Those were the headlines in all the Toronto newspapers the day before we were crossing the border from Laredo Texas for our 2 day drive to Ajijic Mexico – the town where the two were murdered. We were hit immediately by a double edged sword.
Between living here for a year and a half and a lot of other winter months, we’re spent a lot of time over the last 4 or 5 years here. We feel as safe here as we do anywhere. You have to have a few ‘street smarts’ anywhere these days. I must admit that, I feel a bit nervous for the first hour after we cross the border heading south. Truth be known, although the border is where the most drug violence takes place, Drug Lords don’t want the extra heat that murdered gringos brings down on then, but, I think there is just a bit more of a chance of getting hit by s stray bullet along the border than anywhere else we travel.
We always spend the night in Laredo Texas when we’re heading down here. We do our last minute shopping there where we can buy familiar foods at regular, not imported prices. We finalize our car insurance and, no matter how hard we try, there are always a few last minute details we need to look after. We grab a room in fairly standard US hotel and get our butts up early so that we can cross the border bright and early. We figure that no self respecting drug lord gets up before 11:00 am!
It was the night before we crossed that we got emails, phone calls and Facebook messages from just about everyone we know telling us about the murder, telling us to be careful and telling us they were worried about us. That brings us back to that double edges sword thing.
On one hand, it’s great to know that so many people care. On the other hand, it would have been a lot easier on our nerves if everyone had waited a day or two. All those messages sure tuned up our nerves for our night before the crossing. I don’t think either of us got the best sleep ever that night.
In case you didn’t read the original story, here’s a link to the original report.
We got to town here after a beautiful, uneventful 1100k drive. The only thing that happened to us was that the sun came out, the temperatures rose to the 80′s, and we drove through some beautiful country side and into the mountains.
It took us all of 2 hours to get the story from down here. The basic facts written about the couple were correct. The initial published story made it sound alike a random murder though.
The part of the story that was missing was that there was a construction site beside these folks house. I’m not sure if an old house was being knocked down or if a new house was being build on a vacant lot but, apparently there were a couple of Mexican labourers staying on the site. It’s not an uncommon occurrence here that the labor families practically move into the site while the work goes on. (It takes a LONG TIME for a house to get built here!)
The two guys were making too much noise for the woman’s liking. Rather than taking over a couple of beers and asking them to keep it down, she apparently took to yelling and screaming at them. That’s the wrong approach in most places and most certainly here. They lowered the noise for a bit but, turned it back up shortly afterwards. I think this went on for a couple of days until the women went to the La Floresta (Rosedale of Ajijic) folks and complained. The guys were fired. They’d seen the women take a nice new big TV into the house a few days earlier. They broke into the house at 2:00am on e morning to steal the TV. The couple were still awake and could identify they burglars so, in a stupid attempt to protect themselves, they murdered the couple. I think the fact that they took I’m out quickly but let her bleed out tells a bit of a story of it’s own.
It’s not a nice story but, somehow, knowing the facts feels better knowing there was a dumb reason for the killing and that there weren’t just a band of bandits running wild on the town. The police / army forces that descended on the town was fast and numerous. We’ve been told that every level of security forces was here, helicopters flying overhead and some big shot from the government came to town to address the nervous townsfolk.
I was told recently that there have been 17 Gringos murdered here over the last number of years. The full total was 34 I think but, suicide, spousal murder and drunk guys falling over balconies don’t count. There were 598 homicides in Canada in 2011
The worry about “Murders in Mexico” makes me laugh. I always want to answer with, OMG, better not go to the United States, there was a murder in New Orleans. It really does make me realize how much we are manipulated but sensational headlines.
The bottom line from all of this for us is . . . . . thanks for caring guys. We love you all too.
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