Texas’ top law enforcement agency is warning thousands of college and high school students to avoid going to Mexico during this year’s upcoming Spring Break season.
The warning from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) was part of their yearly tips for spring breakers. The DPS warns students to be aware on the road, avoid driving while fatigued, as well as other precautions, In recent years, the agency has also emphasized warnings about travel to Mexico.
“The Mexican government has made great strides battling the cartels, and the department commends their continued commitment to that effort,” DPS said in their advisory. “DPS also has a responsibility to inform the public about safety and travel risks and threats, and based on the unpredictable nature of cartel violence and other criminal elements, the department urges individuals to avoid travel to Mexico at this time.”
For years, spring breakers have sought out Mexican beach resorts like Acapulco, Los Cabos, and Cancun or the bars along border cities like Tijuana, El Paso and, in the past, Matamoros and Reynosa. However the onslaught of Mexican cartel violence has shut down many of those border bars and damaged the image of the beach resorts.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, the border cities in Tamaulipas have been turned into a war-zone as rival factions of the Gulf Cartel have turned on each other, leading to large scale gun battles along some of those cities’ main boulevards and highways.
Also, in the beach resort of Acapulco, the increase in cartel activity plus the civil unrest caused by the slaughter of 43 Mexican education students at the hands of corrupt government officials and cartel members, have prompted the U.S. Embassy to issue warnings to Americans in the area, as Breitbart Texas reported.
Even in the once quiet resort area of Los Cabos, an uptick in cartel activity has seen a dramatic increase in murders and shootouts in recent months, as Breitbart Texas previously reported.