Crime in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Wow, it is really a difficult prognosis and creates a quandary for American (and other) travelers.I want to go back to Mexico, but reading crime reports it makes me very nervous. Is the government even in control anymore?

Just got back from SMA and this crime wave is totally overblown. The Centro and surrounding areas were completely safe. A lot of outlying areas are considered part of SMA and that is where the trouble is and it's small. SMA is safe and I live in the South Beach area of Miami Beach Florida. That's far more dangerous than tame SMA and even that is safe.

What you must realize is that Mexico is a police state and the police are not even in control. The are bought and paid for by the cartels. In fact, the police work in concert with the cartels in many instances. It is estimated that 1/3 of Mexican territory is lawless and controlled by the cartels. Things are happening all around the state of Guanajuato: murders, road blocks, explosions, attacks of all sorts perputrated by the cartels. They are vile and vicious murderers and have no human compassion in their souls. Businesses are being extorted in SMA, the police are bought off, murders are not reported for fear of retribution. The town of Celaya is a defacto hell-hole. It is called the "The most Violent City in the World" by the Rio Times. Do you know how far it is from SMA? 35 miles. What the expats in SMA don't realize or want to admit to themselves is that all of this is going on around them and they don't want to see it. Yes, on any given day, you will be ok but your risk goes up by the day. The cartels are gaining control of the state and you might not get out. Look at what is happening in Michoacan right now. The city of Aguililla is literally being taken over by the cartels to the point where they control who comes in and who goes out. This is happening in 2021! President Obregon says, "hugs, not bullets." He is living in a dream world with no connection to reality. It is a truly cavilier and cruel position to take. If something does happen, police will not investigate. They are afraid to know where it will lead them because they know where it will lead them: to the cartels. Police are being hunted and killed in the state of Guanajuato. To say that SMA is safe is truly naive. To compare Mexico to the U.S. is absurd. The US does not have roving bands of cartels running around and controlling the roads! Completely different and not comparable in any way shape or form. I was considering going, but I won't after my research. The mexican government doesn't have the power to control any of this and I'm not sure it wants to anymore. It doesn't have the stomach for it. Whenever anyone stands up to the cartels, they are killed along with their family. President Obregon has declared by his policies and words to the cartels they have free reign to carry on their activies with impunity. Mexico and its people are so beautiful and I wish I could vacation there but I won't take the risk nor will I reward the Mexican state with my business when it refuses to protect its own people, much less its visitors.

The majority in the crime in Mexico, including San Miguel is drug related....cartel related....yes, there are dishonest police officers....there have always been....but, I've been living here for 6 years, friends that have been living here for 40 years without issues.....if you are considering Mexico it comes with the territory everywhere....but, I've never felt safer walking in the central during the day or night.

When we moved here almost 13 years ago, murders occurred once or twice a year in Sam Miguel, including the surrounding area like Atotonilco. At that time, most of the very low violent crime was domestic. According to the San Miguel Times last July, "70 murders [occurred] in less than 10 months in San Miguel de Allende ... including that of a teenage girl who apparently died in crossfire."

We have had a house in San Miguel for 12 years and came each winter for several months. Our house was in a small colonia above Colonia San Rafael which is considered a sketchy neighborhood. We never had a problem and for many years walked through that colonia at night on our way home from restaurants. Nobody said anything negative to us. But we have many friends who have told us different stories of friends being robbed and beaten. We know of all the violence and death in Mexico because of cartels the last decade but never saw examples of this in San Miguel. But things are different now. Murders are more commonplace as well as crime in general. Everything still seems the same during the day but it is not. The police are ill trained and not trusted by the locals. How the Mayor can proclaim that gangs and violence are not on the rise leads me to believe he is on the take. Except for this criminal element San Miguel as well many wonderful cities in Mexico are great places to enjoy the food, people, architecture and history of this culture. Somebody has to come in and put the hammer down on this small element that is ruining it for everyone.

The last time I was in San Miguel I hired a car to take me back to the airport. It was driven by a local and was a regular car, nothing that looked like a car service. A few miles from the airport the driver asked if I would sit in the front seat with him and pay him now, I asked him why? He said that when we pull up to the airport he wants me to open my own door and walk to the back of the car for my luggage and at that point he would hug me and wish me a good trip as if I were a cousin leaving on holiday. Again, I asked why? He said that if the police saw us exchange money they would follow him out of the airport, pull him over and take the money.

Sadly, not only do you have to worry about cartels in San Miguel, the locals have to worry about the police.

The comments here have been helpful but it is so sad to hear about what is happening in SMA. I was there about 12 years ago house sitting and thought about retirement there. A crime rate as high as the ones mentioned here and in some other statistics (50 murders in the first half of 2019 alone) is certainly disconcerting for such a small town. That is an extremely high rate. I can understand why the mayor and other residents would be in denial or try to hush-hush these kinds of statistics. Not only tourism would be affected but expats would see property values decline as potential buyers who get scared off by the violence stop moving to SMA. It is very sad to read about what is happening to this lovely city.

Just visited SMA late October 2019. Met an expat woman who showed me a picture of her boyfriend standing next to a bed in the hospital with blood all over the bed and three bandages over his chest where three bullets had gone in the front and out the back. It had happened "recently", and she said "he was in the wrong place at the wrong time". Doesn't even count as one of the recent shootings in the count given to the media. Could have been a cartel shooting , or he could have be an innocent bystander - both cases deserve to be reported but no mention in stats or media.
Makes me realize numbers are being mis-reported/minimized by the police and other officials so as not to scare the tourists away. Apparently the 5 bars that closed down last month in order to avoid extortion by the cartels didn't report it to the police because they were afraid the police had informants/cartel members in the ranks. Crime numbers are not accurate. I wont be going back to SMA any time soon, sadly.

The worst thing that can happen to you in SMA is that after a week you may die of boredom.

I do not understand people defending the crime rates in San Miguel de Allende that have risen dramatically since February 2019 and comparing it to crime rates in major cities in the U.S.
The last census states the population of San Miguel is 132,397 with 62,034 living in the town proper and the rest scattered in small communities, some as small as 50 ppl. It is silly to compare that with cities in the U.S. with populations and areas 10 or 20 times that of San Miguel de Allende.
I have vacationed in Mexico over the last 25 years at least 25 times to cities and small towns across Mexico. One of the reasons is the people of Mexico which I have found to be nothing but kind, gentle, welcoming and friendly. I also love the beauty of Mexico, it’s coastal as well as mountain regions. This is why I planned to retire in San Miguel. I wanted to live out the rest of my days in this beautiful country and try to give back something for all the pleasure I and my children had experienced in all the time we spent there.

I was researching and planning for months and was finally ready for my exploratory trip to check it out for myself and find my place to live.

I was so excited I joined a couple of Facebook groups and would read the news of the day in the local and national papers every few days and could hardly wait to get there.

I then started reading about it not being safe to travel the main highway at night because of carjackings, then there were some home invasions with people being beaten, shootings, local businesses having to pay the cartels to do business and many other things. I was saddened and extremely disappointed and finally made the extremely tough decision to cancel my plans.
I know the government, locals and some expats play down the violence because if tourists stop coming it is bad for everyone. I don’t want to hurt the people of Mexico that have been so good to me. But I am not going to lie about it.
I hope and pray that President Obrador along with help from his allies can do something to make the country safe again for the people of Mexico and all of us around the world that love to visit and live in the beautiful country of Mexico.

If that happens before our planet burns up, I would love to retire there. But not now.

We lived in SMA and spent many years afterwards on extended visits. Speak fluent Spanish and were very embedded in the local and ex-pat community. We have many friends there. We left because of the amazing uptick in violence. No, it is not safe. And what people fail to take into consideration is the level of police and civil protection. You are pretty much on your own. Try reading the regional Spanish language newspapers instead of arguing this point on ex-pat forums and you will begin to appreciate the degree to which violence is a reality in the area. We are international travelers, too, and I studied statistics, and these figures resonate with my experience. Not as bad as a ghetto in Baltimore to one poster's point, but it is not "safe as milk." The locals certainly think they have a problem. As one wise person said, don't leave your brains at the border.

We are international house/pet sitters as well, as we leave for San Miguel de Allende in a few days. We will be housesitting for three weeks. We are not worried about crime there. Crime is everywhere. We are travelers who read beyond the headlines. When you do that, you discover the real cause behind much of the criminal activity - drug cartels, crimes of passion etc. That's not to say that the stats are wrong, but stats are stats and can be used in many ways - as scare tactics, for political gain and so on. As always, we are careful in terms of where we go and what we do in foreign countries. We are looking forward to our visit to SMA, a new area of Mexico for both of us.