TRAVEL ALERT: MEXICO VIOLENCE DRAWS CAUTIONS

Continuing -- and escalating -- violence in Mexico has caused the U.S.
State Department to issue a new travel alert cautioning U.S. citizens
about traveling there.

That's not a surprise for anyone who lives close to the border and the
only question might be why this isn't a travel warning instead of an
alert. An alert is one step below the warning.

Perhaps it's a diplomatic exercise in semantics. According to a State
Department Web site, a travel alert is issued "... to disseminate
information about short-term conditions, generally within a particular
country, that pose imminent risks to the security of U.S. citizens."

A travel warning is " ... issued to describe long-term, protracted
conditions that make a country dangerous or unstable."

One question would be, how long does the violence in Mexico have to
continue before it is defined as "long-term" or "protracted?"

The new travel alert for Mexico says in part, "Recent violent attacks
have caused the U.S. Embassy to urge U.S. citizens to delay
unnecessary travel to parts of Michoacan, Durango, Coahuila and
Chihuahua ... and to advise U.S. citizens residing or traveling in
those areas to exercise extreme caution."

The alert mentions various examples, including, "Some recent Mexican
army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled
small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades.

"Large firefights have taken place in towns and cities across Mexico,
but occur mostly in northern Mexico, including Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana,
Chihuahua City, Nogales, Matamoros, Reynosa and Monterrey. During some
of these incidents, U.S. citizens have been trapped and temporarily
prevented from leaving the area."

Killings of U.S. citizens are also mentioned, including four murdered
in Gomez Palacio, Durango, in late 2009 and early 2010.

While none of this is new to border-area residents, it serves as both
information and warning to Americans throughout the country who might
not realize the full extent of violence along their southern border.