Safety is one of the most important considerations when you plan a trip abroad or even at home.
The last place you want to find yourself in is a country or city where crime is prevalent and foreigners are targeted by ruthless gangs or terror groups.
The UK’s Foreign Office publishes a travel guide for each country, giving its verdict on safety.
One country in particular has a long list of places tourists are advised against travelling to by the Foreign Office.
This Central American country also features prominently in a list of the ten most dangerous cities in the world – contributing five of them.
Mexico is a country of outstanding beauty, whose stunning beaches attract millions of foreign tourists every year – some 66 million in 2022.
Yet the country is blighted by cartel related violence, which is becoming increasingly prevalent even in famous beach resorts such as Cancun, where tourists once felt safe.
An analysis carried out by the website worldpopulationreview.com lists the ten most dangerous cities in the world – all of which are in just three countries.
Topping the list is Mexico with five cities, while Brazil is a close second with three and Venezuela with two.
The ten most dangerous cities in the world and their murder rates are as follows: 1. Los Cabos, Mexico (111.3 deaths per 100,000); 2. Caracas, Venezuela (111.2 deaths per 100,000); 3. Acapulco, Mexico (107.0 deaths per 100,000); 4. Natal, Brazil (102.6 deaths per 100,000); 5. Tijuana, Mexico (100.8 deaths per 100,000).
The next five are – 6. La Paz, Mexico (84.8 deaths per 100,000); 7. Fortaleza, Brazil (83.5 deaths per 100,000); 8. Ciudad Victoria, Mexico (83.3 deaths per 100,000); 9. Ciudad Guyana, Venezuela (80.3 deaths per 100,000); 10. Belem, Brazil (71.4 deaths per 100,000)
Four warring Mexican cartels are fighting to assert control over an 80-mile stretch of resorts along the Caribbean coast to tap into the country’s $30 billion tourism revenue.
As a result tourists are becoming collateral damage, often witness gruesome violence or just “disappearing”.
In a two week period in February cartel thugs dismembered rival gang members with machetes in tourist hot spot Cancun, while a California woman was killed in the crossfire near a popular Tulum beach
Private investigator Jay Armes III told Fox News Digital: “It’s all horrifying to us, but to people in Mexico, it’s just a Tuesday. This happens all the time all over the country. But now it’s happening in areas that used to be off limits.”