Is It Safe to Live in Mexico? Expat Insurance on Safety in Mexico

When clients find out Expat Insurance is based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, we are frequently asked: Is it safe to live in Mexico? How safe is it to live in Mexico?

And we often reply, “How safe is it to live in the US?”

People will answer: “Well, it depends where you live.”

IS IT SAFE TO LIVE IN MEXICO?

In Mexico, it is no different. There are parts of Mexico that would be dangerous to even drive through. Mexican border towns are infamous for being dangerous, as are the outskirts of Mexico City, most of the northern Pacific Coast.

Similarly, there are parts of Chicago we would never drive through. Chicago’s murder rate has recently surpassed even those murder rates in the parts of East Side LA which have been notoriously dangerous for years. Every major city in the United States has its dangerous areas that people are recommended to avoid.

IS IT DANGEROUS TO LIVE IN MEXICO?

Watching the world news, Mexico’s headlines center around cartels, shootouts, and corruption. And yes, this exists. However, we are fortunate to live in a peaceful part of Mexico. San Miguel de Allende is a national treasure—a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Yes, there is crime in San Miguel de Allende. However, there aren’t pandillas driving around shooting up people outside the Jardín. Occasionally people do get mugged, robbed, and even attacked. However, no one is scared to walk down a street in San Miguel de Allende in the daytime. You just have to be careful and apply a little bit of common sense.

HOW SAFE IS IT TO LIVE IN MEXICO?

Much of our WeExpat family lives here in Mexico, and none have ever been victims of crime. I like to think we are smart. We don’t walk home late at night from the _centro—_we take a cab. It’s only two dollars! We use common sense in not flaunting our assets. We are conscious to hide our wallets so as to not tempt a pickpocket. We lock ours cars, use the town’s network of car garages, or Uber throughout Mexican cities instead of taking cabs—and when we do take cabs, we pay a little extra to use the designated cabs instead of grabbing one from the street. If we are driving, we use a steering wheel lock, or lock our motorcycles. We have bars on our windows, good locks on our house, or live in gated communities with round-the-clock security. We are not wary—merely aware.

WHAT ABOUT THE MORE DANGEROUS CITIES?

One of our content marketers lives in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Once a hot-spot for retiring expats, it slipped to become the most dangerous city in all of Mexico in 2015. And despite living in the most dangerous city in Mexico at that time, with using common sense methods, staying in touristic areas, traveling via Uber and designated cabs—he never had a problem. Since then, the government has cracked down on the crime, and it has fallen off the list of most dangerous cities in Latin America, and once again become a quiet city with little violent crime. Just keep your eyes open, or as Mexicans put it, “Ojo. Mucho ojo.”

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