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Crazy!

Apparently there are a ton of mistakes and misinformation in that particular news blurb. The victims were members of a band with known drug cartel connections playing at a rival cartel party, and the bodies were dumped in Mina, not Homero's, 15 or 20 miles to the north. I just spent a month living in Hidalgo, Potrero, and El Salto in December and it felt very safe the whole time. Nonetheless, to have narco violence this close is a bit disturbing, although pretty much all of the violence in Mexico has been between rival cartels fighting over drug trafficking routes. It seems the key while traveling down there is to make your best effort to never get in between them.

That is good news, as far as the climbing thing goes (if it is true). I have been there twice in the least five years and love the place, but I would not go there in its current state.

Dustonian, it seems there a ton of mistakes in every news blurb. I just surfed around and read about 20 stories on this and just about every one gives conflicting reports, even regarding the number of victims missing/murdered. But none of the stories mentioned that the band members were connected to drug cartels. Most said the motive was unclear. And if they were connected, why would they play music at a rival cartel's party? I'm just wondering where you got your information?

You (or someone else with the username Dustonian) went over to the Rock and Ice article and gave them a hard time for saying Mina was a mile away from Potrero. You corrected them there and said it was more like 7 miles and told them that "fact checking goes a long way." Then you come to this site and say Mina is 15 or 20 miles from Potrero. So what are the facts? I'm just wondering if you can cite a source that even suggests that Kombo Kolumbia was connected to a drug cartel, yet decided to go play music for a rival drug cartel, and that led to their murders. Seems like outlandish speculation to me.

Haha nice first post. OK, Mina is 7-8 miles from Hidalgo, and 10 or so from the Potrero... but whatever--I am not a news source and as such not expected to fact check anything down to the mile as part of my profession, when you can just as easily look at Google maps yourself. On the other hand, Duane Raleigh at R&I has changed his article several times today alone, after initially stating the bodies were dumped in a well "close to Homero's", without owning up to this by issuing any sort of formal correction. It seems like irresponsible journalism for R&I to rush a news story online like this when they don't yet have all the facts straight.

My source of info on the band and this week's events is local climbers I know who live in Monterrey and in Hidalgo. There is a lot of fear-mongering in the US media in general regarding cartel violence and how dangerous climbing in the Potrero from the climbing outlets. Mexico is by no means a completely "safe" country, with certainly more than its share of drug trafficking violence and a moderate-to-high per capita murder rate of 22.7/100K inhabitants. But this is still considerably lower than other areas and countries that we hear virtually nothing about and no constant media coverage, including Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica, Guatemala, South Africa, Belize, and so on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... icide_rate). Why is this? Lazy reporting without actually looking up facts and statistics is my feeling. If you travel in Mexico much you learn to stay aware of your surroundings and avoid unfamiliar or potentially violent situations, especially at night. Yes it can be a violent country, but following common sense guidelines and ideally traveling with people who live there or know the area you're in well is the best way to stay out of harm's way. In my experience overall, Mexico feels safer than many major US cities in terms of violent crime.

bro.

you can't put a spin on 20 murders.

Not spinning, just getting facts straight and wishing news outlets would do the same before rushing to publish a story on an already sensationalized topic. No doubt it is a terrible tragedy for the band, their friends and family. But the article makes it sound like random people are getting abducted and murdered in Potrero Chico and that everyone has been "evacuated" or "fled". Apparently, from locals who live there this is far from the truth. Also here is one source alleging supposed connections between the band and the cartels: http://americanlivewire.com/cartel-behi ... Xs5MRpS.99

Gotta love haphazard journalism:

"Man falls 8,000 feet when harness broke during rapeling accident"

How is El Salto? Seen photos and it looks much more appealing than the Potrero, which I didn't really care for. How many routes at ES?

Amazing place. Better climbing than Potrero, safer (once you get up there), few climbers. Mostly one-pitch though and almost everything is hard. Maybe 150 pitches or so at this point.