The first 5 times were all excellent trips, wonderful places, wonderful people.
The sixth time, we were all literally robbed by Mexican police officers at the airport who claimed we couldn't leave the country without paying an "exit tax" of $200 USD each, and told us we either paid and got on our flight home or we didn't pay and they took us to prison.
Andrew Callaghan's Channel 5 has a few videos about migrants coming to America, and a couple of the people he interviewed mentioned being more scared of the Mexican police than the border patrol.
He actually goes to Mexico and hops the border back into America in one of his videos, I highly recommend checking him out.
Been many times when my brother lived and worked there for three+ years. We are gringos. Never felt unsafe. Sure, he talks about a time at Xochimilco where him same some work colleagues perhaps drew the ire of some locals, but really the worst part of the trip was the few times we needed to get in a taxi.
I'm that vein, that was the one rule we tried to adhere to at the time, make sure, if you take a taxi, to take the sanctioned ones or whatever.
Now, we drove to Oaxaca once, and some of the towns en route to were sketchy looking. Didn't have any bad experiences but also didn't bring the car down under like 15mph either.
Enjoy! Bring Pepto. I got Montezuma's revenge every time. I'm starting to think it was the altitude (couldn't have been the many michelladas, certainly not).
I have gone many times, every single one has been mellow. I imagine as a local it doesn't look like that, especially if you have to commute all over the city.
I don't like CDMX, but I gotta go there for concerts, but I do agree that it is nice for quick trips, just don't go late in the streets alone... Well don't go late at all lol.
normally the cartel dresses like the military or the* police, one big give away is that the cartel uses tennis instead of boots and act mostly like kids LARPing
Been to CDMX many times, where I take the subways to get around. I'm a gringo and CDMX has its bad areas like any other big city. They do also have police and cartel problems. Depending on your ethnicity and location, the US is equally dangerous. These things said, I love Mexico City and will always return. It is incredible and the folks who live there are wonderful.
Yucatan is fucking awesome once you get away from the tourist zones. Great small towns, authentic, safe as best I can tell, strong Mayan culture. I love it.