Imogen Wilson finished her journalism degree at the end of 2023, and a four month holiday to Mexico was the reward.
She’s halfway through her journey and has been travelling throughout the country over the past two months. She says it’s been a dream up to now, but recent events have changed everything.
Siblings Callum Robinson, 33, and Jake Robinson, 29, were on a surfing and camping holiday in Mexico with their American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, 30, when they were involved in what is being described as a robbery gone wrong.
“As I came to Mexico and started travelling around I kind of lost those worries but as soon as I saw that news article they came straight back to me and the same with every traveller around here, their guard’s have just gone straight back up again and everyone is constantly on edge after hearing that awful story,” Ms Wilson says.
Family and friends of Ms Wilson at home in Australia have expressed their concerns for her safety, and the increased presence of heavily armed police in Mexico does little to put anyone’s mind at ease.
“The police here don’t feel like a comforting presence and they don’t feel like they’re looking out for you. I think that my parents and a lot of other people’s parents are on edge, because it just brings back that reality that it isn’t safe all the time, there are dangers and you do need to be really careful,“ she says.
Protests were held in Mexico on Sunday, calling for government action to address crime. Protestors also paid tribute to the three men killed whilst on holiday in the Mexican state of Baja California.
Ana Garcia has lived in Baja her whole life, and says high crime levels in her community are the result of gun violence and corruption.
“We are surrounded, full of people that don’t know how to talk, they only know when to get their gun out and shoot the first person that doesn’t understand or follow their orders, and the worst thing is, the police are involved in all of this,” she says.
Ms Garcia says whilst she has been able to make a good life for herself, she is constantly reminded of the danger around her.
“Family reunions always end with, ‘Did you know they kidnapped so and so’s daughter’, ‘the police detained me and took money from me’. I wish I hadn’t seen or heard many of those things, but they happened and if you have eyes, it is impossible to not see what is happening here.”
Ms Garcia believes Baja is not safe for tourists, and the media attention to resolve the case of the missing Australian brothers was a rare occurrence.
“Only this time the world turned to look at what happened here because it happened to someone well known. There was a lot of publicity to find them, among other things and so the whole world was watching, but that didn’t mean it was the first time something like this had happened, and unfortunately it won’t be the last,” she says.
After missing for over a week in Mexico, two Perth brothers and their American friend were confirmed dead when family members flew to the Mexican city of Ensenada to identify their remains.
Police had located their bodies inside a 15-metre deep well in Baja California. A fourth body in a more advanced state of decomposition was also found, which authorities say has been identified as the owner of the ranch where the well was located.
A GoFundMe has been created by a friend of the missing brothers, with money raised said to be going towards helping the families transport their bodies home.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/callum-and-jake-robinson-support-the-robinson-family