Students traveling to Mexico for spring break might be in for a rude, or even possibly violent, awakening.

The U.S. Department of State issued a warning for citizens traveling to Mexico, stating violence in the country has increased recently and travelers should take extra precautions.

Charles Kenney, political science professor, said many factors caused the increased violence, but that rivalries between drug cartels have received the most attention.

Kenney, who lived in Peru and studies Latin American politics, said drug traffickers have been fighting for control of the U.S.-Mexican border for more than two decades.

He said the Mexican government’s war on drugs inadvertently fuels the violence.

“What we’re seeing is a result of anti-drug action,” Kenney said.

If there was less government intervention, the violence would ease, but drug trafficking would go unchecked, he said.

Dangers to Americans

While most of the violence is between drug cartels and the authorities, Americans have sometimes been caught in the crossfire, according to the State Department’s Web site.

Americans have gotten stuck in cities like Tijuana, Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juárez during skirmishes between cartels, police officers and army units. The alerts also state many U.S. citizens in Mexico have been kidnapped in recent years.

While the alerts do not tell people to avoid the country completely, some students aren’t taking any chances.

Rachel Dean, accounting senior, said she and her fiancé were planning to visit Cancun or Cozumel for their honeymoon in late May, but decided to stay in the U.S. after hearing about the violence.

“I love being on the beach,” she said. “So I was a little disappointed, but it’ll be fun wherever we go.”

She said a few of her friends still plan on going to Mexico for their honeymoons because they have already made reservations.

Other students aren’t as worried.

Adam Theissen, history sophomore, said he is going with a group of friends to Cancun for spring break and doesn’t think they’ll run into any problems.

“[I’m not worried] one bit, but a bunch of people are,” he said. “If I’m in Cancun on a resort, I feel safer.”

He said some of his friends’ parents were worried about the recent violence and put their children’s plans on hold, leaving Theissen with a smaller group.

Spring break safety

Kenney said the border violence shouldn’t affect students going to Mexico for spring break.

“Most tourists, especially tourist destinations, are not affected very much,” he said. “90 percent of the violence is on the border.”

He said some people don’t understand this because they don’t have enough context to understand the violence.

“To assume the entire country [is increasingly violent] isn’t true,” Kenney said. “I wouldn’t advise someone to drive across the border tomorrow ... but it’s a different reality in tourist towns. If you go to Cancun, [the violence] is nothing to do with you.”

He said there is always a possibility of crime in the classic spring break destinations, but the crime and violence there are not changing, leaving the destinations as safe, or unsafe, as they always are.