I was going to continue my "Vietnam vs. Mexico" blog going with a part two but when I started to think about safety in Mexico being a part of that entry, I knew already that it would end up being really really long on its own. So I decided to make this it's own thing instead.
If you are not down with reading a long post about safety just let me summarize in a tl;dr. Mexico is alarmingly safe and probably safer than most western countries.
[src](https://www.rivieramayablue.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Murder-rate-comparison-chart.png)At first glance this chart seems pretty damning toward Mexico but one thing that all sites/charts/graphs will admit in a byline of some sort is that a vast majority of these crimes in Mexico are directly tied to cartels and most of the victims are in fact, members of the cartels themselves. It is said that 2/3 of the overall victims of murder are in cartels. Take away those 2/3 and you have a much smaller green bar there.
As far as non-murder-oriented crime is concerned in Mexico is concerned, it is slightly on par or below other nations, including the United States. I can't compare it to Vietnam because you can't really count on Vietnam's government to report the truth about these kind of things. According to the best information I can find about that, Vietnam has a signficantly lower rate of violent crime than almost any country in the world. So it isn't a fair comparison.
There is some level of sensibility that needs to take place as far as property crime is concerned, because Mexico, like a lot of the rest of the world, has a criminal element to it that is all about how open you leave yourself to it. Therefore, almost everywhere has pretty high levels of security as far as possessions and property is concerned.
My parent's own house is a good example. The entire property is surrounded by walls and fences and in order to make it less awful looking they opt for these vine like plants above the gates that are called Bougainvilleas. These plants are flowery and nice looking but they have vicious thorns on them that nobody would want to crawl through and it would likely take more time to get them out of the way than barbed wire would take. My family has barbed wire as well though because the plants have to grow on something.
It is also very rare to see a property that isn't completely closed in by bars on all windows. that isn't just a posh thing, it is literally everyone.
To an outsider this might seem as though these bars would indicate that there is a lot of crime but I think it is precisely because of these bars that there isn't any. My family has been living here for many many years and there has never been an incident of anyone so much as attempting to gain access when they are home or even when they are not.
Cameras are not a bad idea either. Although my parents have said that they have never seen anything on the footage other than their dogs running around.
This is circumstantial information relating to only my own family, I know. But the really juicy information comes from insiders who have been here a while and how it relates to the cartels themselves.
The cartels have a huge interest in Mexico staying safe for visitors and this is rumored to be because of the fact that they have a vested interest, perhaps even ownership, of a great deal of the tourism-oriented facilities. What better way to wash money, right? So the rule on the street is that crime, even petty crime like pickpocketing, is forbidden towards tourists.
Take that as you will because obviously there is no way to prove that unless you can find a high-ranking cartel member to verify it, which they wouldn't.
But here is a little evidence that the cartels are at war with the government of Mexico, not the population of it. They go out of their way to ensure that there are no civilian casualties in the stuff that they do and evidence of this was witnessed by my own family members after there was an assassination of a high ranking cartel member in the state that my family lives in who went by the name "El Mencho"
[src](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRGbGB_lyUoZ7ubX67_fcIzmyaHNowJlIFpyCwkROQIdMUJ-U_fg6GHgrU&s=10)Anyway, after that assassination you may recall hearing things in the news about the cartel getting revenge by burning shops and businesses and even laying siege to the Guadalajara airport. These incidents were done with very minimal violence towards non-government people as the cartel has a certain image of protecting the actual people of Mexico and having no interest in harming them.
[src](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/CHEQYISTWRGJPGXYMYL7F52C5A.jpg?auth=b8a96fc64eb6bbe606656d6af32c0a8ce18c9406719fe87ac8fe369aea13d159&width=1960&height=1103&smart=true)Apparently they targeted corporate shops and businesses as well as banks as a sort of revenge for killing their leader but here is the kicker. When the entered or approached these businesses they came up guns drawn and about as politely as you can imagine, escorted all the civilians off the property. The took great care to make sure that all uninvolved citizens were not directly harmed by these actions.
The Oxxo (which is like 7-11) shops were rebuilt in a month, probably from insurance money, and the banks did the same. There were truck transporting fuel and other goods that they burned, but the cartel ensured that the drivers of these vehicles were not harmed. Some of the drivers reported that they were extremely polite and apologizes profusely for what the cartel members had to do.
The airport being raided (which I mentioned before) never actually happened. There was social media posts taken out of context by the media (imagine that?) about violence taking place nearby and new stations and FB users went wild with that information even though it wasn't true. A part of me thinks that people escaped to the airport knowing that the cartel was not going to target that area.
Also, this violence, which wasn't actually very violent at all, was over in a couple of days.
There are many here that say they prefer the cartels to the police and government as they are more "fair" and are able to relate to the common man because most of the foot soldiers or whatever they are called in those ranks actually are common men themselves.
Basically if you are not involved in the cartel you have very little to worry about if you are in Mexico.
[src](https://www.instagram.com/p/DVMAwmmgCu3/)This fun flow-chart explains a lot of it.
I know that when I am with my family anywhere, there are no places that we are in that we ever feel unsafe. People are generally very respectful and this includes being in what kind of appeared to be a bit of a "rough and tumble" bar that I went to with my Dad to have chicken wings and beer. I suppose it wasn't that terribly rough and tumble because there was a children's playground in the back of it :)
So it is my opinion, and the opinion of all the people I know here including my family members that Mexico is very safe as long as you don't have anything to do with the cartel, and honestly, why would you unless you are looking for trouble.
I go on daily walks with the dogs out in the countryside here and when I see an approaching truck they wave hello. On one occasion we were walking and saw some people picking fruit and on of my family members who are fluent in Spanish fired up a conversation with them that ended with them giving us a mountain of raspberries for free. The people are just kind here as far as I can tell and I really appreciate this.
Just like in Vietnam though, you still need to look after your possessions. I have had 2 bicycles stolen (it was recovered the 2nd time) since living there but this was because I left it unlocked, outdoors, and unattended. That is just a stupid move on my part.
The same is true in Mexico. If you leave something valuable sitting around someone is going to grab it. That's pretty much universal I think.
I have zero fear here in Mexico and neither to my old and quite frail parents. My family has lived here for over a decade in multiple cities and none of them has ever been a victim of crime. In fact, they don't even know anyone who has been a victim of crime. Can you say the same about where you live?
