Photo Essay: Spring Break Gone Wrong?

This time of year, many American college students head to Mexico's beaches for spring break, but a recent State Department travel alert about violence south of the border might be giving some party animals second thoughts.

Shifting sands: Every year, about 120,000 Americans head south to Mexico during spring break season. Young college students, enjoying Mexico’s drinking age of 18, engage in wild revelry and antics at beach resorts, as the youth above are doing in Mazatln, in Sinaloa state, on March 18, 2001. The U.S. State Department, however, recently issued a travel alert, warning Americans about soaring drug-related violence in Mexico. Universities have even sent notices to students. Will the alerts scare U.S. citizens away, hurting Mexican resort operators’ bottom lines?

Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Preeti Aroon was copy chief at Foreign Policy from 2009 to 2016 and was an FP assistant editor from 2007 to 2009. Twitter: @pjaroonFP

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