Canadian travel concerns heading to Sinaloa state in Mexico

Some Canadians are concerned about travelling to Mexico after violence erupted in Sinaloa due to the arrest of a suspected cartel leader.

Lance Vient was born and raised in Mazatlán, Sinaloa he spent some time in the United States before moving back to Mexico with his family. Since then, he has worked in Mazatlán’s tourism industry, he says there is nothing for tourists to worry about.

“To my experience, and I’ve worked in a leadership position in tourism since 2010 — so that’s 13-14 years — I’ve never had to interact with any kind of strong arming or any kind of situation where my kids were in danger,” Vient said.

He adds despite issues in Sinaloa state, Mazatlán is going to continue to be a tourist attraction — with 500 years of history and a lot to offer.

“But here in Mazatlán, really the mayor came out early said ‘guys there’s something going on in Culiacan, please stay indoors. For safety reasons, we’re going to stop public transport because that is what they are attacking. We’re going to defend the entrances and the exits to the city in case they want to come in or somebody wants to get out. And we’re going to send people to police the airports because we have tourists,” Vient explained.

READ MORE:

• Mazatlán mayor reassures Canadians and other visitors following cartel violence

• Canadian government asking travellers to avoid Mexico for now

• Some Canadians set to return from Mexico’s Mazatlan area as airports reopen

Joe Pavelka, professor of ecotourism and outdoor leadership at Mount Royal University in Calgary, is an expert on assessing travel risk.

“I think right now the conflict that we’re seeing is really quite focused it is the narcos going up against the government. The problem with that — and they don’t really care about tourists in any which way — the problem with that is obviously being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Pavelka said.

He adds if you find yourself in a dangerous situation while travelling abroad, try to align yourself with locals. In his experience they have always been gracious and helpful.

“You have to follow directions. When it gets to this level, you really don’t have a lot of options, you have to follow instructions so if they tell you to shelter in place whether you think it’s a good idea or not, you really need to do that because if you fall outside of that parameter, you not protected.”