhaps this comment was in bad taste, but there's nothing racist about recognizing that Mexico...

...is a fairly corrupt country, and pretty dangerous in some areas.

Yes, we've got a lot of problems in the country too, but it's not as corrupt as Mexico. Yet. Republicans want to get us there, and worse, but so far we've blocked the worst of it.

[cilla4progress]

12. Friends have retired there

and are living a lovely, crime- and corruption-free life.

Broad generalization..unfair and untrue.

[Johonny]

13. Me too

[Snooper9]

18. Cancun is really nice

until some guys pull up on jetskis and start firing off machine guns...

[Spazito]

30. Yep, nothing like that happens in the US...

they don't go to the beach, they go to schools and use AK47s instead of machine guns.

[Hortensis]

19. And may it continue. We've always loved Mexico.

But Mexico of now isn't even the Mexico of 5 years ago, much less 25. And what's happening in Mexico is part of the globalization of organized crime that's occurring in many regions and nations around the planet.

As long as fabulously wealthy nations demand drugs -- like #1 U.S. directly north -- there will be supply.

[Silent3]

29. If you have the money to live in a good neighborhood, and if...

...as someone else said, you "go along to get along", yes, you can live a good life there. That's doesn't preclude a lot of corruption behind the scenes, even if people (especially those bringing in a lot of outside money) can manage to steer clear of being hurt by it.

https://www.democracymatrix.com/ranking

The United States is rated a rather sad #36 in the world, but Mexico is ranked all the way down at #90.

[Rafi]

15. I've been living in Mexico for nine years. The corruption here is evident, but it

is more on a local level. In the US the corruption is on a massive scale. The violence here is real, but mostly limited to war between cartels and the Federales. Some innocent people are killed, but there are no random mass killings at schools, churches, movies, concerts etc. here. There are no mass killings based on race or ethnicity as in the US.

LOL. Blocked the corruption in the US? Donald fn Trump was President and could be again. It doesn't get any more corrupt.

[Hortensis]

22. In the U.S. sensible people don't have to be careful

to remain mostly within zones believed to be safe, like specific cities, or expat neighborhoods. I can drive alone, without particular precautions, in any direction across country until I need to rest or arrive at an ocean or border. It's not the same.

Agree there are places that are still lovely will remain safe enough. Just how to know where. And whether people will be able to be happy in a "safe" and nice neighborhood if the surrounding area turns unstable with extremely high rates of organized crime-military violence and collapsing local economies.

I'd move to Mexico. But I'd do it aware that it might not be our last "retirement" move and we'd need to plan for that possibility.

As the number of missing people surges, Mexico’s president seeks a recount

A year ago, Mexico reached a horrifying milestone: 100,000 people were missing, according to an official tally — a stark symbol of the violence that has racked the country since the government declared war on drug traffickers in 2006.

Now, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says the actual number is much lower than officially reported. And he is trying to prove it. ... The effort has prompted a backlash from families of the disappeared and their advocates, who fear that he is trying to lower the numbers artificially before an election year.

On Wednesday, the head of the government commission responsible for the official count abruptly resigned “in light of the current context.” ... in a sign of her alarm, she sent the entire database of missing persons she had overseen to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights “for safekeeping,” ... The registry contains more than 110,000 cases. ... She was a serious and committed person,” said a U.S. official...

But the agenda has largely collapsed in the face of resistance by the powerful military, the ineptitude of the judicial system and politics. International experts investigating the Ayotzinapa case (the 43 students kidnapped, murdered, buried by RW police and organized crime) left Mexico in frustration in July, protesting what they said was obstruction by the military.

The standard pattern of staying safe in countries where crossing the authorities, official and criminal, is...unsafe is collusion. Going along to get along. And in those nations virtually everyone does.

And denial, because, yes, for those who don't live in one of the areas devastated by violence as proliferating numbers of organized crime groups war over Mexico's territory, there's still much to be happy about and hug close. May it continue for you until Mexico finally gets past this. Someday.

[Rafi]

36. The number of carjackings in the US has spiked since covid at am alarming rate.

Armed robberies were about 40,000 last year.

Your point about being safe in safe spaces is almost comical. There is no safe zone in the US. Mass murderers kill without a pattern or warning for the most part. If you're a minority, especially black, then you are about as likely to be shot by a cop as a criminal.

I've driven to the beach here on numerous occasions without even a hint of trouble. Guess I'm just lucky...same as you, to not be in the wrong place at the wrong time. My wife and I are natives of Atlanta. We would not walk the streets of Atlanta at night on a bet. We do it here several times a week and don't worry about crime, as there are almost no robberies or assaults.

[Hortensis]

37. Very false notions and equivalencies.

Seriously, you don't want it to be here as you claim. At least I sincerely hope you don't wish that on us! Since you believe it, though, I'm assuming if you ever had to flee it would not be this direction.

[Rafi]

38. Don't want to be where? Wish what on you?

No. I won't be returning to the US. I also have lived in Belgium and Germany. Both magnitudes safer than the good ol murica.

[Polly Hennessey]

6. Racist? A place to visit or live, not for me.

The U.S. State Department recently updated Mexico's Travel Advisory 2023 for U.S. Tourists traveling to Mexico due to crime in several Mexican states popular with American tourists. “Violent crime—such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery—is widespread and common in Mexico,” warns the State Department.

[Elessar Zappa]

17. There's a lot of very safe areas though.

Mexico City itself has roughly the same rate of violence as Denver. Guadalajara isn’t bad either. As far as more rural areas, the Yucatan is very safe with a crime rate about equal to South Dakota. The states to avoid are the border states, Sinaloa, Durango, Michoacán, Guerrero, Zacatecas, and Colima plus a few isolated areas elsewhere.

[Patterson]

8. I have three friends in Panama and they love it.

[roamer65]

10. Panama interests me.

I want to go there to see if I like it.

[mnhtnbb]

14. My husband and I had a place under construction in Bocas del Toro

in 2007. Red Frog Beach. It ran into legal problems, union/construction problems, and then financial problems. We decided after Obama was elected--and our house here burned down--that we no longer needed it and were able to sell it. We went through the whole process and had permanent resident visas stamped in our passports. We'd even obtained the pensionado discount cards.

I haven't been back to Panama since 2008, but Red Frog Beach has been developed and become quite a resort destination.

[LeftInTX]

32. Sounds gross and steamy. If you like steamy weather, I guess it's good.

[Blues Heron]

9. How many tons of that cartel Cocaine are bound directly for Brooklyn?

its everywhere in NYC. Every restaurant, every bar, every boardroom.

[Recycle_Guru]

16. I would never move there--it can sound attractive

but aside from complete break down of law being possible, there are a lot of inconveniences to living there despite the cheap cost of living and sometimes beautiful/tropical settings

[LeftInTX]

23. Inconvenience is the key word...building codes are different too

Young people adapt fairly well to different building codes, but retirees are used to life here.

When my son was in grad school, he lived in Brooklyn in a 100 plus year old home with a totally different code than suburbia. Ground floor was storefront/garage. You walked in and there was no entry landing, just a narrow staircase that required a right turn. Ouch. Door swung out instead of in. (Landlord was Hasidic who owned alot of rental property. Property had probably been in his family for quite awhile) Just visiting for the weekend hurt my back. Mexico has alot of similar type construction.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

25. This country just had a coup attempt on its government

One that came scary close to succeeding. It doesn't get much worse than that for a complete breakdown of the law. We have a majority of one of our top political parties determined to destroy our government, even now. Meanwhile, Mexico has been relatively stable since the early 20th century. Sure, the Mexican government is massively corrupt...but do tell us how that doesn't apply to the US government as well.

I'll wait.

The crime rate isn't all that much different from here, either. Yes, the cartels are bad news...but so are gangs here. The same applies to cartels as to gangs: If you leave them alone and stay out of high risk areas, if you mind your manners (never know who's cartel or related to them), then they will more than likely leave you alone, especially if you're a white American. They know how much trouble it would cause them to mess with innocent Americans, so they tend to avoid doing that...unless an American decides to FAFO.

So if you're not a druggie and mind your manners, you're already ahead of the game in avoiding trouble with cartels. Or with US gangs, for that matter.

By the way, care to guess how many mass killings Mexico has had this year, including cartel-related?

Five.

That's right. Five. Total. Not in a day or a week or a month. All year to this point.
Yes, the numbers were high in a couple of incidents, but that's from drug cartel involvement, and, in one case, a migrant center caught on fire during a riot and the government didn't even try to save any of the 40 incarcerated who were locked in cells. Not good, but I decided to point out some of the facts involved.

The main point is this: We've had over 480 mass killings this year, while they've had only five incidents, and not a single one of Mexico's involved randos going nuts. Unlike here.

Oh, and do you know how many schools in Mexico have had mass killings? Two, both in 2020. Maybe we need to ask them how they managed to contain that problem and not have any further incidents. Because the US hasn't figured that out after a quarter century of this nonsense.

So do tell us again how much worse it is in Mexico than here.

[LeftInTX]

31. Different kind of crime and murders. Homicide rate is 4 times higher than the US.

https://www.npr.org/2014/12/22/372579429/mexican-police-helped-cartel-massacre-193-migrants-documents-show

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35539727

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femicides_in_Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez

2021------------------Rate/100,0000-----------Total Murders

Mexico -----------------28.2/100,000-----------35,700

United States -----------6.8/100,100-----------22,941
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

[Rafi]

39. Right. There are no inconveniences in other in the US or elsewhere.

Mexico is a wonderful place to live and I've live in several countries. Of course, some people can't be content anywhere. I've made more friends in the past nine years than I made in twenty in the US.

[Happy Hoosier]

20. I can't imagine wanting to live under that kind of agreement.

How in the world can they justify fundng those monsters?

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

26. You believe this bigoted nonsense?

Come on. Mexico doesn't do much of the HOA thing.

Really.

[Happy Hoosier]

28. WTF do I know?

I know there are ex-Pat communities down there. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there are ex-pat communities with HOAs.

[Sky Jewels]

21. He's looking to escape all the mass shootings in the USA, right?

[LeftInTX]

24. Is this for reals? Do they have HOA's in Mexico?

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

27. Some of the new higher-end gated developments in suburbs

Have them, but even then it's not a common thing.

When my mum was shopping for houses there, she ran into it a couple of times, but it was pretty rare.

[Torchlight]

33. Cartels are almost as funny as burning Christmas trees outside Fox studios.

Standardizing internal weights and measurements can be tricky.