Is it safe? The cartel has been around for so many years, but for the most part, they’ve done a good job at keeping it on the low. As of lately the cartel has been impacting lives and creating more havoc than usual. A lot of people would say that the peak of the cartel would be around the 1990s and early 2000s, but unfortunately, it is going back up again. 

The government declared war on the cartel in 2006 and has been fighting it ever since then. The cartel is an organized group whose sole purpose is to traffic drugs across the world. While there are plenty of cartels around the world the most powerful ones are located in Mexico. Each cartel has its territory. According to The Daily Mail as of Oct. 30, 2020, the cartels controlled about 20% of Mexico, which we can assume has gone up due to recent events.

As of lately, we have seen mass murders, accidental shootouts, and kidnappings. A lot of action has been happening in Tulum/Cancun Mexico. This has been quite dangerous because of all the tourists there. They are both extremely popular places for families to take a vacation. One of the biggest cartels in the world is the Sinaloa Cartel. The Sinaloa Cartel is such a big and dangerous cartel so wherever they are located is bound to come with damage. On December 9th, 2021 there was an incident at the Grand Ocean Palm resort. Men dressed as soldiers on jet skis, began to open fire on the hotel zone. Many witnesses stated that they did not see any shots hit the shore rather than the shots being shot into the air. It’s important to note that no one was harmed in the incident. According to Fox News, “Authorities told Associated Press that the shooting reflects ‘a clash between rival groups of drug dealers,’ which has been a frequent occurrence recently in Mexico. At the moment, several cartels battle for the area’s profitable drug trade.” There have been many other incidents in the last months as well. The Washington Post also gave us some examples: “In Tulum, a German and Indian tourist were killed by gunmen in October. In November, the shootout at the Hyatt spared tourists, but left two apparent cartel members dead.”

While much of the time the cartels have specific targets and do not plan to kill/injure bystanders it still happens. People continue to travel to these places which is okay but being aware of the things going on would be helpful. Knowing to always be aware of your surroundings and traveling in bigger groups could be useful and even save a life. Seeing how things are looking I don’t think these incidents will go down any time soon and the cartel won’t be going away. But hopefully, the authorities will eventually be able to do more to handle the situations.