Excerpts From the Daily Press Briefing Pertaining to Western Hemisphere Affairs Full Briefing
QUESTION: Penny Starr with CNSNews. Given the ongoing and escalating violence in
Mexico, and given the State Department’s criteria for listing a country under a Travel Alert, which the criteria is for short-term threats, such as a cyclone or a labor strike and the status of a Travel Warning, which talks about ongoing danger and violence, and given the drug cartel violence in Mexico, why hasn’t the State Department escalated the travel status of Mexico from alert to warning?
MR. DUGUID: The Consular section makes – the Consular Bureau makes those decisions. The Travel Alert fully encompasses the problems that are to be encountered in traveling to Mexico at this time. We noticed that many of the violent activities are localized in several different places. They are not general across the north of Mexico, let alone through Mexico, the entire country itself.
QUESTION: Can I ask a follow-up really quickly?
MR. DUGUID: Yeah.
QUESTION: There are two central states that – in the center of Mexico that the State Department is restricting travel of its government employees, so it is – certainly there’s violence beyond just the northern border area of Mexico.
MR. DUGUID: But not systematic throughout the country.
