US raises travel warning to Mexico to highest level

MEXICO CITY -- Five states in Mexico have gotten the sternest "do not travel" advisories under a revamped U.S. State Department system unveiled Wednesday.

The five include the northern border state of Tamaulipas and the Pacific coast states of Sinaloa, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero.

The State Department had previously discouraged travel to all or part of the five states' territories but the new warnings are sterner, placing the drug- and crime-plagued states on the same level warning level as Somalia, Yemen, Syria or Afghanistan.

Mexico as a whole has a level-two rating, "exercise increased caution" in the new four-level alert system, because of concerns about crime.

But an additional 11 Mexican states got a level-three warning, "reconsider travel." Mexico has 31 states, half of which are under level 3 or 4 warnings.