Between the country’s economic woes, and the swine flu hysteria, Mexico’s tourist industry has had more lows than highs this year. Officials have attempted several novel methods to promote tourism such as Mexico City offering visitors free health insurance. With crime being such a major problem in the border state of Baja California, authorities want to ensure a steady stream of gringo tourists to areas like Tijuana. Thus, plans for a tourist police force:
Officials from the Baja California cities of Tijuana, Ensenada and Rosarito gathered earlier this week to announce the creation of the task force, which will be made up of bilingual officers and which will be designed primarily to serve Americans…What do you think? Good idea or a silly solution?
City officials in San Diego, California, said the city's police force would extend help in ways that Mexican officials deemed necessary in getting the task force up and running, including training the officers…
American travelers, who represented 80 percent of the country's booming $13 billion travel industry last year, are a critical part of Mexico's economy. In 2008, more than 18 million Americans visited the country, according to the Mexico Tourism Board.
Image- Los Angeles Times (“A Mexican soldier, top, stands guard on the streets of Tijuana.”)
Online Sources- CNN, Latin Business Chronicle, The Latin Americanist
Actually, it goes back to Benito Juarez, who put the Rurales into "colorful" uniforms to assure the gringos... Several cities (including Mexico City, Zacatecas, Chihuahua) have had "tourist police" for several years now.
ReplyDeletePutting officers who can speak and understand foreign languages in areas where there are a lot of foreigners (and who are capable of dealing with the typical problems foreigners encounter) isn't that radical an idea.