Banamex robbed

photo from Grupo Sipse

Sipse Yucatán reports that a lone gunman hijacked a car, drove to a Banamex on Calle 60 Norte at Circuito Colonias, robbed a teller and drove away with 80 thousand pesos (approximately $6500USD). The SSP obtained images of the suspect on camera and now have photographs to aid in his capture. I have a feeling that the highly efficient Yucatán police will locate this robber. A few of the local readers have differing opinions.

I attempt to read the Sipse articles in Spanish before I click on the 'translate' button because the translation to English is not very accurate. Once I read the poor English translation, I can go back to the original article and make sense of what is being reported. I usually read the comments, as well, and the translation there is considerably worse. From what I can tell, some of the comments blame this robbery, and other crimes as well, on Chilangos, a derogatory term used to describe an outsider who has moved to Yucatán, or anywhere for that matter, from Mexico City. These people are considered corrupt and prone to crime. Others blame the police or the current government. One commenter asked another to look to the history of his own state before blaming outsiders.

Despite the occasional random crime, I still feel safer in Mérida than in my city in the United States. On a recent trip there, when we rented a car and drove from Cancún, I once made a wrong turn and to get back to the street I needed, I cut across two lanes and through an entrance to the street running parallel. At the time, I thought that what I did was not legal, and sure enough, once I was moving in the right direction, a police car was behind me with lights flashing. I pulled over and they pulled up beside me. They just looked at me and asked if we were OK.  I replied, Sí, gracias. No demand for license and registration. They just nodded, smiled and drove away.