With escalating drug wars, Mexico’s gotten a lot of bad press over the past couple years. And while I don’t want to underplay the severity of violent crimes, it’s worth pointing out that the homicide rate has actually dropped in the past decade.

According to an article in the Washington Post, Mexico City’s homicide rate is about the same as Los Angeles, and our nation’s capitol is actually three times more deadly!

So why the bad rap? The Post points out that "Mexico, Colombia and Haiti are the only countries in the hemisphere subject to a U.S. government advisory warning travelers about violence, even though homicide rates in many Latin American countries are far higher." As a result, " ’What we hear is, ’Oh the drug war! The dead people on the streets, and the policeman losing his head,’" said Tobias Schluter, 34, a civil engineer from Berlin having a beer at a cafe behind Mexico City’s 16th-century cathedral. "But we don’t see it. We haven’t heard a gunshot or anything.’ "

So if drug violence has heated up since President Felipe Calderón began cracking down on cartels, why is Mexico becoming less deadly as a whole?

The article says the downward trend can be attributed to a "general improvement in Mexico’s quality of life. More Mexicans have joined the ranks of the middle class in the past two decades, while education levels and life expectancy have also risen." And "experts say while drug violence is up, land disputes have eased. Many farmers have migrated to the cities or abroad and the government has pushed to resolve the land disputes, some centuries old."

The drug war has admittedly given Mexico an unfair reputation as an exceedingly violent country, as Jose Luis Pineyro, a sociologist at Mexico’s Autonomous Metropolitan University, points out. "It’s a bad international image that affects foreign tourism and foreign investment."

It’s heartbreaking to know that so many Americans fear Mexico. The reality is that by avoiding dangerous spots like Cuidad Juarez-- the epicenter of drug war violence-- Americans can enjoy traveling to Mexico without worrying that they are putting themselves at great risk.

As the Post concludes, "in many parts of Mexico, villages are more tranquil than ever - a fact that retired nurse Marilyn Wells struggles to drive home with her American friends back home in LeMars, Iowa."

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