# Should I be worried



## phil&sue (Jan 5, 2009)

Please take a look at this site comments welcome. 

U.S. Agencies Predict Mexican Government Could Collapse - News Story - KFOX El Paso


We are ready to purchase property, my cousin called and told me to look at this news report


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## goingglobal (Jan 26, 2009)

The US ''Agencies'' did not predict the current mess that America and the world in general is in. So, why listen to them concerning Mexico. Maybe, if they get a grasp on their own affairs, they would be in a position to comment. But not now.


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## HolyMole (Jan 3, 2009)

*Concern for Mexico's stability is not unreasonable*



goingglobal said:


> The US ''Agencies'' did not predict the current mess that America and the world in general is in. So, why listen to them concerning Mexico. Maybe, if they get a grasp on their own affairs, they would be in a position to comment. But not now.


If I was currently contemplating purchasing a home in Mexico, or pulling up stakes to relocate there permanently, I would take very little consolation that some of the US Agencies now expressing fears of widespread instability in Mexico may have missed predicting the world's current economic problems. 

Expats and ****** tourists who continue to say that everything is fine in Mexico are whistling past the graveyard. It used to be that corruption in Mexico was simple.....bent politicians interested in the usual land grabs, fixing elections, controlling the local "labour unions", feathering their own nests, etc. Now, the corruption involves the drug lords buying people in the very highest levels of government, the legal system and the armed forces. If that isn't cause for concern, I don't know what is.


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## goingglobal (Jan 26, 2009)

HolyMole said:


> If I was currently contemplating purchasing a home in Mexico, or pulling up stakes to relocate there permanently, I would take very little consolation that some of the US Agencies now expressing fears of widespread instability in Mexico may have missed predicting the world's current economic problems.
> 
> Expats and ****** tourists who continue to say that everything is fine in Mexico are whistling past the graveyard. It used to be that corruption in Mexico was simple.....bent politicians interested in the usual land grabs, fixing elections, controlling the local "labour unions", feathering their own nests, etc. Now, the corruption involves the drug lords buying people in the very highest levels of government, the legal system and the armed forces. If that isn't cause for concern, I don't know what is.


Everything is peachy where I am. You've simply got to pick your spots. Generalizing will 'generally' get you nowhere, fast.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

At the risk of sounding too political, one cannot deny the fact that the USA is in financial collapse and has triggered a world wide financial catastrophe. Frankly, I'm glad I'm here where the climate won't kill us, edibles grow all year and folks look after one another. We just spent the day with visiting friends who desperately want to sell their home in Oregon but there are no takers. They lived here several years ago, sold and now regret doing so. They feel trapped in the USA and are lusting after another home in Mexico. They are not alone. CNN just announced a study that indicates some 50% of Americans would like to live somewhere else; not necessarily another country, but just not where they are now.........a sign of discontent, if there ever was one. Yes, we are noticing fewer American tourists this winter, a lot fewer, because of the insecurity in the USA. This will probably be a long and bumpy ride.


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## synthia (Apr 18, 2007)

There is no real way to tell how this will all play out. It's a much more serious decision for those who have just enough money to move here and live, but do not have the resources for a return to the US or even a move to another country.


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## HolyMole (Jan 3, 2009)

*It's Not the Financial Crisis that's the Concern*

With all due respect, the article referred to in the original post isn't about concerns as to how Mexico will survive the current financial mess.....it's about concerns that escalating crime and corruption may lead to social and political chaos.....a widespread breakdown of law and order. 
Expats whose income is in US or Canadian dollars will be fine ...... as long as the lid doesn't blow. Just don't convert a lot of dollars to pesos.
I have no doubt that it is "peachy" in most parts of Mexico. In fact, my wife and I are still considering moving down permanently......to rent on a long-term basis or to buy. But someone who does so without some appreciation for, and understanding of the risks....and those risks are, to my mind, increasing rather than decreasing....would have only themselves to blame if things don't remain stable. 
Things may not stay peachy for long, however, if the breakdown of law and order being experienced in many of Mexico's largest cities, especially those close to the US border, spreads.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

Do not buy anything in Mexico you cannot afford to lose and you will be ok.

We own two houses in Mexico. One on Lake Chapala where we are surrounded by expat foreign retirees seeking an amenable climate and reasonable cost of living which they have found only to have become irritable by-and-large at having succeeded in that quest and having found themselves wanting for serious issues about which to disagree so disagreeing instead upon the minutiae of everyday life and one in the old colonial center of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas surrounded by deep alpine forests and the villages of touchy indigenous folks from whom the Spanish stole the Jovel Valley and close to the border with Guatemala - a wild and porous border characterized by mountainous terrain and often deep jungle ideally suited to smuggling of narcotics and humans, land disputes and civil unrest leading to widespread violence and to say nothing of the fact that it is home to the EZLN or Zapatistas who often seem disgruntled to say the least.

What; We Worry?


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## synthia (Apr 18, 2007)

You know, people complain about the minutia of their lives everywhere. They don't like the local government, they think the clerks in the stores are rude, they are sick of cell phones going off and junk mail and being put on hold and those long, long menus you go through only to be told there is a two hour wait to speak to customer service. While there are people who move places and then complain about the very things they liked about it, some of the complaints are just normal parts of life everywhere. Just because you are an expat doesn't mean you have to approve of everything. In fact, it might be taken as a form of adjustment, of getting past that honeymoon period where everything is wonderful.


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## trefall123 (Dec 18, 2008)

Well sorry to burst everyone's bubble but for the last 30+ years, the Mexican govt has been teetering on collapse. Since the revolution there hasn't been a stable govt that wasn't propped up by some other country. As far as corruption? This is news? It's the national sport of Mexico! I don't vacation in Mexico, I live here, day in and day out. 
Thinking about moving down here? Don't move thinking you're going to live in beach paradise, waited on by naked servants unless you've got the money the hire your own private army for security. [Sidenote: There isn't anyone in the country working in security who I would trust to protect my dog ]
Now, with all that BS said, about the agencies and projected collapse...If you have half a brain you could see the economic problems of the US coming a year ago. You can have an artificial real estate market propped up by over-inflated prices and banks writing severely questionable loans and said properties and expect there not to be fallout. 
Ok, so? Moving to Mexico was the best decision I ever made. I live in Michoacan one of the more corrupt of Mexican states. The cost of living isn't that much lower than in Calif or Nev where I lived before. I make WAY less $$. I'm FAR happier and MUCH more relaxed here than I ever was in the US. 
If you speak English, understand basic English grammar and don't mind teaching the news from DF is that most companies and govt agencies here are going to require their employees to learn English. So, there should be work for a while if you've got the inclination. 
[Sidenote: Corruption always finds a breaking point however. The cartels in a local city have been out of control for a while. So, about 3 months ago the wives and mothers of their victims hired some mercenaries to come in a start killing cartel bosses. Apparently it's been pretty peaceful since then. It happens about every 5 years but the people still have control when they want to exercise it. ]


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## synthia (Apr 18, 2007)

Well, I doubt I have thirty more years to live, so if the government can teeter just a little longer...


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## slsadventurer (Oct 12, 2008)

If you are really worried, don't buy in Mexico. Stay home and be happy in the cities where there are daily murders and corruption in the govt. There has been corruption forever in Mexico and we all know it. The Mexcians know it and we are all still here. As some posters have said, "pick your place."
Most states are beautiful but some have little water. I am more worried about having no water, as happened in San Luis Potosi when I was there, than the drugs guys coming after me. 
I'm a single woman living here with Mexican friends and neighbours who said to me when I got here, "If you have any problems, call me I am your neighbour and I will help you." This doesn't happen north of the border very often, does it?


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Slsadventurer makes a very good point about living comfortably in Mexico. I think the big difference that many don't see is that violent crime in the USA may be entirely random; road rage, opportunistic violent robbery or burglary, gang initiation murders, etc.
In Mexico, there is very, very little of that. If a person is the victim of violence in Mexico, it is usually because that person was involved in drugs, politics or a love triangle, etc.
We do not go about 'worried' that something will happen to us and we certainly don't walk down the street looking over our shoulders. It is a very comfortable place to live and the Mexican people are generous, helpful, honest and polite to a fault. Sure, there are a few bad apples, but they aren't dangerous in most cases. If you encounter a local gang-banger wannabe, just tell him you know his mother and he'll turn into a pussycat. Most just watch too much TV. One local expat lady, just recently naturalized as a Mexican citizen, is now working with a local gang and has managed to turn them into a paint crew. Yes, they are covering up their own graffiti and having a ball being recognized for being helpful and having a 'purpose' in life.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

slsadventurer said:


> Don't buy in Mexico go home and be happy in the cities where there are daily murders and corruption in the govt. I'm a single woman living here with Mexican friends and neighbours who said to me when I got here if you have any problems call me I am your neighbour and I will help you. This doesn't happen north of the border very often does it?


sls:

I was struck Your comment about neighbors helping neighbors in your community. In our barrio in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, the neighbors are constantly on the alert for any street crime or property crimes against homeowners and renters and they instantly come to each other´s aid at the least provocation. This is a common practice down here and I have never seen anything like it on Lake Chapala where we also live. 

I´m with you on crime in the U.S. I grew up in Mobile, a violent southern city in the U.S. and then lived in L.A., Oakland and San Francisco - all cities with serious crime rates. I was a corporate business development manager for Barclays Bank of California in Downtown Oakland for some eight years and, during those years is the only time I have been spreadeagle on the floor of a bank with a sawed off shotgun aimed at the back of my head. The Oakland cops, a rough and racist group in their own right, only laughed when they finally showed up - informing me that they knew the holdup guys who were part of a family of bank robbers who work the East Bay out of Oakland and Berkeley. On more than one occasion my life was threatened as I walked from my bank to the BART trains a few blocks away, My boss wouldn´t even come to Oakland to visit me unless he had no choice. I have seen hardened Manhattanites scared out of their wits in San Francisco´s dangerous Tenderloin District when taking a wrong turn on foot. I* never* feel threatened like that in the big cities down here, although caution is advisable in Mexico City and certain rough neighborhoods in Guadalajara. We travel to areas of Chiapas adjacent to the border with Guatemala in the Lacandon Forest and through back country jungles and feel no more at risk than we did traveling the back country roads of lawless coastal Northern California where pot growers shoot first and ask questions later.

In this poorest state in Mexico, I have to worry about these problems as reported in the local Chiapas daily rag_ Cuarto¨Poder_ yesterday:

Of the 143 tortillerías making and selling tortillas to the public in Comitán. a pleasant and attractive city of about 150,000 people in the Chiapas highlands, only three meet the hygeine standards promulgated by the Secretary of Health for the manufacture of foodstuffs free of contaminants and for sale to the public.

They have shut down another unlicensed butchery in Tuxtla Gutierrez processing and selling unregulated and perhaps diseased beef and pork which may be unfit for human consumption. (This is a common problem down here). 

Educational efforts are underway to stop the sale and exploitation of infants and children in the state of Chiapas whre this practice is practically an epidemic. The sale and exploitation of infants and children is the third largest illegal business activity in Latin America after trafficking in narcotics and firearms.

And this was an uneventful day in the news. 

There is no question that Mexico has serious crime problems but just a reminder. Tortillas in Comitán are apparently no more dangerous to one's health than peanut butter from Georgia and most agree that if it weren't for the demand for narcotics in the U.S. and illicit supplying of arms by black market dealers in the U.S. to narcotics traffickers in Mexico, countless Mexicans caught up in the periphery of the narcotics trade and slaughtered as a result might be alive today. 

If Mexico does indeed come apart (a far fetched notion but possible, I suppose), we can all thank our miscreant big sister to the north at least in part.


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