I don't know anything about South America, but when it comes to Mexico there's a lot of both. In Texas I was hearing from a young age about rampant violence on

I don't know anything about South America, but when it comes to Mexico there's a lot of both. In Texas I was hearing from a young age about rampant violence on the border. If you listened to some people, it was always a boiling bloodbath threatening to spill over into the U.S. You hear that year in and year out, and eventually you learn to ignore it. On the other hand, sometimes (much less often) people who routinely visited family in Mexico near the border would say now is not a good time to go, and talk about feeling scared everywhere they went, hearing gunshots and sometimes even seeing bodies despite their best efforts to stay on the safest roads and in the safest parts of town.