Mexico and crime: It ain't necessarily so   Mexican flag"Canucks
Targets In Mexico: Feds" read the inch-and-a-half high headline
on the front page of the Toronto Sun in March of 1998. Inside,
the story screamed "Muggers Targeting Canucks," with a subhead
that added "Ailing Mexican peso blamed for rise in attacks on
tourists."  Being concerned about travel and crime in Mexico, a
place near and dear to my heart, and being a Canuck who travels
there as often as possible, I read on with consternation. But as
usual, it was typical hyperbole and yellow journalism.   The
article was about one mugging, not several, not a crime wave,
and offered nothing to indicate Canadians were generally at risk
or targets any more than any other tourist in any part of the
world. It turned out that two Canadian teenagers carrying $400
in cash were on the streets of downtown Acapulco at 3:30 a.m. (a
major urban area of more than two million people). They got
mugged.  A mother of one of the 17-year-olds assured reporters
they weren't