WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department issued an updated travel alert for Mexico on Monday, adding Durango and Coahuila to a list of states with areas it urged U.S. citizens to avoid visiting due to rising violence.
The decision followed the killing of four U.S. citizens in late 2009 and early 2010 in the city of Gomez Palacio in Durango state, the State Department said.
"The cities of Durango and Gomez Palacio in the state of Durango, and the area known as "La Laguna" in the state of Coahuila, which includes the city of Torreon, experienced sharp increases in violence," it said.
In addition to Durango and Coahuila, the State Department urged U.S. citizens to delay visits to areas of Chihuahua and Michoacan.
The new travel alert replaced one that expired on February 20. The State Department had urged Americans to delay travel to Chihuahua and Michoacan in the previous alert.
While not specifically advising U.S. citizens to delay travel to Durango in Coahuila in the previous alert, it advised that the U.S. mission in Mexico restricted travel within the two states.
Much of the increase in violence is related to drug trafficking. The advisory said Mexican cartels were engaged in a violent conflict for control of trafficking routes along the U.S.-Mexican border.
Clashes between the cartels and Mexican authorities sometimes resemble "small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades," the alert said.
It cited the Chihuahuan city of Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, as being of special concern because of the high murder rate. More than 2,600 people were killed there in 2009. The city also had 16,000 car thefts and 1,900 carjackings, the alert said.
The alert came ahead of the start Tuesday of a three-day U.S.-Mexico policy meeting to discuss ways of reducing drug demand as a means of curbing cross-border trafficking.
Assistant Secretary of State David Johnson, Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius and Director of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske were due to address the meeting on Tuesday along with Mexican officials.
Mexican first lady Margarita Zavala and Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan were scheduled to address the conference on Wednesday.
The United States committed to a three-year, $1.1 billion aid package in 2007 to help Mexico fight its war against the drug cartels.
But critics say the aid has been slow in arriving and large amounts are being used up in salaries, bureaucracy and payments to U.S. security firms providing the gear.
(Reporting by David Alexander, editing by Jackie Frank)
U.S. Mexico
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