Avoid Mexican towns on border, U.S. warns

A new State Department travel alert for Mexico warns travelers to be vigilant because of escalating violence and drug-cartel-related murders.

However, it does not urge students on spring break or anyone else to avoid Mexico entirely - only to avoid the U.S.-Mexico border region, especially Ciudad Juarez, a border town across from El Paso, Texas, where 1,800 people have been killed since January 2008. The alert also warns against travel to Tijuana, Nogales, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey, and Matamoros.

It cautions that "Mexican and foreign bystanders have been injured or killed in violent attacks in cities across the country . . . in recent years, dozens of U.S. citizens have been kidnapped across Mexico."

The alert recommends these commonsense precautions:

Stay in tourist areas.

Visit businesses and travel roads only in daylight hours.

Avoid areas where there is prostitution or drug-dealing.

Avoid displaying expensive jewelry, money, or other valuables.

In response to the warning, the University of Arizona in Tucson urged its students to avoid visiting Mexico for spring break, but other universities did not.

About 100,000 teens and college students travel to Mexico during spring break yearly - most of them to resort areas far removed from the border, such as Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, and Cozumel.