Why has the US issued a ‘terrorism’ journey alert for Mexico? | Crime News

The US State Department has issued an up to date journey warning for Americans visiting Mexico, citing dangers of “terrorism, crime, and kidnapping”.

The transfer follows months of intense stress from President Donald Trump over points akin to immigration and the actions of legal gangs concerned in drug smuggling and human trafficking.

Here is what we all know:

What occurred?

On Tuesday, the United States authorities issued a brand new journey alert for Mexico, warning of “terrorist” violence in 30 of its 32 states. It’s the primary time Washington has ever sounded the alarm on Mexico for terrorism threat.

The advisory paints a grim image: hovering charges of murder, kidnapping, carjacking and theft, alongside a brand new warning of doable terrorist assaults and terrorist violence.

“There is a risk of terrorist violence, including attacks and related activities,” it warned, urging Americans to take precautions. The journey alert was raised to Level 2 – “exercise increased caution” on a scale of 4 ranges.

Which locations did the US warn about and why?

The alert warns Americans to not journey to Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, and Zacatecas provinces as a consequence of “terrorism, violent crime, and kidnapping.” These states are marked crimson on the map and labeled as Level 4 — essentially the most unsafe, per the US.

Travellers are suggested to rethink visiting Baja California, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, and Sonora for a similar causes; these seem in orange and are rated Level 3, or marginally safer.

Another 16 states – together with Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Quintana Roo, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Morelos, Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Durango, Hidalgo, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz – fall below “exercise increased caution”. While there are not any outright journey bans, the advisory notes that each violent and non-violent crimes are frequent. These areas are proven in yellow and are listed below Level 2.

Only Yucatan and Campeche stay at Level 1, the bottom threat degree, highlighted in blue.

What is the backdrop for this advisory?

According to specialists, these actions comply with elevated stress from Trump, which has prompted the Mexican authorities to take a variety of measures.

Earlier this week, Mexico extradited 26 alleged cartel members to the US, in what gave the impression to be an effort to ease Trump’s calls for for stronger motion in opposition to fentanyl smuggling and organised crime.

In a press release, the US embassy stated these extradited included key figures from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, Mexico’s two strongest organised crime teams.

We acknowledge @GabSeguridadMX for its dedication and dedication. This motion displays the energy of our bilateral cooperation as sovereign companions and our shared dedication to make sure our individuals’s safety and effectively being.

— Embajador Ronald Johnson (@USAmbMex) August 13, 2025

This marks the second mass switch of the 12 months; in February, Mexican authorities despatched 29 alleged cartel leaders to the US, a transfer that stirred debate over its political and authorized deserves.

Among them was Caro Quintero, a founding member of the Guadalajara Cartel, accused of murdering DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in 1985.

US officers had requested the extraditions, pledging to not search the demise penalty. Mexico described the suspects as high-risk criminals tied to drug trafficking and different severe offences.

While extraditions usually are not unusual, they’re sometimes carried out in ones and twos. But this 12 months alone, Mexico has already handed over 55 individuals.

The transfers comply with months of US stress, strengthened by tariff threats, and reviews that Trump directed the Pentagon to contemplate army motion in opposition to Latin American cartels.

According to these reviews, the order would allow direct army operations on overseas soil and in corresponding territorial waters in opposition to organised legal teams. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has stated the US and Mexico are near finalising a safety settlement to spice up cooperation in opposition to cartels, however she has firmly rejected the thought of unilateral US army operations on Mexican soil.

How has Mexico responded to the brand new alert?

Sheinbaum downplayed the up to date journey advisory. She argued the change stems from Washington’s determination to label cartels as terrorist organisations  – completed via an government order earlier this 12 months – fairly than from any new safety actuality.

Sheinbaum pressured that Mexico stays the highest vacation spot for US travellers, with about 1,000,000 Americans dwelling within the nation, and famous that fashionable areas such because the Southeast, Baja California Peninsula, Pacific coast, and Mexico City proceed to draw guests regardless of the warning.

How unhealthy is Mexico’s violence drawback?

Bad, nevertheless it’s bettering.

According to a 2024 report from Human Rights Watch, violent crime in Mexico has risen sharply for the reason that authorities started its “war” on organised crime in 2006.

However, this 12 months, Sheinbaum can report a 25.3 p.c drop in daily homicides over her first 11 months in workplace, from 86.9 per day in September 2023 to 64.9 now – the bottom month-to-month figures since 2015.

While Mexico stays one of many world’s most violent international locations, the decline is seen as a major enchancment, credited to her administration’s safety technique, but in addition US stress.

When Trump took workplace, he shortly warned Mexico that it needed to present actual progress in stopping the circulation of fentanyl, a drug that has killed a whole bunch of 1000’s of Americans, or face steep commerce tariffs. He promised to push Mexico tougher to curb drug trafficking and unlawful migration, making it clear there can be severe financial penalties if it didn’t act.

In Sheinbaum’s first 12 months in workplace, authorities have seized greater than 3.5 million fentanyl drugs and arrested at the least 29,000 suspects, together with high-level cartel leaders with native and nationwide attain. Security chief Omar Garcia Harfuch credited the success to the essential work of specialized intelligence and investigative items.

However, in locations like Sinaloa, the bloodshed escalated sharply after the arrests of main figures, together with Ismael Zambada, the chief of the Sinaloa cartel, in August 2024.

During the primary six months of this 12 months, authorities recorded 883 homicides within the state, up from simply 224 in the identical interval final 12 months, with most killings concentrated in Culiacan.

The violence could also be solely a part of the toll. Since Zambada’s arrest, greater than 1,500 individuals have gone lacking in Sinaloa. Security officers consider legal teams are behind many of those disappearances, suggesting the true price of the crackdown may very well be even increased.

Zambada, one in every of Mexico’s most infamous accused drug lords, was captured at an airfield close to El Paso, Texas, alongside Ovidio Guzman, a son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman – the previous chief of the Sinaloa Cartel who’s serving a life sentence in a US jail. Zambada claims Guzman Lopez kidnapped him and handed him over to US authorities.