San Felipe becoming more dangerous for tourists / expats?

San Felipe becoming more dangerous for tourists / expats?

When we were first considering where to retire, San Felipe was on the list of contenders but we scratched it off mainly due to the very hot summers which we are looking to get away from after so many years of living here in the high deserts of Southern California. I am tired of running A/C 24 hours a day and the Pacific side will be a better fit. However we have continued to toy with the idea of possibly purchasing a small place in San Felipe where we could escape to in winter for weeks at a time and rent out during Spring to Fall seasons. After the recent murder of an Expat at the Ocotillo camp and now this brazen ambush and murder of police officers in San Felipe it has us wondering if the security situation in San Felipe is changing? Is crime involving violence on the increase there? There has been a trend for increasing crime north and south of the border for the last 2 or 3 years and San Felipe has been affected too. I have seen an increased number of car, motorcycle and UTV thefts as well as general crime reports. Some say the cartels are now using that port to offload drugs heading north and others are saying that the cartels have taken over the illegal trade of Totoaba swim bladders from the waters off San Felipe. I have a close friend with a place there and he tells me that crime in San Felipe as always been a problem but was mostly non-violent in nature (car thefts / burglary) but over the last few years has been escalating with a number of homicides including the American a few months ago where they stole his van and some high profile armed car jackings that were reported earlier this year south and west of San Felipe. San Felipe Expats Staying Home? According to this news article out today, Expats living in San Felipe are now staying home out of fear from the recent news of violent crime and the police officials shot dead. and the impact is being felt by the local bars, restaurants and stores. Due to fear based on the recent news of violent crime in San Felipe, foreigners living in the area are staying home inside their expat communities and is being felt by businesses in the port city, creating a negative economic impact, said Anabila Galván, president of the San Felipe Economic Development Council (CDESF). Last Tuesday, two officers of the municipal police force of the city were shot to death and where the police chief, Ramón Valdez Salas, was also shot but survived. Fear Persists in San Felipe Expat Community The president of the CDESF commented that in the days since these shootings, expats in the area have stopped going out to the local bars and restaurants out of fear. “American residents here tend to be early risers; they get up early and go out for breakfast, do their shopping and in the afternoons will spend time at a bar and have dinner at one of our local restaurants. Now that has stopped,” said Galván. She explained that part of the problem is due to the fact that no in-depth study was performed to determine the public security requirements for this new state municipality, both in terms of public safety and economics and recalled that at the beginning of the current administration, the CDESF proposed carrying out such a study. She added that such an in-depth study is needed due to the fact that the local fishing based economy has dropped off substantially and is now seasonal like tourism, requiring other alternatives be considered to help spur the local economy but a request for financial support for the study was flatly rejected by the president of the San Felipe Foundation Municipal Council. A local state representative, Juan Manuel Molina García, promised to help secure funding for the study from the state Congress but to date, no funding has been offered, according to Anabila Galván. https://www.lavozdelafrontera.com.mx/local/persiste-miedo-en-residentes-extranjeros-de-san-felipe-8941377.html Just got back from SF and the Malecon was definitely showing the effects of people staying home or not visiting SF. Didn’t see any expats of tourists in the restaurants. We ate at the always crowded Taco Factory and there was only one other group there, on a Saturday. The rest of town looked normal, the Calimax was crowded and business at the gas stations was brisk. Didn’t see any additional police presence. Our place is on the south beaches, so we don’t spend much time in SF I got a lot of private mail on this topic including a few from folks really angry for me, claiming I was “trying to scare people away from San Felipe.” Nothing could be farther from the truth and much of the mail I received seemed to agree with your comments @Christo , basically saying there were less people downtown and along the beach with more people staying home or in their neighborhoods lately. And then I also got a few messages from people telling me that everything was already back to normal and insisting that downtown bars and restaurants are FULL of people. Who knows, maybe a few of them are? I am a numbers guy and prefer to go with what the majority of the responses are telling me… I have been reading a lot of posts from people questioning travel to San Felipe recently. The mayor needs to get together with the governor and roll out some new security measures to help calm people’s fears, this is going to just go away. True, this didn’t just happen over night. I know of several riders who no longer are comfortable leaving their bike parked alone in San Felipe with so many thefts in recent years. The town has a problem and it appears to be getting worse. Worse yet, some in the Morena government believe this crime news tied into cartels is making them look bad and recently have begun saying these stories are made up or exaggerated – calling them propaganda by the opposition political parties. With that scenario, don’t expect for things to get better any time soon if they aren’t even willing to accept what is really going on. San Felipe does have a small army base and a very small navy base but if you look at all the territory they are supposed to cover it is of little surprise that the cartels are in control. From San Felipe south to Bahia de Los Angeles and the gulf region? The military would need 10X more elements to be able to properly patrol and control what goes on there. What is there now is looks to be just for show, to be able to say we are doing something. It’s a joke and this federal government knows it. more info about baja news and more see: https://talkbaja.com/