Mexicans and members of San Miguel de Allende’s foreign community speak out against the city’s lack of security, reporting breakins and other acts of crime and violence via social media networks.
On Facebook, Twitter and national newspaper and magazine portals, the primary complaint among the local community is the same: a breakdown of law and order.
Sanmiguelenses United is a group that assembles foreigners and Mexicans living in San Miguel who are dismayed by the lack of law enforcement, lodging complaints through a host of media outlets on the Internet. As asserted by its members, the failure to uphold security is damaging the city’s image as one of the top destinations in the world.
The group has announced its intention to bring up the issue with Governor Miguel Márquez in a plea for state support, claiming that no one within the municipal government is addressing their petition to heighten policing in San Miguel de Allende.
On Facebook, citizens warn others of criminals and gangs, providing descriptions of their physical appearance or of the vehicles they drive. And most importantly, they use this medium to solicit help from the authorities.
Social networks have become a platform for the silent outcries of the people, who say we are living through one of the city’s most alarming crises in its history, primarily due to a lack of security, and the authorities must to take action.
