Police in Cancun found the bodies of eight victims earlier this week, but none were discovered in the city’s popular beach-side hotel zone.
According to The Associated Press, officials from the prosecutors’ office for the state of Quintana Roo said the bodies of two men were found in plastic bags and the bodies of a man and women were discovered in an abandoned taxi Tuesday.
While the United States Department of State issued an updated travel advisory for Mexico Wednesday, it was erroneously reported that it had been changed in response to the series of murders in Cancun.
Various outlets ran with stories about Cancun as an unsafe destination. This is not true.
Hey @USATODAY, what’s wrong with this picture of a beautiful beach in Cancun? It’s the fact that the MSM is highlighting tourist areas which are completely unrelated from where crimes took place. And you wonder why people cry #FakeNews a lot these days? https://t.co/Qgq2EAbIou
— Mark Murphy (@murphytravels) August 23, 2018
According to the Washington Post, a State Department spokesperson revealed Thursday that “the updated advisory was related to a security alert by the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, in a different state than Quintana Roo.”
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The entire country of Mexico remains at a Level 2 travel advisory, meaning tourists should “Exercise Increased Caution.” However, this is the same designation as Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, among others.
The Mexico Tourism Board released a statement to TravelPulse about the false reports:
There is no new travel advisory for Quintana Roo from the State Department. There are currently zero U.S. State Department Travel Warnings against any destination in the state of Quintana Roo and there are zero Travel Warnings against any international tourist destination in Mexico.
At times the U.S. Embassy has issued security alerts or the U.S. State Department has updated its Travel Advisory page for Mexico, but at no time in 2018 has there ever been any Travel Warning recommending against travel to any of Mexico’s international tourist destinations.
These misleading media reports have been reprinted in numerous articles, many of which further spread misinformation about the current U.S. State Department Travel Advisory for Mexico.
Unfortunately, there has been an increase of violence between criminals in remote areas of Quintana Roo and elsewhere in Mexico. The truth is that the vast majority of crimes in Mexico do not occur in areas frequented by international tourists and the vast majority of incidents solely involve Mexican nationals.
The State Department travel advisory for Mexico does not include any tourist or beach areas and reaffirms that all major tourist destinations in Mexico are safe, including Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and Riviera Maya in the state of Quintana Roo.