Mexican Drug Wars are Driving Away Retirees
Many years ago I studied as an exchange student in Mexico. I was lucky enough to live with a Mexican family and really fell head over heels in love with the country. After returning to the States I made it a point to visit Mexico every chance I had. In fact, I ended up spending about ten summers exploring the country and taking graduate courses in Spanish. My dream was to move to Mexico.
Many retirees also found Mexico the ideal place. Over the years thousands of Americans chose to make their retirement home south of the border. All of that has changed radically.
There is a virtual civil war between rival drug gangs fighting each other for control of the lucrative drug trade and the Mexican government trying to stop it. The wave of violence has spiraled way out of control. In Tijuana, for example, there are shoot outs in broad daylight with many innocent people being caught in the crossfire. Reporters have been killed by the drug cartels for trying to expose the people behind this crime wave. Kidnappings are also perpetrated by these same criminal elements.
This year more Mexicans were killed as a result of these drug wars than all of the U.S. Soldiers in Iraq during the last six years. This makes Mexico more dangerous than Iraq!!!! I know of a Costa Rican couple that was robbed twice I one day by different taxi drivers while visiting Mexico City.
Retirees are not immune from this widespread violence. Who in their right mind would want to live there?
Costa Rica is a much alternative to Mexico and therefore continues to be the most popular retirement haven south of the border. Panama and Nicaragua are making some headway but will never offer the choices nor quality of live that Costa Rica has. There are more Americans living in Costa Rica proportionately than any other country outside of the U.S. They can’t be wrong!









