What's missing from this picture? (Answer: The United State's appetite for illegal drugs and legal guns.)

Anyone who follows the American news media’s coverage of Mexico recently knows that the news hasn’t been pretty. The peso is trading weakly against the dollar, making daily life harder for Mexico’s middle class and near impossible for Mexico’s poor. (The recent exchange rate has been between 13 and 15 pesos to the dollar. Good for those paid in dollars. Bad for everyone else.) Perhaps more alarming to tourists, recent weeks have brought dozens of articles about the gruesome violence associated with drug trafficking and the cartels that control the drug trade in Mexico.

Among this influx of bad news, there have been several interesting articles about Mexico that aim to help keep this kind of bad news in perspective.

The first was by our own Anahi Parra, on the blog Latina Lista where she writes about the idea of Mexico as a “surrealist country” and the role that both the United States and Mexican governments play in creating the surreal images (decapitations, etc.) that we see now. She lets neither government off the hook, “since both of them have built up the whirlwind that we witness now.”

In the New York Times, Mexican historian Enrique Krauze’s March 23rd op-ed piece warns readers not to buy into the recent references to Mexico as a “failed state,” highlighting Mexico’s achievements over the past century and pointing out the danger of this rhetoric on both sides of the border. He similarly calls for consideration of the United States’ role in Mexico’s current problems,

Washington should support Mexico’s war against the drug lords — first and foremost by recognizing its complexity. The Obama administration should recognize the considerable American responsibility for Mexico’s problems. Then, in keeping with equality and symmetry, the United States must reduce its drug consumption and its weapons trade to Mexico. It will be no easy task, but the United States has at least one advantage: No one thinks of it as a failed state.

Then, just last week I noticed travel writer Christine Delsol’s article in the San Francisco Chronicle asking potential tourists to Mexico to read “Between the Headlines.” After acknowledging the chilling 7,300 deaths that have been associated with the drug trade in the past two years, she contextualizes these murders in a broader picture of Mexican safety:

While these alarming numbers aren’t exaggerated, the risk to tourists visiting Mexico definitely is. The latest comprehensive data available from the United Nations Survey of Crime report Mexico’s overall murder rate as 13 per 100,000 people, compared with 4 per 100,000 in the United States. An estimated 90 percent of Mexico’s murders are specifically drug-related — not U.S.-style mall shootings, schoolyard massacres or road rage — and concentrated in five of its 31 states, leaving the rest of the country freer of crime than most of the United States.

Perhaps her analysis will be helpful to those thinking of visiting or moving to Mexico in the near future, and have been warned by countless coworkers and relatives not to do so. (For another thoughtful interpretation of crime and safety in Mexico City, read the “Who’s Afraid of Mexico City?” chapter of David Lida’s book First Stop in the New World.)

What drew me to compile these three articles here is the way they all acknowledge that Mexico and its problems do not exist in a vacuum. Looking at any “Mexican problem” (“Mexican crime,” “Mexican poverty”) without a broad (read: multi-national) lens teaches us very little about the problem at hand and even less about Mexico. We can see the consequences of this kind of narrow thinking in the Obama administration’s recent move to station hundreds of additional agents at the U.S.-Mexico border. This sort of muscle-flexing is a short-sighted non-solution to a much larger and more complex problem, and will no doubt further endanger those immigrants pushed to cross in even more remote stretches of the border.  Although I was impressed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s admission that “our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” I remain disappointed by the new administration’s business-as-usual approach to Mexico and its people.

I welcome comments about these articles, safety and violence in Mexico, U.S. Mexico relations, and anything else this post might have stirred up!

Anahí and I had just returned from a stressful drive from Satelite, a suburb to the north of Mexico City that was designed in the image of American suburban communities in the fifties but has since been swallowed up by the ever-expanding urban sprawl that is the Distrito Federal. Although it was well before rushhour, we got caught in horrible traffic on the highway back into the city, and by the time we were on the nightmare that is Avenida Insurgentes, I didn’t have the patience to make three right turns required to head west. Instead I followed the driver ahead of me, ignoring the no left turn sign and making my move during a safe gap in traffic.

Unlike the car ahead of me, however, we got pulled over by one of the many traffic cops that make their living extorting bribes from lazy drivers like myself. He pulled us over onto a street where several other cops were waiting. I panicked a little; we were in a friend’s borrowed car and if I ever knew where her proof of insurance was, I had forgotten by that moment. Did they even use proof of insurance in Mexico? What else might I need that I didn’t have?

The cop who came to the window showed us a lamenated piece of paper with poorly printed pictures of street signs with fines underneath them. It appeared for what I had done, I owed over 900 pesos. Not only that, he said, but they were going to impound the car right there on the spot and we would have to come get it from the impound lot. That sounded even more expensive, plus I was supposed to get my friend’s car back to her in forty-five minutes so she could drive to work.

“I can’t just pay the fine here?” I said, in broken Spanish, but the cop was busy inspecting my California driver’s license. I knew this was when I was supposed to bribe him, but I didn’t know how subtle I was supposed to be. What was the ettiquette of bribing someone? Fortunately, the cop saved me the trouble of figuring it out.

“You mean you’re from California?” he asked.

“Yes. Yes,” I assured him. “I’m from California and didn’t know you couldn’t make a left turn there.”

“And I don’t have a license,” chimed in Anahí, anticipating his question. “And this is not our car. You can’t impound it because our friend needs it. Can we please take care of this here?”

I was digging around in my purse for cash. All I had was a 500 peso bill and a 100 peso bill. Both gleamed up from my wallet, in plain view of the cop. Would I have to give him all of it?

“Can I please just give you this?” I said, offering up the 500 peso bill. “We need this extra 100 pesos to buy gas. We are going all the way to the south of the city.”

“Well,” he said, taking the bill, “on account of the fact that you are from California…”

“On account of your fucking mother,” Anahí said under her breath as we drove away.

I felt frustrated that I hadn’t had smaller bills in my wallet. Would he have taken 400 pesos? 300? I consoled myself by suggesting to Anahí that maybe he would take his wife out to a nice dinner with that money.

“He’ll probably spend it on prostitutes,” she replied.

She’s probably correct. Police corruption is rampant in Mexico City due, in part, to the woefully low wages policias are paid for what is a dangerous and almost uniformly resented job. Most police officers are uneducated, many are involved (voluntarily or not) in drug trafficking, and almost all are despised and distrusted by the rest of the city’s populace. (For accessible background reading on Mexico City’s police force, check out the chapter “Who’s Afraid of Mexico City?” in David Lida’s book First Stop in the New World.) Bribery, known in Mexican slang as a mordida (or “bite”), is not unique to the police force (since money talks on all levels of government…), but that is perhaps where it is most visible, despite recent efforts to curtail it.

I was certainly guilty of making a left hand turn off of Insurgentes (and was grateful to get out of it by paying), but I’ve also heard of police shaking down people (particularly gay people) who are not actually committing any crime. Some macha friends of mine were stopped and detained in the Zona Rosa for the supposed crime of handing out flyers for a gay event. At the local station house, one was allowed to go to her ATM in order to withdraw money to pay a “fine” so they would not be further incarcerated. Although this is not a common occurance, LGBT visitors should be aware that this kind of extortion has happened in the past, and although homophobia is obviously a motivating factor, money is at the root of the problem.

If, heaven forbid, a visitor should find themselves being detained for a crime in Mexico City (whether she is guilty or not), she shouldn’t panic immediately. Despite the indignity of it, a bribe (often described as “paying a fine”) is often a safer and easier alternative to being encarcerated in a local jail. An older, wiser, more experienced traveler once gave me a tip bribes, saying that the sooner you offer the bribe (and the lower the rank of the person receiving the bribe), the less you will have to pay. The deeper into the system you get, the more expensive things become. I pass this information on, not to condone corruption, but to make readers aware of what options are available to them in what can be a terrifying situation. Corruption is not unique to Mexico, but anyone spending time in the Distrito Federal should come with appreciation for a well-executed bribe.

Rush hour gropings not withstanding, the metro in Mexico City is a clean, cheap, and efficient mode of transportation. There are those times, however, when the subways just won’t do. Maybe you’ve got heavy bags to carry, maybe you’re going to one of those corners of the city not easily accessible by public transportation, maybe you’re coming back from a late night party and the metro has stopped running. Sometimes, a macha just needs a cab.

But we’ve all heard horror stories about the taxis in Mexico City. “You’ll get robbed.” “You’ll get kidnapped.” “You’ll get raped.” These warnings are not unwarranted, although I think Mexico City get’s a particularly bad rap. (Recently, in a conversation with a gay male couple who had just taken their first trip to Mexico City, they reflected that they Mexico City had a much more terrifying reputation than other, more dangerous, Latin American cities. “We were much more likely to get kidnapped when we went to Guayaquil, Ecuador, but we didn’t hear the same buzz of warnings before our trip.”) Indeed, during my first trip to Mexico City, my traveling companion was so terrified of taking taxis that hours of each day were spent navigating the Metro, the Tren Ligero (light rail), and lengthy walks when a twenty minute cab ride would have sufficed.

To avoid wasting such time, I offer machas this guide to taking cabs safely and confidently in Mexico City. I never advocate anyone making travel decisions that leave them feeling unsafe or vulnerable, so these tips go in order from the most cautious (and most expensive) strategies to the least, and I trust readers to use them in accordance with their own comfort level.

• Hotel Taxis-If you are staying in a hotel, many have hotel taxis that are available for guests. Even if you are not staying at a hotel, you can still use their taxi-service on a walk-in basis. Depending on the hotel, these taxis can cost two to four times more than street taxis. Ask at the desk about taxis, prices, availability, hours, and whether the taxi needs to be reserved (especially for time-sensitive trips to the airport).

• Sitios-There are many sitios, or taxis seguros (secured taxis) throughout the city. (These are the equivalent of “car services” in New York City.) You don’t hail these taxis on the street. Instead, you can call them through a service or pick them up at locations designated for sitios. These booths are usually marked with signs that say sitio and can be found near some metro stations, tourist destinations, and sometimes near nightclubs. These cars are usually sedans and do not look like street taxis (descriptions below); the drivers are usually wearing a white shirt with a tie and there is usually a radio in the car. Your hotel should be able to provide the phone numbers for a reliable local taxi service (although they may only want to recommend their in-house service). If not, see the list at the end of this post. Sitios can charge from 1.5 to 3 times more than street taxis. Rates vary depending on the company; some companies use a meter (called a taximetro) but will add 20 pesos to the amount shown or start with a higher rate than street taxis (officially the base tariff is 9.60 pesos). Some sitios will set the price ahead of time, particularly if you have called for the taxi and not picked it up at a sitio booth.

• Hailing a taxi-Street taxis in Mexico City are very cheap and usually very easy to hail on any moderately busy street. There are two types: the red and white sedans and hatchbacks and the green volkswagon beetles, called vochitos. The red and white taxis are slightly more expensive than the vochitos, and provide a little more room for passengers (they seat four) and luggage (in the trunk). In the vochos, the front passenger seat has been removed, leaving a bit of room for bulky luggage and packages, but only (cramped) seats for three in the back. During the day, insist that the taxista (driver) use the taximetro. (At night, it is customary to negociate a price ahead of time.) In the vochitos, the base tariff is 5.80 pesos, and will go up 60 centavos (that’s about six cents in U.S. dollars) every 30 seconds or so. In the red and white taxis, the base tariff is 6.40 pesos. Although street taxis are less regulated than sitios, there are some tips for making sure you are getting into an officially registered taxi and not just a car that has been painted to look like one. Officially registered taxis should have an identification number painted in black on the side. (Be careful of numbers that appear to have been painted on by hand or otherwise look suspicious.) This number should start with the letter A, followed by a hypen and a five-long-number. Inside the taxi, the driver’s taxi license should be displayed where you can see it, and the picture should be a picture of the man who is actually driving the taxi. Oh, and never ever get into a taxi that is already carrying an extra “passenger.”

Late at night, the rules of taking a taxi change a bit. It is generally considered more dangerous to hail a street taxi at night, though I have done it many times (both with other people and alone) without incident. Prices also vary; officially, the late night rate (which is in effect from 11pm to 6am) is allowed to be 20 percent more than what is shown on the taximetro. However, it is customary to simply set a price ahead of time for late night taxi rides. (For example, you might be able to get a taxi from the Condesa to the Centro Historico for as little as 40 pesos, but more likely something like 50 or 70 pesos. To go from Coyoacan to the Centro Historico late at night in a street taxi might cost between 70 and 100 pesos.) Rates for sitios also go up at night.

The taxi situation at the airport and at the city’s four bus terminals is different. There is one company that has a monopoly on all traffic coming from the airport. It is illegal for street taxis to pick up riders at the airport, even if they have just dropped off a fare. Therefore, if you want to take a taxi from the airport (and who doesn’t after a long trip), you are stuck taking one of the black, white, and yellow airport taxis, marked with a plane on their side. You pay for these taxis in advance at a booth inside the airport in exchange for a ticket that is presented to the driver for payment. Prices are quite high (two or three times more than street taxis) and depending on the time of day and one which terminal you fly into, you must wait on a long (but fast moving) line to get your taxi. At bus stations it is best to take a sitio (which sometimes can be paid in advance like at the airport) and not to hail a street taxi. Do not be seduced by one of the aggressive taxistas that troll transportation hubs looking for foreigners and Mexicans unfamiliar with the city.

Tipping taxi drivers is not customary in Mexico City. As a New Yorker, this was very hard to get used to, and when I have heavy baggage I still tip the driver a couple of pesos for helping me.

Rush hour in any city, by any means of transportation, can be a nightmare, and Mexico City is no exception. I recommend avoiding all travel during rush hour, but if it can’t be avoided be aware that bad traffic jams can easily double the cost of a street taxi as you sit waiting for the gridlock to clear up.

If you are not familar with Mexico City or do not speak Spanish very well, it can be very intimidating to take a taxi. You run the risk of being taken on an unnecessarily long ride. To avoid this, I recommend planning your routes at the beginning of the day. The central parts of Mexico City are built on a grid with major routes often being the most efficient way to get from one part of town to another. Familiarize yourself with these major thoroughfares so that you have an idea of the route the driver should take. It is fine to ask the driver how he is planning to go at the beginning of the ride, and you can specify if there is a particular street you would like him to take.

Also, Mexico City is huge, and if you are going to an obscure location, it is likely that your driver will not know where it is and will need to know what major intersections or landmarks are nearby to orient himself. Don’t be shy about taking a detailed street map with you in a cab. You can buy them for 10 pesos at news stands in most tourist areas. If you are a tourist, the driver will know from the minute you tell him what your destination is, and tracing your route on a street map is a good way to get to know your way around the city better. More than once the driver has asked to use my map in order to help us find our way around the circular streets of the Condesa or the labyrinthine alleys of Coyoacán.

Numbers for Sitios:

Radio Taxis Delta (open 24 hours), phone: 8590 6720; Super Sitio, phone: 5590 3325; Servi Taxis, phone: 5516 6020