Tuesday, February 13, 2007

No Travel Warning For Mexico

Foreign Affairs still has not posted a travel warning for Mexico.

Despite a new poll that shows Canadians want a travel warning issued. Especially those in Ontario where all of the Canadian tourists killed in Mexico have come from.

The Canadian government issues travel advisories, which are warnings used to alert travelling Canadians to stay clear of certain countries and areas when their personal safety cannot be guaranteed. Do you think the government should issue a travel advisory for Mexico?


All

Ont.

Yes

40%

51%

No

36%

33%


The Conservative government yesterday brushed aside opposition calls for an emergency debate on the escalating violence in Mexico.

"I don't think that it's necessary to have an emergency debate on this because millions of Canadians have travelled to Mexico without incident," Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Helena Guergis told the Toronto Star yesterday.

Yeah and millions of Canadians have traveled to Israel and Lebanon and live there but they are on the travel warning list. The difference is the Middle East is a war zone, while Mexico just suffers from drug wars and graft ridden police and justice bureaucracy.


As Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay arrived Wednesday in Mexico for high-level meetings on the deaths and mishaps that have befallen Canadian tourists there in the last year, Amnesty International released a scathing report on Mexico's justice system.

The report raises questions about the level of trust Canadians should have in the assurances they have received from Mexican authorities that they can investigate these cases, said Amnesty and Liberal opposition critic's. The human rights group and Grit MPs also argued the report should give MacKay ammunition to push Mexican authorities to allow greater intervention from Canada.

The report documents serious flaws in Mexico's judicial system, such as: arbitrary detention, torture, the flouting of the presumption of innocence, fabrication of evidence and the targeting of human rights defenders.

And what did Pete do? Ignore the Amnesty Report and blithely accept assurances from corrupt incompetent officials

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday he was assured by Mexican officials they will follow investigations into a string of violence involving Canadian tourists.
Meanwhile I wonder how he missed this; which is worthy of a Travel Warning

Acapulco's rising drug violence imperils Mexican tourist industry


See

Crime

Mexico

Peter MacKay


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