SAN ANTONIO, April 27 (UPI) -- The State Department has again issued a travel alert for Mexico border region because of violence involving feuding drug cartels.
The alert Tuesday singled out Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas, as a place where more than 30 Americans have been kidnapped or murdered in the past eight months, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
Visitors were advised to travel on legitimate business during daylight hours and avoid red-light districts and neighborhoods where drug dealing occurs.
John Naland, the U.S. consul for Matamoros, Mexico, said the violence that flared early this year in cities like Matamoros and Reynosa in Mexico has dropped to zero since the first alert in January, but Nuevo Laredo continues to have a problem.
"As was explained back in January, this is not a red light, this is not to say, 'Do not come to the border area.' It's to say when you do come, exercise common sense precaution," he said.
Mexican officials and business leaders say the U.S. travel alerts exaggerate violence in the border cities and security has improved since the election new city leaders.
