I'll offer input in my current line of work the violence has a direct effect at work and what I have been told repeatedly by those who were both from and travelling through Mexico into the United States wont even travel through Ciudad Juarez (the border town with El Paso). Ciudad Juarez is by far the worst though the violence is multi-fronted and is omnipresent throughout Mexico though particularly in the northern states due to there proximity to the United States hence the drug and human smuggling activities which are the root of all of this violence.
Of particular concern for those travelling into Mexico is the ZETA gang as they are quite fond of kidnapping and extorting people and afterwards still killing the person after they and there family have paid all the ransom they could. please see the following links below for additional information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Zetas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War The death toll during 2008 alone was 5,630 killed. making a total of about 7,882 drug cartel related deaths since December 2006.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War#cite_note-80>The extreme violence is jeopardizing foreign investment in Mexico, and the Finance Minister, Agustin Carstens, said that the deteriorating security is reducing gross domestic product annually by 1% in Mexico, Latin America's second-largest economy.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_Drug_War#cite_note-Bloomberg-81> Feel free to respond off list and I will assist further if I can though I only get limited reports from those I apprehend crossing into the U.S. illegally
