New: Mexico too violent to visit?

Mexico's tourism director on Wednesday downplayed the risk of violence facing tourists, despite warnings for travelers to think twice about visiting the country.In recent days, the United States, Canada, France, Italy and Germany have issued alerts about travel to Mexico, where drug violence was blamed for more than 5,400 killings last year. The warnings appear to have had little effect. Mexican authorities report that more than 1,800 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez since January 2008. Additionally, this city of 1.6 million people experienced more than 17,000 car thefts and 1,650 carjackings in 2008.