Shortly after I posted my last article No One Here Gets Out Alive, the shocking murders of 3 U.S. and Australian surfers near Ensenada, Baja California occurred and hit the news cycle. I have not posted another article since, partly because I’ve been on “vacation”, and partly because I wanted to comment on these senseless deaths, but I did not want to be a participant in that news cycle. Moreover, I wanted to wait until more information surfaced; I did not want to be part of the breathless conjecture that is the constant companion of such news stories.
The truth is, however, that there really is no more useful information. Probably it was a robbery gone wrong, maybe it was part of a cartel-on-cartel dispute, designed to intentionally visit scrutiny on an area controlled by a rival cartel in order to weaken or disrupt the activities of that cartel. The truth - like many truths behind crimes in Mexico - will almost certainly never be known publicly. The only truth we will likely ever know is simply this: 3 young men from Australia and the U.S. were senselessly murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Does this change my perspective on what I wrote in my previous article? No. Visitors to Mexico do get murdered every year, which I pointed out. Murders are much more predominant in places near the U.S. border. These areas are, inherently, more dangerous than most interior regions of Mexico. It happens, it shouldn’t but it does.
If there are any useful lessons we can take away from this tragedy, perhaps these are among them:
Take security seriously when you are traveling anywhere, including in Mexico. These men were dispersed camping in a remote and secluded area in a part of Mexico where violent crime is more prevalent. I’ve done dispersed camping all over the United States, and I’ve always felt incredibly exposed when doing it. I always had a dog with me, which helped with that feeling of exposure. But the truth is, isolated campers are a very exposed group who - unless they are armed and know how to use those arms - have little to no security barriers between themselves and “bad guys” who might be in the area.
This case highlights yet another distressing truth in Mexico: most people in Mexico who disappear are never even searched for, let alone found (the 3 surfers disappeared, a massive manhunt was organized to find them). These visitors from Australia and the U.S. were found precisely because they are from these high-profile countries. Gringos occupy a place of remarkable privilege in Mexico, even in death. For Mexicans, the most shocking thing about this particular crime is not that it happened, but instead the amount of resources brought to bear in finding these visitors, when disappeared Mexicans often don’t even warrant a shrug from the criminal justice system.
I recently spoke with an influential YouTuber who posts videos about life in Mexico. He asked me if I felt that people who are writing and vlogging about Mexico are sugar-coating issues like crime and safety. And, perhaps some are. But as a population, I think most of us are not. Most of us acknowledge that crime exits in Mexico, and that remaining aware of one’s surroundings and not doing reckless things like staggering around drunk at 2 in the morning (or anytime) are critical in keeping oneself from becoming a victim of crime. But we also acknowledge the statistical truth that - if you are from the U.S. - you are simply less likely to be killed in Mexico than you are to be killed in your home country.
The friends and families of these 3 surfers will find these statistics a cold comfort. For survivors, statistics are pointless - all that matters are the hollow spaces once occupied by those we loved. We, too, should honor those hollow spaces as the outlines of lives once lived; we should not diminish them by turning them into portals to some spurious revelation about the nature of Mexico.
Mike, so very sad, the death of the 3 young men. Your post brings out so many points on the sadness of loss, the why's and wherefores, and the fact that as you say, survivor families care nothing about statistics. The magnitude of locals dead or gone missing in Mexico is enormous. And yet, when foreigners are dead or missing, they call out the troops. Why, indeed? Mass media north of the border may fuel flames, cycling into a tired news trope that Mexico is a dangerous land. And I'm sure tourism stats necessary for MNTC to promote the locales that are 'safe' plays a hand. Most likely your reasoning is on point--closer to the border, more danger; possibly a call-out to competing cartels; or even as you mention, the robbery gone wrong thing. This was a really great and timely post.
Seems like it is easier to be scared about a foreign country or place you don't find familiar than your own backyard. Though our own homeland is less safe, that is a hard concept to grasp with a day to day experience of nothing much happening. The reality of US random gun violence, mostly due to people who are not mentally stable having access to guns, is just becoming mind numbing now. I was shocked in March to hear there were already over 300 incidents in the US this year. They are certainly not reported on. So the combination of how our brains work to assume smaller day to day data points are statistically relevant, and the lack of reporting on US violence (perhaps due to the shear number of incidents) makes the fact of Mexico being safer a hard one to grok.