Spring breakers find tense border

As tens of thousands of students make spring-break visits to south Texas, a resurgence of drug-related violence across the border in northern Mexico is forcing the U.S. and Mexico to consider how to court these and other tourists.

Local officials from the two countries have been meeting for weeks to develop a plan they believe will help keep college students--their visits are an economic boon for both sides of the Rio Grande--out of trouble.

Yet recent bloodshed, including the January slayings of six Mexican prison workers a few miles outside nearby Matamoros, Mexico, has left even local Mexican-Americans fearful of crossing the border.

There also has been a spike in kidnappings of Americans in northern Mexico, although officials say that many of the victims were involved in the drug trade and that tourists are unlikely to be caught up in such violence.

Nonetheless, a January State Department alert to American tourists warning of a "deteriorating security situation" remains in force.

John Naland, U.S. consul for the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, said at a recent conference in Brownsville, Texas, that despite pleas from Mexican officials, "the State Department is not going to amend or drop that advisory before April 25," when it expires.

Kendra Chimera, a 21-year-old college senior from upstate New York enjoying her last spring break before graduation, said she and her friends are considering crossing over to Matamoros before their trip is over.

Like most of the college students trickling into South Padre Island last week, she had heard little of the killings that have plagued northern Mexico, only vague warnings from friends about sticking to tourists spots.

"I was told there are only certain places we could go," said Chimera, a student at New York's St. Bonaventure University.

In an effort to combat the bad press, Matamoros officials have begun printing colorful pamphlets with pictures of beaming young people touting Matamoros as the "safest bustling Mexican border city." The brochures will be distributed within days, officials said.

Each pamphlet includes a credit card-size cutout with the phone numbers of police on both sides of the border, as well as the U.S. Consulate.

Mexico downplays risk

Like many Mexican officials, Gerardo Rodriguez, director of Matamoros' convention and visitors bureau, said that the violence has been exaggerated and that his city is safe for Americans.

"We want them to come and visit, spend money in the market, eat, have a few drinks and go back safely," he said.

Matamoros has hired dozens of specially trained police officers--many are fluent in English--to patrol the parts of the city most visited by American tourists. The new officers will wear brightly colored vests and will have their full names on display, in an effort to curb corruption, officials say.

"I don't think they should be overly concerned about violence," Rodriguez said, speaking of spring breakers. "Matamoros right now is really on the safe side."

Still, Bridget O'Neill, a 21-year-old media studies student from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, said she decided against joining her friends for a bus trip south of the border.

"I'm not going to go," she said, shoving clothes into a washing machine at her beachside hotel on South Padre Island. "My parents are nervous enough that I'm here."

The reaction among older, seasonal visitors, often called "Winter Texans," has been mixed. Many say they still visit Mexico regularly for the culture, music and, in some cases, they say, prescription medications.

Bonnye Wintergerst, who lives in Kentucky but spends her winters in a retirement park near Brownsville's city limits, said she has visited Mexico for years, buying food, candy, jewelry and household items.

"If you go where you belong and behave yourself, you're not going to have any problems," Wintergerst said.

Others say the drug wars have kept them on the American side of the border.

Pierrette Tardie, a Winter Texan from Montreal staying in Mission, Texas, said she visited Reynosa, Mexico, in February but doesn't plan to return.

"Some of my friends went last week, but there were 15 of them," she said recently. "We are still afraid, unless we are in a group. I don't know when we will go back."

`Don't feel comfortable'

Betty Jacobs and her husband had visited for years, but after being shaken down by a police officer last year for a broken taillight, she started curtailing her trips.

This year's violence--plus the news that a friend in Mexico had been beaten and robbed--cemented her decision not to return.

"We just don't feel comfortable," said Jacobs, a Winter Texan from Minnesota.

Richard Slough, a 29-year-old bartender who works and lives year-round in the border town of McAllen, said reports of violence have kept him from visiting Reynosa for the past few months.

"It used to be that you could go and not worry about anything, but not anymore. It's crazy over there," he said.

On the Mexican side, Francisco Javier Garcia Cabeza de Vaca, the new mayor of Reynosa, has pledged to make his city safer. Still, he said, American tourists in Mexico have to be careful just as they would in any big city.

"Whoever wants to go to Mexico and find trouble, I'll guarantee they'll find it," he said.

Arturo Fontes, an FBI (news - web sites) investigator based in Laredo, said there have been 31 kidnappings of Americans just across the border since August, the majority in Nuevo Laredo, the Mexican city south of Laredo.

"The year before, we had about three," he said. "This many people in such a short time is a lot. I would say that most of them have been involved in the drug trade, but some have not."