MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: A two-part question: What went into it as far as the elements that prompted the advisory?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: And why wasn’t it a total caution for Americans not to go to Mexico at all, or at least the northern region?

MR. MCCORMACK: These Travel Advisories are done in a completely separate channel. The Consular Affairs folks, the security people get together and offer their best assessment as to the situation on the ground in a particular place, whether that’s Mexico or elsewhere. The advisory that you’re talking about deals with a very small portion of Mexico along the border, and there has been reported a lot of violence that has happened over the course of the past year or so in that border region as a result of conflicts between various organized crime organizations along that border region that -- involved in narcotics and drug smuggling.

So it’s a region that bears watching, and we’re actually working quite well with the Mexican Government to try to get to the root causes of that. And President Calderon has worked very closely with us on the Merida Initiative, which is really aimed at getting at some of those root causes and to rooting out organized crime in Mexico.

In terms of the specifics, I don’t – you know, I don’t have a tick-tock for you as to who did what and when, as to the advisory. But it – I have it here and it’s something that came out of the U.S. Embassy. And Ambassadors ultimately are responsible for ensuring that American citizens have all the information at their disposal in order to make informed decisions about their movements and travel.

QUESTION: I guess because it involves not only violence between, for example, drug gangs or what have you, but also kidnappings and attacks on individuals. Why wasn’t there an advisory to suggest to just staying out of that northern region for the time being until you get the answers that you’ve described them pursuing?

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, you know, look, again, I can’t give you – I can’t get you inside the decision-making loop. And I’m not in it and rightfully so. We in Public Affairs are not part of that decision-making loop. Rightly, the Consular Affairs people and the security people work on these, they come up with the language and draft them and we release them. I’m not sure it’s the best idea in the world to actually get inside that decision-making loop, because there’s something to be said for the integrity of that, people working just on behalf of American citizens, providing the best information that they possibly can so that individuals can make a decision about their travel.

Ultimately, you know, whatever warnings that we may put out, it comes down to an individual making a decision about whether or not they want to heed those warnings and take into account the information that we provide them in making decisions about where they travel or not travel.