Safety Tips for Expatriates

* Understand and adapt to the behavior requirements of the host country.
* Adjust style of dress so as to blend in as much possible.
* Be alert for strange people, vehicles, and events in one's vicinity, neighborhood, or workplace.
* Divulge no personal information over the phone to an unknown caller. It should be a family rule that no one is to identify himself or herself when answering the phone unless the caller is known.
* Be cautious of any suspicious or unexpected packages delivered to the home.
* Keep doors and windows locked. Determine if a residential alarm system is appropiate and desireable for the locale.
* Avoid wearing obviously expensive jewelry or watches out in public, unless they can be concealed. Flaunting wealth can draw unwelcome attention.
* One should keep keys and enough money for a phone call and taxi separate from one's wallet. Emergency money should be kept hidden in the home in a location known only to family members (Kids included!).
* If harassed verbally, simply ignore it, walk away quickly toward other people, look confident, and do not say anything. The harasser is probably looking for a fight, which should be avoided.
* When going out, make sure others know the destination and estimated time of return (This is just as important for adults as it is for children!). In case something happens, a search can begin promptly, and time can be critical in such situations.

City Tips

* Mexico City's highest crime rates are reported in the districts of Cuauhtemoc, Gustavo A. Madero, Miguel Hidalgo, Iztapalapa, Villa Alvaro Obregon, and Venustiano Carranza. Visitors to Mexico City should avoid these areas. Even well-to-do areas such as the Zona Rosa are not completely safe, and visitors should always exercise common-sense basic security precautions.
* If taking a taxi in the city, travelers should only use radio taxi cabs or those from authorized taxi stands (sitios). Avoid gypsy cabs and "green and white" cabs because many work with criminals to rob passengers. Visitors should not hail cabs on the street.
* Foreign citizens should give as little advance notice of their movements as possible to minimize the risk of abduction.
* Travelers should be very cautios when using ATMs in Mexico. Visitors should avoid them if at all possible. If using an ATM is absolutely necessary, it should be only during business hours at large protected facilities (preferably inside commercial establishments, rather than a glass-enclosed , highly visible ATM on the street where criminals can observe financial transactions).
* Visitors should be careful when ordering beverages in local nightclubs and bars, especially at night. Some establishments may contaminate or drug drinks to gain control over a patron. Victims, who are almost always unaccompanied, have been robed of personal property, abducted, and held while criminals used their credit cards at various business and ATM locations around the city.
* When in a car, visitors should ride with the windows rolled up and the doors locked.
* Travelers should be alert for petty theft if using the Metro (subway) system. Female visitors are advised to avoid traveling on the Mexico City Metro or on crowded buses during rush hours. Women are frequently groped in the packed vehicles, when is is virtually impossible to identify or escape from the perpetrator.