How safe is MX?+

[wknight0691]

Drove down the highway from Cancun to Playa this summer. There were at least 3 permanent police check point/road blocks that were not there the last time I drove that road. It was to say the least unnerving and jarring to suddenly find yourself at traffic halting road blocks consisting of concrete guard structures in the middle of the road and dozens of machine gun toteing police where before the dozens of times on this road over the years it was just a highway. Something changed.

Mike that is simply not true!!,,,as a regular on that road there are only 2 permanent check-points on that road between Cancun and Playa. One is a small one just south of the airport slip road where its quite rare to be delayed more than a couple of minutes at most.
The second is just north of Playa and again its rare to be delayed there.

Suggesting that these points are manned by "dozens of machine gun toteing police" is also a slight exageration to say the least!!!. Generally you will see 5-8 arond as a maximum and often 2 or 3 of these are sitting around doing "paperwork".!!
The "concrete guard structures" consist of one or two small block built buildings (very small!) where they sit and eat/ rest!! Your comments make it sound like something from a 60's film at "Check-point Charlie" ,,,, maybe next time someone from the forum passes down the higway they'll see that you have used a bit of "artistic licence" in your comments.

 

[vladimir]

This is a bit of a digression, but I did a dive trip to Hikkaduwa, in Sri Lanka, while the war against the Tamil Tigers was still hot (this was in the mid-'90s). The drive from the airport in Columbo to the sleepy little fishing town in the southwest was punctuated by checkpoints as you describe, including machine-gun toting soldiers, sandbags, concertina wire, etc., and they gave our minivan a pretty thorough inspection before allowing us to proceed.

The diving was pretty lousy, by the way. It was one of two times that I have vomited underwater, and there wasn't much to see. And then I got dysentery.

 

[Mike]

Mike that is simply not true!!,,,as a regular on that road there are only 2 permanent check-points on that road between Cancun and Playa. One is a small one just south of the airport slip road where its quite rare to be delayed more than a couple of minutes at most.
The second is just north of Playa and again its rare to be delayed there.

Suggesting that these points are manned by "dozens of machine gun toteing police" is also a slight exageration to say the least!!!. Generally you will see 5-8 arond as a maximum and often 2 or 3 of these are sitting around doing "paperwork".!!
The "concrete guard structures" consist of one or two small block built buildings (very small!) where they sit and eat/ rest!! Your comments make it sound like something from a 60's film at "Check-point Charlie" ,,,, maybe next time someone from the forum passes down the higway they'll see that you have used a bit of "artistic licence" in your comments.

Ooooooookay then....

Wow. Sorry, but we went through 3. Maybe one was not a permanent one? Dozens of machine gun toteing police were what I saw. Maybe different days have different amounts of police and soldiers present depending upon what is happening?

Much as you want to call it artistic license, it's what was observed.

Regardless -- a few years ago there were ZERO of these things, now there are at least TWO as admitedly by your own account. a few years ago there were ZERO police with machine guns manning permanent road blocks, now there are by your account as many as 8 police with machine guns manning permanent road blocks. Glad the block buildings in the middle of the road are (very small). What else would you like to split hairs about? Argue about the amount of bullets in the magazines?

 

[Beyond_Diving]

Sorry Mike, but those checkpoints have been around for several years... i know as have called the area home since 1994

 

[Mike]

Sorry Mike, but those checkpoints have been around for several years... i know as have called the area home since 1994

What are you sorry for? I said they weren't there the last time I drove that highway and now they are. You said they have been there for several years, I don't recall specifically saying they have been there since 1918 or that they were placed there last month. Several years is probably right.

What's your point?