'How could you Americans do this to us?'
Kelso City Councilman Jim Hill, a veteran traveler to Mexico, curtails visit to Cabo due to hostility, anxieties stemming from Trump trade policies, rhetoric
Kelso City Councilman Jim Hill and his wife, Kathy, have vacationed in Mexico most winters for three decades.
But they left only four days into a planned 10-day visit to Cabo San Lucas earlier this month. He said they felt uneasy and anxious because the Mexicans were clearly upset about President Donald Trump’s tariffs, efforts to rename the Gulf of Mexico and his description of them as criminals.
“I was never threatened. It didn’t rise to that level,” said Hill, 75, a retired international sales representative for an industrial equipment firm. But the couple did encounter hostility they’d never confronted before. “No doubt about it.”
“It was pretty clear that they were well aware of what was going on and (wondering) ‘How could you Americans do this to us?’ Honestly, I felt as though the Mexican people are just offended, offended by the unfairness of it.”
Two other American couples staying at the same resort with the Hills also left early, he said. And a couple from Australia also shortened their stay despite emphasizing that they were not from the U.S., he added.
The situation was volatile enough that he feared potential confrontations, and “I didn’t trust the restaurants. I didn’t trust the food and what was going on in the (kitchens).”
Hill is a six year-member of the Kelso City Council and a Purple Heart medal recipient who did two tours of duty in the Vietnam War. Leaving Cabo early “cost me a bundle” to rebook air travel, he said.
The impact of Trump’s policies on U.S. /Mexico tourism is still evolving, in part, perhaps, because the president has put off imposition of tariffs until at least April 2.
According to The Los Angeles Times, “we have not seen any effect on bookings,” said Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board. In fact, Esponda said, the number of flights from California into Los Cabos is due to rise with the addition of nonstop service from Oakland on March 20 and Ontario in June.
“Nobody,” Esponda said, “is connecting the ongoing (tariff) conversations with the hospitality element in the destination.”
However, if higher tariffs are imposed and last several weeks or more, travel industry veterans say they would expect a slump in cross-border business travel, a key source of income for airlines and hotels. With fewer business travelers, airlines might reduce the number of flights, charge leisure travelers more or charge less and hope to stimulate demand, the newspaper reported.
Annual tourism to Los Cabos has grown from 2.7 million visitors in 2019 to 3.7 million in 2024. A average hotel rates there have risen to $450 a night, according to The Times.
There seems little doubt that the bad blood caused by all this conflict will not soon be forgotten, Hill said.
Mexican support for the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has soared, Hill said. “Feelings have really been stirred down there.”
He referred to the March 9 demonstration in which tens of thousands of people packed Mexico’s City main plaza to cheer Trump’s decision to postpone tariffs and demand respect from his administration.
“It was a dramatic statement,” Hill said of the demonstration.
Trump’s Mexico policies, at least based on what he says, are aimede at reducing across-the-boarder drug trafficking.
There is no doubt that Mexican drug cartels ship fentanyl into the U.S. and that members of the previous Mexican administration were in cahoots with the traffickers. (In contrast, fentanyl trafficking from Canada is a trickle, despite our president’s attempts to cite it as justification for his tariffs on our northern neighbor.)
Sheinbaum’s administration, though, has stepped up drug enforcement and cooperation with the U.S in targeting the cartels and their finances.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the amount of fentanyl seized by the U.S. on the southern border plunged last year by about 20% and the potency of fentanyl pills also declined sharply, National Public Radio reports.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports that U.S. fatal overdoses from fentanyl and all other street drugs have dropped 21% since June 2023, to fewer than 90,000 deaths in a 12-month period for the first time in roughly half a decade.
That’s still way too much. To be sure, curbing the fentanyl trade is a huge challenge, in part because Chinese enterprises are manufacturing the ingredients and shipping them overseas and making inroads into Latin America. For example, as enforcement tightens up in Mexico and Trump threatens it with tariffs, cartels are considering moving fentanyl production to Colombia, according to Allison Fedirka, a researcher at Geopolitical Futures.
However, poisoning relations with our southern neighbor and insulting wide swaths of its honest population is no way to curb drug abuse. Bullying and insults are Trump’s MO. He should try cooperating for a change — if he is even capable of doing so.
Hill doesn’t plan to return to Mexico any time soon.
Mexicans “love our tourist dollars, but they are hurt by what is happening and they are angry. You can’t blame them.”
From August 2021 until August 2023 I served on the Western District U.S. Grand Jury, Seattle. Normally one serves only 18 months, but our panel was kept for the maximum, 2 yrs. This extension was because of the backlog of cases due to Covid and simply because of the increase in drug related cases being prosecuted.
For 24 months, every other week I had to "Schlep" up to Seattle for two, sometimes 3 days to hear cases brought by the Federal Government involving every conceivable depravity imaginable.
The worst were cases involving human trafficking, especially the organized trafficking of children and the cases involving children in the creation of and distribution of child pornography. Very popular in the U.S. actually.
The "Feel Good" cases involved the highly organized importation and distribution of illicit drugs.
Until my service on the Federal Grand Jury, I don't think I'd heard of fentanyl. Had no idea of the countries who produce the precursor chemicals and sell to the manufacturers of this deadly drug that is flooding our streets. Couldn't image the sophistication of the manufacturing process or even who made the highly productive pill presses and laboratory equipment to mix and produce this evil stuff.
Andre mentioned in his piece that China is a major source of the chemicals to produce fentanyl which is true, however, based on hearing cases while serving as a jurist, production of these chemicals has become a big industry in India and Pakistan. And the Cartels who operate the sophisticated labs and manufacturing facilities throughout So. America, not just Mexico have agents working in these countries to secure these chemicals and the highly sophisticated equipment needed to make the drug.
It is true the Chinese have made modest attempts to stop the production of chemicals used to make fentanyl in China itself but they have not stopped the movement of the production equipment to India especially. Nor have they prosecuted the principals of the Chinese companies who make these chemicals or prevented them from moving their production operations there.
The fact is, the Chinese Government could care less how many Americans are addicted. Especially considering a large proportion of the money spent on illicit drugs not just in the U.S. but world wide ends up in their economy.
So here's my take away. Drugs, manufacture of and distribution are related to demand. Figure out a way to keep people from using, coupled with treatment to get them off you solve a lot of problems.
Then it's going to take the organization of Governments from many countries to co-operate in ways never accomplished in mankind's history. Stop Afghanistan's farmers from growing Poppy's and you reduce the production of heroin by 80%. Stop the production and distribution of the chemicals needed to produce fentanyl in China, India, and any other source country and that scourge can be mitigated.
And most of all, quit making the boogey man of drugs Mexico. Simplistic and makes for good sound bites when the truth is, we're failing to recognize this is a problem of global dimension. And blaming Mexico when the real issue is that Americans want drugs---demand will always drive supply.
Lastly, I've spent lots of time in Mexico---made friendships and lasting memories. Some time in the future, I will return. But not soon. Not until our Government acknowledges Mexico is not the cause of so many problems, our crime, and our addiction crisis. Our Government seems to encourage the promotion of racism when it comes to "Mexicans" when the "Truth" as I see it is are our own devils.
The people of Mexico are not our enemies. It is not they who are creating the division, the turmoil. If we were honest about our "Problem" with Mexico, want to know who is to blame, maybe we ought to simply look in the mirror, especially our nations leadership.
The impacts of our current administration's "policy" are deep, widespread, and only just being understood further--by individual experiences--from American citizens like Mr. Hill. Thank you for your reporting, Andre.